FOX
One of the worst-kept secrets in TV finally became official today: Kara DioGuardi and Fox announced that the judge will follow Simon Cowell and Ellen DeGeneres in leaving American Idol’s judging panel for next season.
“I felt like I won the lottery when I joined ‘American Idol’ two years ago, but I feel like now is the best time to leave Idol,” she said in a statement. If not sooner; the songwriter always had the resume for Idol, but whether from personality, the four-judge system or both, never broke out of the sense of superfluousness.
This leaves the next-worst-kept secret in TV, the new judging panel, widely buzzed to be Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler and last surviving original Randy Jackson. Pending the announcement of new judges (and going back to a three-judge panel, if nothing else, would be an improvement numbers-wise), will you miss Kara? And is there a good reason to keep Randy around for continuity’s sake, or should Idol wipe the slate?