American Idol viewers can start counting down the days until they'll get to see all the Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj hype for themselves.

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Fox has announced American Idol's upcoming twelfth season -- which will feature a new revamped four-person judging panel comprised of Minaj, Carey, country star Keith Urban, and returning judge Randy Jackson -- will premiere with a special two-night event on Wednesday, January 16 and Thursday, January 17 at 8PM ET/PT.

Reports have circulated for weeks that Carey and Minaj have been going at it on the judging panel -- on and off-camera -- since American Idol began filming its next edition.

Their brawls allegedly reached new heights when Carey publicly claimed earlier this month Minaj had threatened to kill her, a claim both Minaj and Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe subsequently denied.
 
American Idol's eleventh-season champion Phillip Phillips will release his debut album, "The World From the Side of the Moon" on November 19. Phillips and his fellow finalists wrapped up their American Idol Live! tour last month.




About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.