Jennifer Lopez an 'American Idol' Judge, According to TMZ

American Idol judge Jennifer Lopez will be her title after all. Jennifer Lopez is about to become an American Idol judge, according to website TMZ. TMZ is reporting that a deal between Lopez and American Idol is imminent, and that the parties are in the final stages of negotiations to get this done. After more than a month of speculation about whether or not Lopez would be joining American Idol, we may finally get that answer within the next couple of days. If TMZ has this story right, then we may actually get a real answer out of Fox as to what is going on here.

After taking some time off away from the entertainment industry to focus on getting a family started, Lopez burst back on to the scene with a new movie (The Back-Up Plan) and a new album that has her as a member of the pop-machine once again. For the normal standards that we have expected from Lopez movies, The Back-Up Plan didn't find as much success as producers would have hoped. The film only made $37.5 million in the United States and another $39.7 million in the foreign box office. The film will turn a profit on a production budget of just $35 million, but it wasn't a great showing for a last spring premiere.

Now, though, it appears that Lopez is about to make the huge jump back into television, where she once performed as a dancer on In Living Color. This job will probably pay her more in one day than she earned her entire time on the hit Fox show, but it's unclear just how much she will make from Idol producers at this time. That could have been one of the sticking points that has taken so long to address in these negotiations, but it also could have been Lopez trying to ensure that she would get to perform a number at least once during the season.

There are a couple of ways to look at Lopez joining American Idol, but it has to begin with the producers hoping she can breathe new life into the show. There are some viewers who won't be very accepting of her heavily-produced music, and the fact that she doesn't have the strongest of singing voices. Those would be the same complaints that Paula Abdul had to deal with, but she turned out pretty good for the show. Can Lopez duplicate the magic that Abdul was able to create during her time on the show? This could be something to draw in new viewers, but at the same time, it could possibly cost the show some of its audience.

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