Paula Abdul gone from Idol?

Ken — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:59:17 +0000

Ooh, an off-season Idol post. Sorry, non-Idol fans.

Paula Abdul hasn't yet renewed her contract with "American Idol" for next year, leading to speculation that she might be gone from the show. Paula fans have responded with a Twitter and email campaign to keep her on the show.

I had a suspicion that Kara DioGuardi was brought in as a potential replacement for Paula. For me, Paula doesn't add a lot of value as a judge; it's not useful to the contestants if all your comments are always positive. Also, she seemed drunk most of the time. However, I'm not sure the Kara experiment is working out all that well, either. I think she and Simon genuinely dislike each other.

For this year, anyway, I suspect Paula will be back. This is all probably just an attempt by Paula's agents to get a fatter contract, what with Ryan Seacrest just signing a $15 million deal.