Earlier this week, Jennifer Lopez kicked up a media frenzy by commenting that she was unsure about renewing her contract and her close sources gave out that she was “too busy” to make a commitment to the show. It is also on record that she had made similar comments before signing up for the show last year.
In a conference call on Friday, Lythgoe told reporters that all of the “American Idol” judges had busy careers outside the talent show, but he expected all of them to be back. He said that the long schedule of the show and nationwide auditions, plus four months of live shows was tough for most media personalities to handle. The other judges too were busy and Steven Tyler’s band Aerosmith has a new album in the pipeline and has a scheduled summer tour to handle.
He said, “It’s got to fit everybody, and it’s difficult. You have got to start making decisions. Do I want to carry on doing this? Do I want to go off and make movies? … She has had a wonderful resurgence – world’s most beautiful woman, two No.1 records – she is doing brilliantly. She is going to have to balance everything up, as is Steven Tyler too. It’s not just Jennifer.”
Just after, Lopez denied all media reports that she had ever talked of quitting the show after the end of the current season. She tweeted “There is no truth to reports that say I am definitely leaving ‘idol’ … All I said was I haven’t decided what I am doing next year.”