'American Idol' season 13: Keith Urban praises Harry Connick Jr., talks Nicole Kidman 'texts'

If there is one single reason why we're thrilled to have Keith Urban back as a judge next season, you really get a sense of it courtesy of the video below on "Ellen": He is a very funny guy, and that does not always stand out when you surround him with people that hate each other. (See: Nicki Minaj or Mariah Carey.)



The first thing that Ellen and Keith clearly have to talk about is the experience judging on the show and dealing with that schedule; while the talk-show host never had to go out to the various cities like Keith has thanks to when she joined season 9, she did at least learn a little bit about the community and how production works behind the scenes. We personally find it pretty hilarious how Keith mentions here that Harry Connick Jr., rather than calling people "pitchy" in his critiques, chooses to really pinpoint one or two things that need to be worked on. He seems like a real judge, and someone who cares about trying to make people better.




As a longtime viewer, we can't help but celebrate this. We don't care if a judge has a ton of #1 singles out right now or is getting paid more than $10 million to be there; we just care if they are savvy enough to offer up some real feedback on the performances, help to keep things entertaining for us, and act like they give a you-know-what to be there. With the panel that is in place, we really feel like all three will act awake during the live shows. We don't know if they are going to bring in viewers right away, but they may actually be able to keep them week to week. The depressing part of the show earlier this year was watching the viewing figures slowly sink like a stone into the ground, especially considering that it was almost three years ago when this show was still a monster hit.



In case you missed the big changes announced earlier this week, ; while this is not the first time that Fox has claimed to be going in this direction, we actually do believe that they are going to stick with this plan rather than going back on it in order to keep people enjoying the show and not constantly bored.



As a bonus, the video below also talks about Keith getting a certain sort of text message from wife Nicole Kidmanjust because you really needed that much information.
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