A few days ago I was able to attend the official kick-off event (held at UCLA) for the upcoming premiere of American Idol, can you believe we’re already on season twelve? All of the judges were in attendance along with host Ryan Seacrest, after about an hour of clips from the two-hour premiere, they all sat down for a little Q&A session with the audience! After the preview, I can definitely say this is going to be one of Idol‘s best seasons yet, the judges panel is beyond perfect! The tension between divas Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj could be easily cut with a dull knife (looks filled with shade and side eyes are thrown left and right), people will be eating up the delicious chemistry between the two, who knows what will transpire when the show goes live after the auditions, it’s going to be crazy, trust me! Cutie Keith Urban came across as so genuine and sweet, plus he’s often seated right between Nicki and Mariah, creating the perfect nice guy buffer. And of course Randy Jackson knows how to keep it all together, he’s the only judge that was there when Kelly Clarkson won the first season in 2002.
After the Q+A session, I headed off to the after-party which ended up being quite swanky. After a few tasty cocktails and dinner (they had a really nice food spread), we spotted Nicki coming into the party, I was able to briefly say hello, she shook my hand (while I quietly died inside), and I complimented her huge diamond encrusted watch which I noticed sparkling up on stage earlier. She was very nice and cordial, and to be honest I was so impressed by how she spoke during the Q+A, she’s seriously one smart cookie! After a couple of lackluster seasons (and the recent disaster known as The X Factor), I think FOX finally might have something good on their hands, so make sure to tune in this coming Wednesday (January 16th, my birthday) for the premiere, with another episode airing on Thursday!
PS Many thanks to the folks over at AT&T for hooking me up with an invite to this!
About Michael Knudsen
