Idols, You’ll Have to Pass Through Her

ONE day after Christmas and 18 days before her life was to take a turn toward the absurd, Kara DioGuardi was here, in her cozy two-story vacation home that overlooks the harbor, sipping red wine and reassuring herself that life could always be this calm.

“Here I am,” she said, sighing between stretches of self-analysis, “being scrutinized again.”

About 15 years ago this New Rochelle, N.Y., native moved to New York City after college and tried to make it as a rock star, taking the usual knocks along the way: “I should lose five pounds, my nose is too big, you’re not black enough, you’re not white enough: those were actual comments,” she said. So instead she found her way as a songwriter, becoming one of the more successful and ubiquitous pop engines in recent memory, responsible for hits by Celine Dion, Pink, Kelly Clarkson and Christina Aguilera. Behind the scenes had become home, and she was fine with that.

But Ms. DioGuardi, 38, will have to get comfortable under the pop microscope. Feisty, heartfelt and outspoken, she is the new judge on “American Idol,” whose eighth season begins Tuesday on Fox. She will be the most evident disruption to the show’s familiar structure since its 2002 inception.

“I’m not going into this thinking everyone’s going to love me,” she said with a touch of hesitation, “but they can’ttake away what I’ve done.”

By this point in the evening Ms. DioGuardi’s Chihuahua, Tiki, had given up barking and taken a soft spot on the couch; the view outside the living room’s picture window revealed the harbor at low tide, a black plateau of silt.

It won’t be this quiet for some time. And it’s a particularly tough moment to be injected into “Idol.” Last season’s two-night premiere averaged 33.3 million viewers, the fewest of any “Idol” premiere since the fourth season. Ratings for 2008 were down 6 percent from the previous season, according to Fox, though “Idol” remained the highest-rated series on network television.

As a result Fox and 19 Entertainment, the show’s producers, have made a few changes. More emphasis will be placed on the emotional arcs of the contestants, a feature that had been marginalized in recent years. As in the first few seasons there will be 36 semifinalists instead of 24, with judge-selected wild cards making it into the final 12. But the shift that will make the biggest impact will be the insertion of Ms. DioGuardi between Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul at the judges’ table.

“We needed someone who would be credible musically,” said Mike Darnell, president of alternative entertainment for Fox. Several people were considered before Ms. DioGuardi was chosen, just days before auditions began in August, he said. “It doesn’t hurt that she’s very attractive. We wanted someone who would argue when necessary, a voice that would stir it up, and she’s done that.”

for more information:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/arts/television/11cara.html