American Idol Season 7: Some changes in the works

AMY B asked that I dig up some Idol scoopage....and here's what I found.

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November 5, 2007 -- THE "Idol" express is pulling into Hollywood station.
The next edition of "American Idol" doesn't start until January - but the Hollywood phase of the show, where scores of hopefuls are narrowed down to 24 semi-finalists, is about to begin and a new season is officially underway.
Several changes are in the works, officials say, including:
* changing the format to let singers show other musical talents, such as guitar playing.
* many fewer "mentors," those established musical stars like Diana Ross and Tony Bennett, who appeared every week last season and took attention away from the contestants.
* and next summer, the annual "Idol" live tour may be combined with the "So You Think You Can Dance" tour - to create a show with both singing and dancing.
"We're bringing about 160 people back to Hollywood at the end of this month," says "Idol" executive producer Nigel Lythgoe.
"We'll bring everyone there, and the judges will spend four days with them and bring the list down to the top 24 contestants - 12 boys and 12 girls."
The seven-city audition tour ended late last month with a few standouts, Lythgoe says.
"There are one or two that stand out - there are three girls who are superb, including one girl we saw three years ago who wasn't an American citizen [and is now] and we're happy to have her this year," he says.
"And we've got one or two guys who are really good."
Lythgoe is busy producing his latest Fox show, "The Next Great American Band," now and hasn't seen much "Idol" audition footage yet.
"I'm literally going into the edit suite [this] week," he says.
The Hollywood phase of the show will include something different this year. "We knew Chris Daughtry, Carrie [Underwood] and Bo [Bice] could play the guitar but we really couldn't show it," he says. "If [the contestants] can play an instrument this year we want to be able to see that, and we'll introduce a couple of days of that during Hollywood week."
Lythgoe says he's not sure if this idea will be carried over to the "Idol" competition when its seventh season kicks off in late January.
"We'll make a decision when we see how many really talented people we have," he says.
The element of the show that Lythgoe is sure will change, however, is the use of show-biz giants as "mentors" each week.
"We did make something of a mistake with 'Idol' by focusing so much on the mentors," Lythgoe says.
"We got such good mentors [last season] that we forgot about . . . getting across who these kids were, their backgrounds and families," Lythoe says.
"There are legends in our business that hopefully will come along as mentors on 'Idol' this season - but not every single week," he says.
"I want to know about the kids, what makes them tick, what got them singing."
Lythgoe says he'd also like to see the "Idol" and "Dance" touring companies combined into one unit.
"I'd love to see the 'Dance' tour go out with the 'Idol' tour and put the singing and dancing together," he says. "They should never be separate.
"I'd like to see that happen."

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So there you have it....some Idol Scoop...dedicated to AmyB. What does everyone think about the addition of instruments?

Coley