Nigel Lythgoe — Leaving American Idol!

Monday, August 4, 2008, 07:45 PM | American Idol 8

It’s confirmed, from the Hollywood Reporter:

[quote] Executive producer Nigel Lythgoe is leaving the most popular show on television, Fox’s “American Idol.”

Confirming online reports, “Idol” production company 19 Entertainment, where Lythgoe serves as president, released a statement Monday announcing Lythgoe was stepping down from his duties on the show.

“Due to the huge success of ‘So You Think You Can Dance,’ my summer will be taken up by travels to South Africa, Australia and Canada to work on local versions of the show,” Lythgoe said. “I will step back from my day-to-day producing work on ‘American Idol’ and will be devoting my time to a new venture with Simon Fuller.”

19 Entertainment denied “online rumors” that Lythgoe was leaving the company. “Contrary to online rumors, producer Nigel Lythgoe is not leaving 19 Entertainment,” the statement said. Lythgoe will also continue to executive produce Fox’s summer hit “Dance,” which was recently renewed for a fifth season.

Despite the statement, Lythgoe’s future with 19 is far from clear. Lythgoe still holds his president title at 19, but the company confirmed he is negotiating a new joint venture with 19’s chief executive and fellow “Idol” executive producer Fuller. The company will continue producing “Idol” due to Fuller’s association with the show, but whether Lythgoe retains his producer credit has not yet been determined. [/quote]

Nooooo! Nigel, don’t gooooo!!!

14 Comments for Nigel Lythgoe — Leaving American Idol!

1

Do you think the show will change noticeably with Lithgoe gone?

jharris on August 4, 2008 at 7:56 pm
2

That really clears nothing up.

brooklyngal on August 4, 2008 at 8:19 pm
3

Oh no is he really going to pull a Brian Dunkleman?

sabby_rina on August 4, 2008 at 8:43 pm
4

I have celebrated prematurely. And I hate it specially when it comes from me. Nigel Lythgoe as president of 19 Entertainment will still call the shots. I take back my celebratory Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I’m sorry Handel.

Noel on August 4, 2008 at 8:49 pm
5

This is great! The show could stand to be updated. Maybe they can bring in the Project Runway producers to spice things up and make it more current. Hopefully this will mean the end of old geezer theme nights! woot!

AngelFire on August 4, 2008 at 10:37 pm
6

What I can do without in AI
1 Crappy theme nights.
2 the obvious produces manipulation tactics,

farfaraway on August 5, 2008 at 12:03 am
7

sorry just saw the post on not in,

farfaraway on August 5, 2008 at 12:04 am
8

Yes it is time for Nigel to step down. How could he ever top this?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=E3Kz6TN_pUI&feature=related

lotus on August 5, 2008 at 12:52 am
9

Lotus – Bwahahahahahahahaha. Thanks for that.

Nigel – Ciao.

Natalia on August 5, 2008 at 2:01 am
10

Nigel eats puppies and kittens and children for dinner. I won’t miss him in the least. Frankly, none of this matters to me one iota. I’m done with Idol and all its circus anyway. It can sink in a swamp for all I care.

houstonrufus on August 5, 2008 at 2:02 am
11

Good friggin’ riddance! Maybe theme nights can move into the 90’s at least. (Not that I’m going to be watching either.) Go manipulate some other country’s viewers.

newangel on August 5, 2008 at 3:42 am
12

Or should I say, some other country’s contestants…

newangel on August 5, 2008 at 3:43 am
13

Oh thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. The answer to my prayers.

Scout1971 on August 5, 2008 at 9:10 am
14

I think it’s great that Nigel is leaving. American Idol is changed this year anyway. First they allowed artists to play musical instruments and that was a big plus. Actually, American Idol will never be the same as now everyone has to do better than David Cook who rocked it on his electric guitar, played his acoustic guitar, re-arranged songs routinely and didn’t do the karaoke thing and broke all kinds of records by having 11 songs just 4 days after the finale hit the Billboard Top 100 – a feat only topped by the Beatles in 1964 and he charted 14 on Billboard at the same time. No other Idol accomplished that ever. I feel bad for the new set of contestants because it will be harder for them and they can’t do the same stuff that worked in the past. This year on tour, they also changed it because runner-ups only did one single (and got paid for the number of songs they did) and stupid group songs. This year everyone got to do a mini-concert to showcase their talent.

New blood is good and new ideas. I just hope that they cut out all the cheese and allow the contestants to sing the complete song instead of just 2 minutes or less. Who the heck needs all those stupid fillers and group dance crap.

reinharv on August 5, 2008 at 8:07 pm