Aging ‘Idol’s’ newest wrinkles

With the debut of Season 8 a mere 28 days away, “American Idol” producers are offering the first hints of what looks to be the biggest shake-up in its format since the show’s early seasons.

In an exclusive conversation, executive producer Ken Warwick confirmed the rumors sweeping the Internet on some of the changes afoot, knocked down a few others, urged patience on some more and gave his thoughts and insight on the entire shake-up.

Below are a few high points:

Warwick said the biggest challenge to making this season work stems from the show having been on the air for so long. “What do you change?” he asked. “If you are any good at your job, after the third season you’ve honed it as well as you know how, really. There’s the question of how do you change it up without destroying what you’ve got? In truth, the biggest problem will always be, from now on, keeping it fresh.”

He said the chemistry has been “great” with new judge Kara DioGuardi, suggesting that she provides a strong foil to Simon Cowell’s domination of the judging panel. “It’s good, because the girls can gang up on Simon a bit and he doesn’t always get his own way.”

he open auditions will run for three weeks, followed by two Hollywood Weeks, during which the big group of contestants is whittled to the semifinalists. “It was brilliant this year,” Warwick said. “It always does very well in the ratings. People love that ‘I’ve made it,’ ‘almost made,’ and ‘not quite.’ They love the emotion that is encapsulated in that part of the show.”

In perhaps the biggest concrete change, apart from the fourth judge, Warwick confirmed that 36 contestants will emerge from the second Hollywood Week going on to the semifinal rounds rather than the previous 24.

There are new twists coming both in how the contestants are winnowed in Hollywood and in the Top 36 rounds, possibly including, but not necessarily, a wild-card round. Stay tuned for more news on that front.

“There are going to be mentors, yes,” Warwick said. “There might not be as many as there have been in the past. I’m going for the best I can get. It’s a wish list at the moment, and that’s why we can’t say anything about it. If I get a third of who I’m going after, it would be great.” He also said that the mentors likely would skew slightly younger than they have in the past, but not too young. “It’s no good putting a one-hit-wonder kid that might be the hottest thing on Earth now, because what are they going to say? They are lucky enough to be there themselves.”

“Idol” will not be giving back this year. The telethon episode that has been a part of the lineup for the last two seasons will be sidelined. Warwick blamed the faltering economy, which, he said, makes it “a bit crass to ask people to delve into pockets that are already stretched to heck and back just to keep their mortgage going.” He said it also puts a strain on the crew to produce not just two weekly shows but a midseason extravaganza with “Gives Back” as well as the Super Bowl-sized spectacle of the finale. “It would be fair to say that it’s about half a dozen creative people that make ‘Idol.’ They do all the editing, all the shooting, they’ve got assistants and things, but it’s a very small creative team. When we stretch them to do an ‘Idol Gives Back’ as well as keep the mainline show on week after week, it kills us,” Warwick said.

Asked whether the tragic suicide of a former contestant had affected how the audition rounds -- where untalented contestants are routinely mocked -- would be played, Warwick denied that the events had any impact on anything viewers will see. “Not at all,” he said. “It’s already been done. It was done before, it happened while we were doing Hollywood Week, so it hasn’t affected anything that we’ve done.”

As to the rumors that this season would include more backstage footage of the contestants, Warwick said coyly, “There is going to be slightly more reality.” Pressed on whether he would include catfights and the like from the dressing room, he continued, “I’ll put it this way: If it’s there, then yes, we will show it.”

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richard.rushfield@latimes.com

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