Kenenter: Randy Jackson Addresses American Idol Rumors While Fox Bosses Stay Mum

Randy Jackson Addresses American Idol Rumors While Fox Bosses Stay Mum

8/03/2010 08:13:00 AM

For those of you keeping tabs on the current American Idol casting rumors, supposedly Jennifer Lopez is in, Steven Tyler might be in, Kara DioGuardi is out, and Randy Jackson may or may not be back.

Well, we just got in touch with the "dawg" himself, Randy, who tells us only one thing is "for sure" on the upcoming season…

"The only thing that's for sure is Ryan [Seacrest]," Jackson told us at the 2010 Farmers Classic tennis tournament presented by Mercedes-Benz. He insists, "Nothing has been decided."

Jackson did not comment on reports that he was almost canned along with DioGuardi after Ellen DeGeneres chose to leave, but said he would welcome the addition of Jenny from the Block to their block.

"If Jennifer Lopez is a judge I would be very happy," says Jackson. "I love her."

Today at the Television Critics press conference in Beverly Hills, Fox bigwigs Kevin Reilly and Peter Rice insisted to reporters, "The only thing I can tell you with absolute certainty right now is that no one has signed a deal yet on either side of the camera to join American Idol next year that wasn't on it last year. There are no signed deals with anybody."

Translation: We still know nothing about the upcoming panel of judges, or the status of Kara DioGuardi's rumored departure and Nigel Lythgoe's rumored return as an executive producer—not to mention whatever the heck is happening with Randy Jackson.

When asked about DioGuardi, Rice explained: "I'm not going to get into the speculation about it, [because] it's not fair to everyone who is being speculated about."

Rice did shed some light on Ellen's exit: "In early June, I met with Ellen and we talked about her feelings about the season and the idea that she wasn't comfortable. She didn't feel it was a good fit for her. I tried to dissuade her that it'd be different in the future, but ultimately we came with the agreement that we'd begin to look for new judges—which we were doing anyway because Simon [Cowell] was leaving…We felt confident that we could come up with a panel that didn't include Ellen as a judge."

Lopez and Tyler's reported deals with Idol were tip-toed around evasively, too, with Peter saying: "Much of the information that has been written is accurate, and some of the information has been wildly inaccurate."

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Randy Jackson Addresses American Idol Rumors While Fox Bosses Stay Mum

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