New Judge Added For Season 8

:) Hello all. Just came from the American Idol website and seems a new judge will be joining Simon, Paula and Randy for Season 8. Producer Simon Fuller hopes this brings a more rounded group to judge the new idols coming into the show which starts in January 2009.

The new judge is 38 year old Kara DioGuardi who has a very successful career as a songwriter'producer. Her songs have appeared on over 100 million records. She has worked with some very successful artists such as Britney Spears, Christina Aquilera, Celine Dion, Eric Clapton, Enrigque Iglesias, Gwen Stefani and so many more that it is impossible to name them all without practically writing a book on the subject.

Another plus is she has helped write several songs for some of our idols. The following is the songs she helped write. Here goes:

The first one to be mentioned is our own loveable Taylor. She helped write his recording of the song "Heaven Knows". As you know each song on all of Taylor's cds are fantastic and this is no exception. :flowerheart:

For Bo Bice she helped write "The Real Thing", "Remember Me" and "It's My Life".

One of my Clay Aiken favorites that Kara helped write is "The Way".

Kelly Clarkson did 5 of Kara's songs which include "Walk Away", "Gone", "Where Is Your Heart", "You Found Me" and "I Hate Myself For Losing You" off of Kelly's "Breakaway" album.

For Katharine McPhee, she wrote almost all the tracks including Katharine's best seller "Love Story".

As you can see, this new judge knows her stuff and it should be an interesting season coming up.

Interesting.
~tyg

You beat me to it
'American Idol' adds fourth judge
In what already looks like the biggest format shakeup in American Idol history, Fox announced this morning that the show's eighth season will feature a fourth judge. It's Kara DioGuardi, a songwriter/producer who's worked with past Idol champs Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, and Taylor Hicks (as well as working with Davids Cook and Archuleta, Clay Aiken, Bo Bice, and Katharine McPhee), not to mention Avril Lavigne, Pink, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, Natasha Bedingfield, Jewel, Marc Anthony, and a host of others. Plus, she has some contest-judging experience, from MTV's short-lived Idol-esque show The One. Her own attempt at singing stardom, in the duo Platinum Weird with Eurythmic Dave Stewart, didn't really take off, but her credentials as a hitmaker for others are solid, at least.

We're already hearing from Idol producers that a fourth judge creates a dynamic on Idol shows in other countries that's missing here, and that the gender imbalance at the judging table will now be rectified. I wonder whether that means DioGuardi will be just another sympathetic shoulder for the contestants when Simon and Randy are mean to them. I also wonder whether DioGuardi is being groomed as an eventual replacement for Paula, with her introduction this year as a face-saving way to ease Paula out gracefully.

I'm not sure the show really needs a fourth judge, someone whose comments will only cut into the already too-short performance segments. I don't think Idol singers or voters at home need more guidance; the contestants need more singing time than 90 seconds per tune, so that we can better evaluate their performances ourselves. Rather than more advice, they need better advice, but at least DioGuardi has some practical experience in that department.
http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008/08/idol-dioguardi.html?xid=email-alert-americanidol-20080825-item1

Right on Jodi. I do not think they need a 4th judge either but I am wondering if this is a sneaky way to get Paula Abdul off the show as in the past she is not always herself. I sure hope not as I really like Paula. One other thing I read on the news was that Paula herself is not really thrilled with this addition as she said on a radio program. She does cover herself well by saying she is excited but also added that having a 4th judge could cause split decisions (2 against 2). She also is hoping that the fun of the show will not be taken away by a 4th opinion.

Anyway, hope it goes okay but yes this will cut into the performances unless they make the show longer.

concertcris wrote:

Right on Jodi. I do not think they need a 4th judge either but I am wondering if this is a sneaky way to get Paula Abdul off the show as in the past she is not always herself. I sure hope not as I really like Paula. One other thing I read on the news was that Paula herself is not really thrilled with this addition as she said on a radio program. She does cover herself well by saying she is excited but also added that having a 4th judge could cause split decisions (2 against 2). She also is hoping that the fun of the show will not be taken away by a 4th opinion.

Anyway, hope it goes okay but yes this will cut into the performances unless they make the show longer.

It could be a way to get Paula off the show but she does have a contract I think, on the flip side, I was told that they use to have "guest Judges" in the past and maybe they are just trying to capture the things that made them good in the first place, I don't see how a 4th judge will help though, what if there is a tie in the auditions.. It could be interesting for sure. I don't know this 4th judge and sure didn't know she had the writing skills she does, Thanks CC. I can't believe they'd let her on as a judge after having anything to do with Taylor. Surprise...[b]

Yeppers in the past they have had "guest" judges during the auditions and occasionly on the show itself. I suppose if the judges keep their comments short they could have it formatted for their usual time slots but then again we have seen where Simon has been cut off because his comments have gone on too long.

Paula can be a dingbat at times but she also has helped make this show a hit by being the kinder judge and as mentioned above I have always liked Paula regardless of her past behavior. I honestly believe Simon and Paula have an underlying admiration of each other. To what extent I am not sure but it would not surprise me if they got together as a couple.

My hope is that the new judge will not take over and oust Paula because Paula herself does have a very impressive career also as she was once a singer, dancer and is highly respected as a choreographer as mentioned often during the "So You Think You Can Dance" segments this season. In fact I wrote an article for Jodi's newsletter mentioning her many accomplishments in case some of you missed the last issue.

Anyway, while they are saying this will bring new life to the show I am hoping it will not have an adverse effect in the long run.

normally i like Paula however she did make me mad when you told Syesha Mercado that she wasn't good enough to be in the finale.
that was uncall for; especially when out of the top 24 she should have won.

I like Paula as well, and I hope she doesn't think this new judge as a threat. There is only one Paula after all, As far as her this past season I don't think she was on her game at all, some of her comments were totally different than her reactions and I think she took a lot of heat this past season, Syesha was and is very good but I don't think she was the best of the 24. Of course that's just my opinion, but I understand what you are trying to say mae...

:tsk: I have read more about the new judge and she has made comments that all in all she thinks Simon is usually right on with his comments. I can see already this is probably not going to be a good thing. She did add that she will be honest with her comments. She also added that her favorite "idols" have been Kelly Clarkson and Brooke White. I can see that I am not going to be agreeing with her most of the time I think. Don't get me wrong Kelly is a dynamite singer but has kind of turned into a screamer with her music. Brooke was never that great in my book as she made so many blunders during that season. I know the Brooke fans probably do not agree with my thoughts but that is okay. We each have our own opinions and mine is Brooke had some good moments but overall she was just average.

CC Don't know if I like the fact that she thinks Simon is usually right with his comments, that is not so good, maybe that's why they brought her aboard to give Simon the advantage over Randy and Paula, ok so now I'm not liking this idea at all.. ha ha