Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler is hinting at his new role as the man to replace Simon Cowell as a judge on American Idol.
"I'm doing it," Tyler told People magazine after a concert Saturday in Las Vegas. "What do you think? I'm doing it."
But the 62-year-old singer stopped short of drawing the line, saying his future plans include "recording an album and [I'm] probably going to be a judge on 'American Idol.'"
The popular show is undergoing major changes as it enters its tenth season. The search began for a new judge on the panel when iconic judge Simon Cowell quit last season after spending nine years on the panel. While the list of possible replacements for Cowell spanned from Justin Timberlake to Courtney Love, another opening cropped up when Ellen DeGeneres announced last week that she would not be returning for another season.
"I love discovering, supporting, and nurturing young talent, it was hard for me to judge people and sometimes hurt their feelings," DeGeneres wrote in a statement explaining why she left the show.
Jennifer Lopez is reportedly close to signing on to replace DeGeneres. While Fox has neither confirmed nor denied her addition, The Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday that Lopez was in the process of working out an agreement with Fox.
The shakeup continued when Kara DioGuardi's year-to-year contract was said to have not been renewed. Fox is also reportedly weighing whether to bring back former "Idol" executive Nigel Lythgoe, who has suggested starting over with an entirely new group of judges.
On Monday, Fox chairman Peter Rice said that execs still planned to keep the same number of panelists. But "no one has signed a deal yet," he said, HitFix reported.
"There are no signed deals with anybody," he said. "There has been tremendous speculation... I can tell you that much of the information that has been written is accurate and some of the information is wildly inaccurate."
For now, Tyler is still on stage and not behind the judges' table, quipping during Saturday's concert, "The rumors are true... I'm pregnant with [guitarist] Joe Perry's baby," he joked.
Auditions for the new season that starts in January are currently in progress.
I was asked to write a story for NBC's Entertainment section today. I was excited to get experience writing for more sections on the site and to get published in more cities. The story ran nationally on all the NBC local media sites. I'm so excited!! I'm including links to the published story from each of the markets it appeared in, even though they're all the same story.
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