Fox Execs Remain Tight-Lipped About ‘American Idol’ Season 10 Judges

Fox had its much anticipated Television Critics press conference today, but there really wasn’t much news to report. Neither of Fox’s bigwig execs Peter Rice and Kevin Reilly would comment on the fate of Kara DioGuardi or Randy Jackson, nor would they speculate on who would be joining the show. Um, why did you have a press conference again? The very, very few details we know about Season 10 below:

“Much of the information [reported] has been accurate, and some of it has been wildly inaccurate,” Rice told reporters. “The only thing I can tell you with absolute certainty right now is that no one has signed a deal yet on either side of the camera to join American Idol next year that wasn’t on it last year. There are no signed deals with anybody.”

What Rice and Reilly did reveal was that they really don’t care what you think about Jennifer Lopez or Steven Tyler, or any of the possible candidates for the judges’ panel. As reported by New York magazine, the network will not be focus-grouping potential judges, nor will they be testing any of the candidates’ chemistry together by having them meet and mingle before signing contracts. “You can’t construct any method to test that,” he said.

The one thing we do know? “Every person we’ve approached … has a music-industry background.” So that rules Howard Stern out once and for all. Whew.

Randy Jackson was slightly more forthcoming with information when talking with E! News today at the 2010 Farmers Classic tennis tournament. “The only thing that’s for sure is Ryan [Seacrest],” Jackson said. “Nothing has been decided.”

Randy didn’t comment on the possibility of Steven Tyler joining the panel—although Steven himself says he’s “probably” going to join the show—but Jackson did confess his love for J-Lo. “If Jennifer Lopez is a judge I would be very happy.”