For the first time, “American Idol” is pushing the all-important Hollywood Week auditions — when the field is whittled down to the final 12 — to January.
The late start will allow Ellen DeGeneres — the newest “Idol” judge — to be there for the auditions and for judge Simon Cowell to have wrapped up his competing talent show, “X Factor,” in London.
Hollywood Week is the final audition for would-be “Idols” — when 200 singers who win coveted golden tickets in local tryouts are sent to LA. The week of Hollywood tryouts is taped and aired in the first few weeks of the show, which starts in February.
But this year, instead of waiting just a few weeks to go to Hollywood, the elite 200 will have to cool their heels for more than four months before getting to sing again in front of the judges, who will decide who will go to the finals.
Apparently, the producers of “Idol” decided shortly after Paula Abdul announced that she was not coming back that the traditional November taping dates for Hollywood Week would have to be pushed back.
“It’s a scheduling issue,” says a show source, explaining that it is Cowell’s schedule more than DeGeneres’ that’s causing the holdup.
In fact, show sources say the final decision has not been made about when DeGeneres will begin appearing on the show — though with the January dates, it appears more likely she will make her first appearances during Hollywood Week rather than when live shows begin sometime in late March.
For the local tryouts, a series of guest judges — including Katy Perry and Neil Patrick Harris — have sat in on the famous “Idol” panel.