The eighth season of American Idol will premiere on January 13, 2009. Judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson will return to judge once again, along with Ryan Seacrest as host. Kara DioGuardi was announced as the fourth and newest judge to the Idol panel.
Changes from Season 7
Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly stated that Idol will feature fewer “William Hung-like” contestants and “funny auditions”, and will quickly move its focus to the potential singers during the earlier stages of the competition. The upcoming season will also move at a faster pace. As part of this thrust, there will be a return to half-hour result shows, which was done prior to Season 5.
Mike Darnell, president of Fox’s alternative programming, revealed that this season the contestants will be more emotional and viewers will see more of the back stories.
Nigel Lythgoe confirmed that he is leaving Idol, stating that he is moving on with So You Think You Can Dance.
Additionally, Idol Gives Back will not return this season. This is due to the ongoing economic crisis and recession, as Idol officials did not feel comfortable asking people to donate with so many people struggling financially.
In a change to the judging panel, the show will feature a permanent fourth judge — songwriter and record producer Kara DioGuardi. However, the semifinals will see the biggest change as the Wild Card round returns. Also, there will be 36 semi-finalists picked instead of 24. They will be divided into 3 groups of 12. The groups of 12 will perform on Tuesday. At the conclusion of each results show on Wednesday, the male and female semifinalists who received the highest number of home viewers votes for their previous night’s performance will instantly become a Top 12 finalist. In addition, another semifinalist that had received the next-highest number of votes after the performance episode — regardless of whether he or she is male or female — will also become a finalist.
In the wild card round, the next highest finishers plus other eliminated semi-finalists will return for one more chance to compete. The judges will pick the 3 performers left that they consider the best. No voting by the public will be done at this stage.
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