Lopez, out. Carey, in.

One pop diva will replace another on American Idol next season as Mariah Carey said Monday she's signed on as a judge. The deal was announced with show biz flair at the Television Critics Association summer tour in Beverly Hills during comments by Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly about the exodus of Idol judges.

Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez have both quit, and Randy Jackson is said to be on the bubble. "We do, in fact, have one judge whose deal closed very, very recently," Reilly told reporters at the Beverly Hilton. "It's an artist that many contestants have tried to emulate, have tried to have sung the songs, have tried to hit the notes and because it really was concluded only hours ago, our judge couldn't be with us."

He then put a phone call on speaker phone, and Carey's voice could be heard. "I am so excited to be joining Idol," she said. "First of all, I wanted to be there today and I wish I could've been there to tell you, but I think you know this all kind of just happened real quickly, so I can't wait to get started in a couple months."

滬江娛樂快訊：在史密斯飛船樂隊(duì)主唱史蒂芬·泰勒和42歲的拉丁天后詹妮弗·洛佩茲先后宣布不再擔(dān)任《美國(guó)偶像》的評(píng)委后，人們對(duì)接班人選一直有諸多猜測(cè)，如今，有一位重磅候選人已經(jīng)確定：美國(guó)樂壇流行天后瑪麗亞·凱莉?qū)⒁?800萬美元的薪酬成為新一屆美偶評(píng)委！

1800美元/年，這個(gè)驚人的數(shù)字將創(chuàng)下電視音樂競(jìng)賽類真人秀歷史上評(píng)審薪酬的新高。相比較之下，克里斯蒂娜·阿奎萊拉將在第3季的《美國(guó)之聲》拿到1000萬美元；J.Lo去年的合同為1200萬美元；而成為《X達(dá)人秀》評(píng)審的布蘭妮·斯皮爾斯的合同則為1500萬美元。

這位五次格萊美獎(jiǎng)得主最近正在工作室準(zhǔn)備新專輯并錄制產(chǎn)后復(fù)出的首支單曲“Triumphant”，將于下個(gè)月初推出，她表示，《美偶》的工作能讓她充滿創(chuàng)作的靈感。凱麗在自己的推特上說道：“能在《美國(guó)偶像》工作，一定能得到非常多的樂趣。作為一名歌手和寫歌的人，我非常興奮能夠幫助選手找到并支持他們的才能。愛你們更多--MC?！?