Source: YouTube

With all of the drama surrounding his wife and her American Idol co-host, many have been wondering what Nick Cannon thinks of all of the controversy. The comedian and producer recently stopped by KTLA in Los Angeles for an interview and offered his two cents on the Mariah-Nicki controversy, while making some humorous revelations about the ongoing bickering. Check out some of what he had to say.

On Mariah warning Fox producers that hiring Nicki was a bad idea:

“The amazing thing is that my wife, foreseeing all of this, tried to tell the network. She said, ‘I don’t think this is going to work, I’m afraid.’ She said, ‘I don’t need this. I’m doing this for the brand of ‘American Idol,’ which she has been a fan of and [she] loves the show, but [they're] kind of gonna take this in the wrong direction like one of those reality shows. She’s said, ’I didn’t sign up to be on ‘Love & Hip Hop.’”

On if he thinks producers are playing up the Nicki-Mariah drama:

“That’s the thing. My wife has been taking the high road, trying her best to just take it, but it feels like the producers and everybody else wants to just play into the sound bites and stuff like that. It’s unfortunate.”

On if he thinks Mariah will sign on for another season: 

“She just released a single today that is all of the place called “#Beautiful.” She’s so focused on her music and what she really loves to do, and that’s why she did ‘American Idol’ in the first place. Like, ‘Oh, I’m a lover of singers and music,’ so, it’s a time where she has so many amazing things going on in her life. If there’s something unstable…if they get it stable, she might relook, but nobody wants to be apart of anything that’s unstable.”

Check out Nick’s interview on the next page.

Source: WENN

Within the past two weeks, we’ve heard more about tension brewing between American Idol judges Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj than we’ve heard about the actual contestants. Just last week Nicki served Mariah with a few low blows via Twitter, calling the 43-year-old mother of two “insecure” and “bitter.” 30-year-old Nicki then proceeded to kick dirt in her co-star’s face by referencing swirling rumors that Jennifer Lopez was being courted by Fox to replace MiMi on the show.

The beef between the ladies seems very catty and unnecessary, but industry insiders say Mariah has had enough and doesn’t even want to finish the current season. According to Perez Hilton, the inside source is saying that Mariah would rather cut her losses and keep it moving than deal with Nicki’s antagonistic ways.

“Mariah doesn’t want to come back, Nicki is really disrespecting her and she’s tired of trying to bite her tongue all the time… One night Nicki tried to be kind of nice, but Mariah didn’t bite, so I guess she figured screw that,” the source said.

The source went on to say that Mariah is tired of dealing with American Idol producer as well.

“She’s done with it all. She doesn’t need the platform, and all the drama isn’t healthy for her… She’s also under fire with the producers for not being critical enough of the contestants.”

Of course these are all speculations, as Mariah’s departure has yet to be confirmed by her camp or Fox producers. Only time will tell.

Would you be sad to see Mariah leave American Idol?

Source: Access Hollywood

Last week we told you about Nicki Minaj’s venomous Twitter rant aimed at her American Idol co-host Mariah Carey. When questioned about the feud and the comments she made about Mariah by Access Hollywood correspondent Laura Saltman, Nicki, who was visibly irritated began to insult Laura, telling her that the question she was asking didn’t make sense.

“Are you looking forward to the end [of American Idol]? Because I know there were some Twitter comments you made today that caused quite a stir,” Laura asked.

“That question didn’t even make sense. So if you want me to insinuate what you’re talking about I’m not going to,” Nicki spat.

Before even giving Saltman a chance to respond, Nicki said, “Okay, goodnight” and walked away. An aggravated Laura composed a rather lengthy blog post about the experience, calling Nicki “ungracious” and a “cyber-bully.” Laura’s post reads:

“In my 20 years in entertainment news, I have interviewed close to 5,000 celebrities — people who have bigger bragging rights than Nicki. Men and women who have Oscars, Grammys and Emmys. Yet, by far, she is the most ungracious of anyone I have met.

Each week, she comes backstage for interviews and we are told “two questions only” while her people hover over you and even, at times, have their hand on your arm as you end your interview to make you stop. Waiver from the two-question rule and Nicki herself will walk away. She makes zero eye contact and has no connection to whomever is interviewing her. If she likes your question, she may give you a proper answer. If she doesn’t, she may give you a dirty look and walk off. After she posted mean comments about Mariah on Twitter yesterday calling her “bitter” and “insecure,” I wanted to give her the opportunity to redeem herself or perhaps apologize. I phrased my question that her comments had caused quite a stir online and asked if she had anything to say about it. She looked at me and told me my question made no sense and when I tried to explain it further she just said “goodnight” and walked off in a huff.

