Everyone was counting on a torrent of "American Idol" news at the Fox presentation at TCA on Monday.
Instead, the packed room of TV journalists got a whole lot of "Glee" season two, an update on the now-delayed Steven Speilberg sci-fi drama "Terra Nova," and a briefing on the network's post-Conan late-night plan (there apparently isn't one).
As for "Idol," there would be no news on the No. 1 show on television. If Fox is to be believed, we'll have to wait a number of weeks for that.
Anticipation had built for official confirmation that Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez would be signed as "Idol" judges, and that Kara DioGuardi would be departing ... and that Nigel Lythgoe would be returning as an executive producer.
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But the press ended up getting absolutely nothing from Peter Rice, chairman, entertainment, Fox Networks Group, and Kevin Reilly, president of entertainment, Fox Broadcasting Company.
“No deals have been signed by anybody,” Rice said.
“The only thing I can tell you with absolute certainty is not one has been signed to a deal on or on the other side of the camera to be on ‘American Idol’ next year who wasn’t’ on it last year,” Rice said. “No deals have been signed by anybody.”
Well then, what might the judging panel look like? How are the talks with Lopez and Tyler going? Will they end up with four judges or three?
Nada.
“I’d love to live in a fishbowl and offer a blow-by-blow account of who might be casted,” offered the polite but firm Rice. “But no matter how much fun that would be for your readers, I’m not going to get into that speculation.”
Talking in broad generalities about the need to recreate the "alchemy" that, until last season, made "Idol" such an irresistible ratings force, Rice and Reilly conceded that there is a natural deadline to judging announcements.
Mass auditions are currently underway, and preliminary talent rounds are set to tape starting in mid-September.
"We'll announce everything at that time," Rice said. "Unfortunately, we're just not going to be able to announce anything in the time frame of TCA."
The Fox execs were much more loquacious about their new ambitious Spielberg-produced sci-fi drama “Terra Nova,” explaining their rationale for pushing the family-adventure show back to mid-season.
Although much of the pre-historic backdrop will be created digitally, locations are still being shopped, said Reilly, while noting that Fox wanted more time to market the show.
“Not only do we want to do the pilot right, but on the marketing side, we want to create the same thing we did for ‘Glee,” he said. “We want a chance to give everyone materials over the summer and hopefully get them invested.”
Speaking to reporters after the session, Reilly added that Spielberg has been amply involved in "Terra Nova's" development.
"He's in town and he's been around and very engaged," Reilly said.
