When it was first announced that Katy Perry had scored a $25 million-dollar payday to be a judge on American Idol, many insiders were left scratching their heads. It was incredible to see a female performer making equal pay to a man, but given that Katy’s salary was half AI’s talent budget, this decision didn’t seem wise. Katy is a great concert performer but Idol is a reality competition show, the two don’t equate. The decision was publicly questioned enough that earlier this month, ABC execs issued a statement defending their investment in Katy, saying they’d “hit the jackpot” with her. A few short weeks later, those execs are supposedly singing a different tune, questioning having hired Katy in the first place. So what happened between then and now to turn ABC so sour? The MTV’s VMAs hosted by their $25 million dollar jackpot happened.
Katy Perry underwhelmed fans when she stumbled through a series of awkward moments while hosting the recent MTV Video Music Awards.
Now RadarOnline.com can exclusively reveal that behind the scenes ABC and American Idol head honchos fear they’ve made a very pricey mistake!
“They are paying her $25 million and she was a total dud [on the VMAs],” an insider explained.
“No one ever auditioned her for the new Idol job and they are freaking out that they hired someone who is terrible on live television.”
ABC wants “a more modulated and thoughtful Katy,” a source had said of the 32-year-old singer.“It’s not like they’re asking her to change her hairstyle or revise her style team, but they are asking her not to upstage the contestants the way some past judges, especially Mariah Carey, had the tendency to do.”
As CB covered in her recap, most of Katy’s problem at the VMAs was due to the writers – they gave her terrible material. Katy was simply not seasoned enough to pull it off. While watching her ‘saved as draft’ bit, Katy was unable to 1) execute the (terrible) lines with any conviction or 2) able to save the bit once it started failing. She rushed the end so much, I wondered if she cut part of it. However, just as I don’t think a good concert performer is necessarily a good award show host, I don’t think poor hosting duties means the person can’t be a perfectly fine reality show judge. Plenty of people who do a great job from behind a desk on TV have done a poor job hosting awards shows. Maybe ABC is wondering if their offer wasn’t a bit too much but I don’t think they’re panicking. Plus, Katy had a problem reading lines, wouldn’t the judges be speaking more off the cuff? Provided she stays away from commenting on mental illness, she’ll be fine. I don’t understand the whole part about wanting, “a more modulated and thoughtful Katy.” I don’t think she’ll upstage the contestants. Katy isn’t the subtlest person but she is professional.
In case you haven’t met your Daily “Ewwwww” quota yet, read on, MacDuff. Katy is being sued over a big toe. Christina Fish, who was hired as a stagehand for Katy’s Prismatic World Tour, had her toe crushed while moving a set wall. Due to ensuing injury, the toe eventually had to be amputated. Christina is suing a bunch of people but Katy is on the list because it was her tour and apparently, no one offered to call an ambulance. However, it sounds like the bulk of Christina’s distress comes from bad advice from her doctors so I don’t know why she is going after Katy. However, Kathy’s insurance will cover this so I assume that’s the motivation. If you were hoping to see your lunch once again, you can see the graphic photos of the damaged toe here.
Photo credit: WENN Photos
Randy, Paula, and Simon had that perfect chemistry and balance. Randy was all about technique, Paula was all about finding the positive but not afraid to point out the negative, and Simon would just size up the contestant and decide if they had a chance of making it. They found actual talent too, actual stars that found success in the business. No other group of judges on any show has actually found any talent.
It seems like these big deals always turn out to be the beginning of the end of popularity. Celebs only score them when they’re mega-stars and usually that’s when people start to tire of them.
^Truth. Katy’s turn as a pop star fizzled out with her last album. I can’t think of one singer/dancer/whatever who went on as an AI judge for a career boost.
Yeah, I think Katy’s coming up to her expiration date. She’s just too old to be bopping around singing pop songs with her boobs hanging out, and I don’t think she has the chops to go full on adult with her music. Her hair looks like crap, and her album is a flop, and I think people are just ready for the next thing. Same thing happened to Gaga a few years ago.
Say what you want but I will always have mad respect for any woman who manages to score a $25 million pay check.
Yes. Go Katy! Also, she’s written her own stuff as much as the rest of them (co written) and been super successful in the industry, so unless she’s completely daft, she has advice to offer people.
I totally would if she was worth it. If it turns out to be a good investment, that she earns, then it’s a positive. Unfortunately I don’t believe it’s going to pay off AT ALL and will therefore hurt future salary negotiations for women. As an individual, yeah, Katy’s getting her paycheck. But the big picture is going to suffer for it.
American Idol is still on?
What on earth could her advice even be?
“Have big boobs, sing faux-lesbian songs for attention, make sure they auto-tune the f*** out of you” doesn’t really seem like great advise to break into the industry.
Katy Perry sounds terrible live. Katy Perry has good people Auto-Tunning her voice and sounds presentable in that respect. She’s terrible live in any capacity. The 25 million was wasted.
They should give that money to Xtina and let her be herself -> bitchy diva. We all know that she is a natural born version os Simon C. People would love that.
I watched part of the VMA’s and Katy was terrible. It wasn’t just the bad lines. Something about her is incredibly annoying. I can’t put my finger on it. I feel like she’s a follower not a trendsetter. Cutting her hair and dyeing it blond is an example. My husband called her an Ellen Degeneres wanna bee and i think there’s some truth to it.
For me, it’s that she tries way too hard. Look! She’s so wacky! She’s so woke! She’s got that Hiddleston/Hathaway theatre kid vibe, but in a different flavour.
Who looked at the toe?
I looked. The toe follows the same course as frostbite; clearly the vascular damage was irreversible. I’m not sure why the doctor left it to die like that. It could easily have become gangrenous and life-threatening.
She seems like an absolute mess lately. Tacky and derivative and stale.