Nicki’s comments yesterday on Twitter show who she really is – a mean girl, a cyber-bully who is just perpetuating the problems of social media. When will society finally take a stand and say ‘Enough!’ with all of the hateful, spiteful things people say about each other? We are more connected than ever online but more willing to hide behind our anonymous avatars and be nasty to people we barely know. As a celebrity, I would hope that Nicki would understand her fans look to her as a role model and she should choose her words more wisely. From what I have seen of her behavior since “Idol” began, I’m not sure she is capable of this. She’s a female rapper who should be proud of her accomplishments as a woman not cutting other women down.

The truth is that 20 years from now, Mariah Carey will still be known as one of the best female vocalists of all time. Nicki Minaj – well, I will let you decide that.”

You can probably guess that this didn’t sit too well with Nicki. The “High School rapper took to her Twitter page to blast Laura and the Access Hollywood team, especially Billy Bush who called her “a female Kanye West.”

Turn the page to see footage of the interview that started it all. Nicki’s segment begins at the 2:51 mark. Do you think Nicki was justified in walking away during an interview? Was it unprofessional of Laura to write a blog post coming for Nicki?

Source: WENN

Although things seemed to calm down for a bit, it looks like Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj are back to their catty antics. A couple of nights ago on American Idol, Nicki pulled a Q-Tip out of her purse and offered it to Mariah, telling her that she needed to clean out her ears. A little later on, Mariah seemed to subtly shade Nicki for never hitting No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Nicki has actually never made it pass No.3 on the charts. Of course, Mariah has a medium-sized handbag full of No.1 hits. This clearly didn’t sit well with the “High School” rapper and when celebrity blogger Perez Hilton insisted that Mariah “burned” her with the comments, Nicki quickly responded, tossing a bit of shade Mariah’s way in the process.

And of course, Nicki’s “Barbz” joined in on the phone, hurling insults Mariah’s way. The mama Barb ended the Mariah slam session by laughing at how “shady” her fans are.

Here’s my question: Why does being famous mean tossing all forms of maturity and professionalism out of the window? I mean really, these women are both at least thirty years old. They’re ultimately at Idol because they have a job to do. There are plenty of regular folk who have to work with people they don’t like everyday, but because they’re mature adults, they suck it up and deal with it. Unfortunately, Nicki and Mariah seem like they have yet to receive the memo.

What do you think of Mariah and Nicki still going at it?

Image Source: WENN.com

For American Idol, the struggle continues.

Word on the street is…aka, according to The Hollywood Reporter, in an effort to salvage a season that saw ratings hit their lowest ever, producers of the show were hoping to replace Mariah Carey with former judge Jennifer Lopez just some weeks ago. Mimi and her people were able to shut down the possible swap out by threatening legal action against the show, and the possibility of that forced producers to back down from their supposed-to-be-secret plans. But the head of reality shows for FOX, Mike Darnell, was allegedly so worried about the dip in ratings this season that he was hoping a surprise change in judges would pull viewers in. Lopez is planning to show up on the show’s season finale in May, but it’s not clear if she will just be performing, helping with the contestants, or what. But Lopez was a popular judge during her tenure on the show (2011-12), so I’m sure they’re excited to get her back if even for a hot second.

However, Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe, who is a judge on the FOX show, So You Think You Can Dance?, denies such reports or rumors saying, “I have not been included in any conversation regarding replacing Mariah with Jen this season.”

Either way, The Hollywood Reporter says that their sources are confirming that there will be another judge shake-up when this season is over: “…insiders say a search already has begun to replace Carey, most likely Nicki Minaj and possibly the entire judge’s panel for next season.”

