American Idol, Randy Jackson | featured news

Jackson out. Randy Jackson, the lone original "American Idol" judge, says he won't be returning to the Fox talent competition. "To put all of the speculation to the rest, after 12 years of judging on `American Idol,' I have decided to leave after this season," Jackson said in a statement Thursday. "I am very proud of how we forever changed television and the music industry."

Jennifer Lopez is the second judge in two days to say she's leaving "American Idol." Lopez will not be back for a third year on television's top-rated but struggling show, her representative, Mark Young, said Friday. Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler announced Thursday he was exiting. That means the "Idol" panel is down to one, original judge Randy Jackson, and there are reports that he may take a different role when the Fox show returns next January.

Randy Jackson was right -- pop music was not the right direction for Jacob Lusk. America sent Jacob back to Compton on Thursday, the night after he disappointed Randy with his "corny" performance of the Jordin Sparks-Chris Brown duet "No Air."

Randy posed the same question to our Top Five he's been asking all season "Who's in it to win it?" "Songs from then and now" was the theme (Idol is definitely running out of theme ideas) and any first-half failures had a chance to redeem themselves in the second Meanwhile...

Let's just say that some members of the Top 13 were luckier than others on Wednesday night's "American Idol." Gorgeous Pia Toscano continued her ascent to front-runner status, following up last week's show-stopping performance of "I'll Stand By You" with a just-as-good-if-not-better performance of Celine Dion's "All by Myself." Randy called it "hot, dope and cool" -- and she looked good doing it.

Fox says Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler will be joining Randy Jackson as "American Idol" judges.

"Idol" judge said he expected to see clones of the over-the-top eighth season runner-up or even croony champion Kris Allen show up to audition, but there were none to be found this time.