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All ‘American Idol’ Judges Are Reuniting, Even Mariah Carey And Nicki Minaj

By Niki Cruz
Published on: 04:34 PST, Nov 20, 2015

Ryan Seacrest has confirmed all of the American Idol judges will reunite one last time before the competition goes off the air for good. American Idol has been around since 2002, and since then, many judges have been in the hot seat to find America’s next music idol.

Seacrest told All Access that all of the judges are coming back for the finale season. It isn’t yet known what episode all the judges will appear on but it’s suspected that they will probably make an appearance on the finale.

“I’ve spoken to all of them recently and we as a team have talked to them about coming back to do something for the final season. They are going to do it, it’s just a matter of figuring what to do with them.”

For years it was just Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul, but as they started to depart, other big names in the entertainment industry were thrown in including Ellen DeGeneres, Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey.

Carey and Minaj had a huge beef with each other that Idol producers allegedly played up for television. That said, since then, Carey opened up in an interview with BET and said the feud with Minaj was all fake.

“It’s so boring and so fake. I’m sorry I just think it’s — when I say it’s fake, I mean like you have to make up things to say about people.”

“I’m not going to get into what it was. Let’s just say, I don’t think they had any intentions of us having a good experience through that show. Pitting two females against each other wasn’t cool.”

Carey also went on to say that judging American Idol was the “worst experience” of her life.

Carey had voiced what many complained about, which was that there wasn’t enough focus on the actual contestants. Many complained that as the seasons went on, the show wound up being all about the judges.

“It should have been about the contestants instead of about some non-existent feud that turned into even more ridiculousness… I would never want to be involved in it again, but everyone else can like it.”

The pop singer isn’t the only person who disliked her stint on the show. Ellen DeGeneres didn’t like putting contestants down, which ultimately left her with nothing productive to say when giving advice. Back in September, the TV host and comedian said that being on American Idol was one of the worst decisions she’s ever made. At the time, DeGeneres revealed her thoughts Howard Stern on his radio show.

“As a fan of the shows, it doesn’t matter that I sing or that I know anything about pitch or anything…So I thought, I’m gonna represent those people at home that have opinions. But then I just thought, like Howard says, I can’t break this person’s heart. I mean, let somebody else do that.”

After Mariah Carey left, Jennifer Lopez was brought in to judge the competition. Instead of four judges, which was the norm for a while, the table is now back to three judges, including Keith Urban, Harry Connick Jr. and Jennifer Lopez. The only person who has remained with the show since it started in 2002 is host Ryan Seacrest, who became the permanent host once his co-host Brian Dunkleman left.

[Photo by Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images]

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