Yikes, it sounds like whether or not Mariah leaves mid-season or after the season, she’s probably going to get the boot. As someone who has watched the show from time to time, I can say that honestly, as talented and legendary as Mariah Carey is, she’s NOT a good judge. At all. For all the personality it seems she has, it doesn’t show up on camera, she’s too too kind, and some of her comments come off as side-eye worthy. But do people need to try and replace folks behind their backs? No. A good warning would probably do wonders. And trying to replace an icon with Lopez? That’s just disrespectful and a sign that the show really is not about contestants anymore or legends in the music industry giving good feedback. But the whole judges panel is just awkward for me, and if I would vote to keep anybody, surprisingly, it would be Keith Urban. The rest are too boring or too aggressive. But I just feel that changing judges for the umpteenth time in the last few years is NOT going to help increase Idol‘s ratings. How about you?

Prior to all of Lil Wayne’s health problems, he teamed up with Nicki Minaj not only to record the track “High School” from her album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded- The Re-Up, but to do a very interesting video directed by Benny Boom for the song, which included a bedroom scene, hot tubs and heists. Yikes!

The storyline seems to go that Nicki is involved with a wealthy crime boss, and when Weezy and Baby try to do business with the guy, Lil Wayne falls for Nicki, who parades around the mansion half-dressed on flirtatious mode, eyes batting. The two end up all over each other and wind up stealing jewels from the crime boss. Aside from that, things just get confusing. For instance, please excuse the hot tub scenes with the American Idol judge in string swimsuit, because it might not be safe for work (plus, it’s mad random), and the bedroom scene we probably could have used 20 less shots of, but you know Nicki loves to get people talking. However, the song actually isn’t bad (despite the shaky chorus with homegirl trying to sing), and I can see the young girls and boys jamming to it. Check out the video below and let us know if it’s a pass or play for you.

So what do you think? Pass or play?

Just last week The Voice premiered, and like many reality show singing competitions out there, they had new faces on the judging panel with Usher taking over for Cee-Lo and Shakira taking the chair from Christina Aguilera for the time being. So far, Usher seems to be off to a good start on the show. He fits in with the banter the judges always engage in and many of the contestants find themselves under his spell and on his team with his bribes of the chance to meet Justin Bieber and straightforward pleas about their talents as opposed to why it would be so cool for them to be on his team. Shakira also holds her own well and doesn’t seem thirsty to turn her chair for every decent voice she hears. All in all, it seems they fit in nicely, and fans agree. The premiere of The Voice was a big winner ratings wise, increasing in viewership by 12 percent compared to last year’s season premiere, bringing in more than 13 million viewers.

This is happening while over on Fox, American Idol ratings continue to decrease to an all-time low, as the show did last Thursday when it only eeked out 11 million viewers. So why are the new faces on The Voice working well for ratings but the same can’t be said for Idol?

Honestly, The Voice ratings could dip just like Idol‘s have as the show continues. However, checking out reactions from different sites like E! and more, it seems that people actually seem to find Usher and Shakira very entertaining, maybe even more so than Cee-Lo and Aguilera, who are allegedly supposed to return to the series next season. But I think a fresh face is needed from time to time just to make people tune in. Yet at the same time, people will tune out if the new face isn’t necessarily a positive change. Many commented on The Voice premiere saying that Shakira and Usher seemed to have their egos in check, while we know from these last few months of American Idol that Nicki and Mariah were caught up in an ego-driven cat fight for a while there. The show has basically been based around the new judges over the contestants and the drama they may or may not have going on. It’s tired.

I tune into both shows and I can say that I like the Usher I see (his character has been in question since all that custody battle drama, but when he’s focused on music, he’s gets a boost), Nicki isn’t bad at judging, and Mariah is actually coming off a little stale in the judge’s seat for me. Keep it positive and about the talent of the contestants, and people seem to want to come back. All in all, reality show talent competitions are a dime a dozen these days, so for both of these juggernauts to keep their ratings on the up and up, I have a feeling they will need more than just new judges.

What do you think of the new season of The Voice so far? What about the new season of Idol?

Source: WENN

Just a few months ago, people were either loving or absolutely loathing the news that Nicki Minaj would be a judge on American Idol alongside Mariah Carey, Randy Jackson and Keith Urban. The pressure was on her big time, and things only got worse when it was made public that the rapper and Carey had been going at it behind-the-scenes. But as the new season has started, Nicki Minaj is very pleased with her performance as a judge, despite not knowing what to expect and not being a singer.

According to Miss Jia, in a press conference call, when asked what her worst Idol moment had been so far, she said had not a one. She had a pat-myself-on-the-back moment when speaking on her work:

“My best and worst Idol moments? I don’t have a worst Idol moment. I’ve been spectacular. Yes, I am going to toot my own horn. And then my best moment is every single moment. I’ll toot it again!

