American Idol Insider Says the Nicki/Mariah Battle Was All For Show

By On 10/03/2012 · 49 Comments · In American Idol, Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj

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Was the Nicki Minaj/Mariah Carey dustup a fake fight created to drum up buzz? One source tells The Hollywood Reporter it was:

…a high-ranking Idol insider tells The Hollywood Reporter it’s all for show. “The Mariah-Nicki diva battle is exactly what Fox executives wanted all along,” says the source, who insists the two singers are in on the joke. “No one’s really worried. They know the parts they’re supposed to play.”

But not so fast! Another source says:

But another Idol player paints a grimmer picture that allegedly included action more than words, saying, “Nicki went off and threatened Mariah.”

Nigel, is apparently, not rattled:

…the well-placed insider says Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe is “well-equipped” to manage the Minaj-Carey relationship (in addition to handling judges Randy Jackson and Keith Urban). Indeed, in the grainy video (which another observer suggests was leaked by the Minaj camp), the British executive producer looks only the slightest bit rattled, and reportedly, he had the good sense to stop the day’s taping following the altercation.

THR also notes that the cast did not talk to Christina Aguilera initially on The Voice:

Worth noting: On season one of NBC’s The Voice, most of the cast wasn’t talking to fellow coach Christina Aguilera. According to host Carson Daly, who discussed this very topic on his L.A. radio show (97.1 AMP Radio) Wednesday morning, producers eventually intervened and told them to cut it out.

THR thinks the fireworks are good for the series, but I disagree. When Adam and Christina went at it last Spring, it may have contributed to their finalists–who were front runners going into the final–losing. Some friction is a good thing. But bad blood and nastiness? No way. Publicizing the personal catfights just looks desparate.

Nigel. CONCENTRATE ON CASTING THE SHOW WELL. Make it entertaining! Show the rest how it’s done! You are the gold standard. Keep setting that standard, please.

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  • abbysee

    I have been an idolfanatic since day one. If this shit continues I will walk away. I watch this show with my kids for fun. I don’t expose the younger kids to those housewives shows because I don’t want them to think its customary for women to disrespect each other for sport. If idol continues in this vein, I am done. I also don’t like this attitude that Nicki is gonna revitalize idol so her attitude is acceptable. I think Nigel miscalculated this time. Mj, idol is the gold standard. Now they need a wake up call. Asap!

  • Incipit

    Paula may have had her own language, but people could sometimes actually decode it for the useful parts, if they tried. Randy’s comments seldom left anything to work with. And Cowell was too busy manipulating.

    What she really had that I don’t see her get much credit for was a pretty good knowledge of popular music history. It helps, I think, if the judges can tell what a contestant has done to change the music, and what their skills are. Now, it’s not hard to do better at that than Cowell, he never even pretended to know who all the original artists were –  but Paula also had more at her fingertips than Randy. I recall several times she supplied the name of a group or artist being covered, when Cowell was clueless and Randy was wrong.

    No, I don’t want her back, but I would like to see that kind of easy familiarity with the Idol song catalog again. I never understood why the judges had access to the song list each week, but didn’t seem to do any homework at all.

    Since it’s OK to critique based on Rehearsal, it’s also OK to become familiar with the song before the show goes live.

    IMO. Of Course.

  • fantoo1

    Lol it’s interesting to see all the Paula love, especially after people hated Steven and JLo, who were basically two Paulas, lol.

  • springboard2

    All judge comments are an attempt at manipulating the voting, and it is becoming more and more obvious!

    And yes, Simon Cowell was and wanted to be the center of attention, but because of his judging rather than star power. Love him or loathe him, he used to give a level of feedback (up to season 8) that has gone since judges are just  sitting there looking pretty and waffling, and/or cat fighting because of personal issues.

  • Karen C

    IMO, having two judges fight so bad the auditions have to be postphoned is terrible for the show.  But if this was faked for ratings it is even worse. 

  • elliegrll

    Simon wanted to be the center of attention because of his ego, and because he became a star through the show.  

    Karen C said: IMO, having two judges fight so bad the auditions have to be postphoned is terrible for the show.  But if this was faked for ratings it is even worse.

    It may not have been any worse than having to film some of Paula’s critiques separately from the actual auditions.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/PVEFG2TOUIXSROKUSO2O2DOWWE Taylor

    I thought that was the case, but wasn’t 100% sure about it. There are so many knowledgeable Cook fans here, I didn’t want to get it wrong! lol

    Good for Paula for also recognizing Cook’s talent early on in the competition!

  • Karen C

    I agree about Paula.  I think she was the first to see who would be most successful from the show.  I agree too she had a lot of musical knowledge, also.

