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American Idol is firing longtime executive producers Nigel Lythgoe, right, and Ken Warwick, far right, in a continuing bid to win back viewers and shake up the show, an insider with knowledge of the show said.
Fox declined to comment on this report.
It was reported in early May that there would be major changes next season, including the executive firings and a wipe-out of Season 12’s judging panel. (Since then, Randy Jackson, Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey have announced their departures, leaving only, at this point, Keith Urban.)
Lythgoe and Warwick launched the show together during its inaugural season in 2002 and also worked on its predecessor, Britain’s Pop Idol. Lythgoe left Idol in 2008 then returned in 2010.
Their terminations from the show arrive amid flux for the talent competition after alternative programming chief Mike Darnell’s sudden Memorial Day weekend exit.
The new judging panel was aimed at assembling three former Idol contenders, including Jennifer Hudson and Kelly Clarkson, but that plan appears to be in a holding pattern since Darnell’s departure and a lack of someone at the top to make the final decisions, a senior executive with knowledge of the production said.