Have you been tuning into American Idol? If not, you wouldn’t be alone. The ratings have been dipping and with Minaj the only one spicing things up, it just isn’t enough to lure in more viewers. But even with the rating dip, advertisers are still hanging on.

So far AI has lost about 20 percent of its audience this season to hit new lows, reports Billboard.  Shows like CBS’ Person of Interest and NCIS are beating the show and the former blockbuster has been overrun by the zombie action on AMC’s The Walking Dead.

But the 12th season of American Idol has retained its status as TV’s advertising leader and the its biggest advertisers, including Ford and Coca-Cola, have stuck with the show.

“It’s still a top 10 show,” Brad Adgate of media-buying firm Horizon Media told the entertanment trade magazine. “Compared to several years ago, it’s not the ratings force it once was… But even if it loses 20 percent” again, it’s still valuable to Fox.

Last season, American Idol grossed a leading $836 million in ad revenue. But the trajectory inevitably is headed down. The show reportedly commanded about $500,000 for a 30-second commercial on its Wednesday episodes. Things started to turn down when Phillip Phillips had been crowned the winner in 2012, and AI has its lowest-rated season since it debuted in summer 2002. This affected the advertising for this year. “The current 2012-13 season began with prices cut to $340,000 per spot for the higher-rated Wednesday performance night episode,” reports Billboard. The ad rates will most likely go up for the finale this year.

But there will be another ad test for the show in May. Every year at that time “upfronts” take place in New York, when broadcast networks pull in billions of dollars in advertising commitments for the following  season based on their series’ past and predicted viewership.

“You’re going to see a significant drop” in May, Deana Myers of SNL Kagan told the magazine about AI’s potential during the upfronts.

Idol is still averaging about 15 million weekly viewers this year, compared to its 2006 peak of 30 million, according to Nielsen figures. But its demo has changed drastically. The audience’s median age has jumped more than 18 years, to 50.4, from season one to last year. Not a good sign on Madison Avenue, which prefers ads targeting youth rather than seniors.

But don’t count AI out totally. As Billboard reports, not many shows can draw weekly audiences of 10 million-plus in today’s highly competitive TV world.

And AI has pulled out all the stops in keeping viewers tuning in. Fox and AI producer FremantleMedia North America paid close to $18 million to Carey, $12 million to Minaj, and a reported $6 million take for Urban.

Is AI washed up?

Source: WENN

This past Wednesday when the first live taping for this season of American Idol began, viewers, audience members and even the show’s host Ryan Seacrest noticed something very wrong – Nicki Minaj was nowhere to be found.

“We are coming to you live and on time,” Seacrest poked before asking the panelists if one of them had sabotaged Nicki.

“Which one of you gave Nicki the wrong directions today? Which one of you drained the fuel from her car?” he joked.

Mariah Carey, who is known for not always seeing eye-to-eye with Nicki remained quiet regarding her co-panelist’s tardiness. 13 minutes later Nicki hurried in wearing dark shades and a hooded sweatshirt. The shades  didn’t come off until after Nicki’s glam squad came out to primp and prep her during a commercial break. According to Seacrest, Nicki said she was stuck in traffic. While everyone probably formed their opinions about Nicki’s tardiness, no one really said much about it. But, of course our problem child Tamar Braxton had her two cents to contribute, as she has something to say about everything. During her appearance on Anderson Live yesterday, she was asked what she thought about Nicki’s “unfashionably late” timing. She responded:

“I don’t know. All I know is that if Mariah is on time and J.Lo was never late, you don’t be late. ‘American Idol’ has started at the same time for 10 years. You know, I’m just saying. So don’t be late, it’s live television. Period,” Tamar said.

Unlike most times when Tamar gets to blabbing, she was sort of asked for her opinion on the matter, but there were certainly other ways to respond. If we’ve learned nothing else about Tamar, we know that she is not a fan of holding her tongue. I guess anyone who may have thought that the youngest Braxton sister’s recently announced pregnancy was going to slow down that motormouth, clearly thought wrong.

Turn the page for footage of Tamar discussing Nicki’s tardiness. Should she have kept her mouth shut or did Nicki deserve to be blasted for her unprofessionalism?