    I think that SImon used to push the contestants to improve by his comments, even though they were negative a lot of the time, this helps push the contestants to improve.  If there were negative comments by SImon, Paula used to try to explain this to the contestants, which is what helped them also to improve.  I haven’t seen this as much the past couple of years, and I don’t expect it at all if it is all if it turns out to be all about the judges.

  • springboard2

    Simon wanted to be the center of attention because of his ego, and because he became a star through the show. 

    Yes, but he never lost the underlying plot in any of his shows, which is to manipulate the voting outcome, and pushing the right contestants as close as possible to the finishing post. I doubt that Nicki and Mariah had anything of the sort in mind when they had their altercation.

     

  • http://twitter.com/bagel08 John S

    Its kind of funny that people say Paula was the first to recognize talent, didn’t she like everybody anyway? She was always positive, so of course it looks like she has an eye for talent. Its easy to see that when you like everybody. 

  • http://twitter.com/bagel08 John S

     

    American Idol gets the highest ratings but comes across as the most desperate.

    Not at all, there have been some desperate moves by ALL the singing shows.

  • blackberryharvest

    She was a class act.

    is this the same Paula who would make a fool out of herself, who missed auditions, had to literally be carried by producers to the table before the show, publicly declared a Danny/Adam finale, who used to color on Simon’s face, who used to hit Simon, and who apparently had an affair with a contestant(idk if that was true though). She wasn’t THAT much of an angel. I actually prefer JLO to her.

  • dabney c

    deleted: triple post

  • dabney c

    deleted: triple post

  • dabney c

    Yes, Paula was loopy and sometimes high on something??, but she was
    encouraging to the contestants and often times she recognized raw talent
    before the other two judges did.

    Yes, absolutely. I say this all the time. People think Paula was uniformly nice to everyone. While she DID always treat everybody kindly, she didn’t always think they had special talent. Paula complimented all the contestants and highlighted their positives, so you had to pay a little closer attention to differentiate between nicenesses.

    David Cook is a great example of Paula’s sense of raw talent. Simon and Randy were all about Archie, ‘the golden boy’, and pretty much declared him winner from day one. Michael Johns was the early heartthrob, and Carly still had the “Irish Girl” buzz from years earlier. Lots of swooning for Jason Castro, too. Meanwhile, nobody (except me, it seemed) noticed David Cook in the very early rounds because of his dumb faux-hawk, and vests, and general schlumpy bar-band appearance. There was almost no chatter on the boards about Cook – except for people commenting on his “combover” – and he was more or less considered cannon fodder. But Paula saw that David had something special. It’s just that her voice didn’t carry the same weight as Simon’s, so her quiet observations went largely unnoticed.

  • usedtobelucy

    Adam/Xtina, Nikki/MC, Simon/everybody. Interesting that it’s okay for some of the highest-paid, most influential people in our society to make part of their livings acting like tantrummy, terminally selfish, bitchy five year olds on the public stage.

  • usedtobelucy

     ” But Paula saw that David had something special. It’s just that her
    voice didn’t carry the same weight as Simon’s, so her quiet observations
    went largely unnoticed.”

    Similarly with Kelly C. Simon kept saying she wasn’t memorable. Paula pushed for her hard.

  • fuzzywuzzy

    lol I wouldn’t put it past Idol to stage this fight. I don’t find this level of conflict entertaining though. Maybe Idol will attract new viewers, but instead of the ones that they want, it will be from the demo that watches Jerry Springer and the Real Housewives of New Jersey. lol

  • hcpoirot

    I belive Nigel will try to make Idol new season some soap opera like. Mariah and Nicki cat fighting, and then lots of drama from the contestants and maybe lot of trouble with criminal pasts or weird contestants to make it to top 24 just to make the rating.

    Personally, thses kind of negative press just taint the show and people will probably tune off if Nigel keep this .

  • bscfan

    Not staged. Some people might tune in initially just to see the fighting, but long term obvious tension between judges will be bad for the show. People watch the show to feel good, bad vibes between judges ON AIR will bring viewers down and send them away.

  • standtotheright

    the British executive producer looks only the slightest bit rattled, and reportedly, he had the good sense to stop the day’s taping following the altercation.

    And I’m supposed to be impressed by this?

    Being “equipped to handle the situation” means that it doesn’t get to the staged/not-staged alternation level in the first place.

    But then, I’ve generally thought that Lythgoe was overrated and gets more credit than he deserves simply because 19 and Fremantle couldn’t find other producers who could even keep the trains running on time.

  • http://twitter.com/happylittlefish Amy Beth

    I’m sure the producers want the rumors of possible feuding to get publicity, but not the actual results of feuding. But you can’t always control the monster you create, right Dr. Frankenstein?

  • julesb2183

    Exactly right MJ. Idol sets the gold standard and it is up to them not to screw it up.

  • http://twitter.com/KariannHart Kariann Hart

    Has anyone heard about the talent going through so far or is all ther attention on the judges?

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