Kara DioGuardi found out about her reported American Idol axing from media reports and has yet to hear anything from Fox or the show's producers, according to her father.
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"Would you believe that she did not hear, and still has not heard, anything?" her father Joe DioGuardi, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate, said during a Tuesday appearance on New York's Capital Tonight political TV program.
"She read it the way that you did and I did. In fact, her disappointment is that that is the way that she is being treated and feels that is not proper."
Widespread reports that DioGuardi will not be part of American Idol's upcoming tenth-season judging panel surfaced late last month. According to the reports, American Idol has fired DioGuardi and settled on a three-person judging panel consisting of Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler, singer and actress Jennifer Lopez and returning judge Randy Jackson.
The American Idol shake-up reports emerged only a few hours after Fox and Ellen DeGeneres announced the comedian and daytime talk show host would be following already departed judge Simon Cowell and "bowing out" of her Idol judging position after just a single season.
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"I think that what they're trying to do is create a lot of buzz, like they did with Paula Abdul. They're trying to reformat the thing. But Kara has a very deep career in music... so she'll be fine," Joe DioGuardi told Capital Tonight.
"Does she want to do it another year? I think so, but she just got married and she wants to have a family. So maybe this is a good opening for her too... she has plenty of options... and I think she will at some point confront them on that."
While Fox has since confirmed earlier reports that former executive producer Nigel Lythgoe -- an outspoken critic of Idol's decision to add DioGuardi and expand to four judges in 2008 -- will return to American Idol following a two-season absence, it has had no comment on the reported judging changes.
"The only thing I can tell you is that no one has signed a deal yet on either side of the camera to be on American Idol who wasn't on the show last year," Fox entertainment chairman Peter Rice told reporters at the network's Television Critics Association's summer press tour presentation on August 2.
"Much of the information [in the media] is accurate and some of it is wildly inaccurate," he said before adding Fox expects to have Idol's tenth-season judging panel in place and announced by the time the season's nationwide callback auditions with the judges begin in mid-September.
About The Author: Steven Rogers