A lot has happened with American Idol over the last seven months. Most if it, in my opinion, has been good news. But seeing as I didn’t have a voice to talk about this stuff when it happened, I decided a recap of some of the major bits of show news was in order.

The first bit of major news to come out of American Idol during the off-season was that Nigel Lythgoe was returning to the show. This news was greeted with a loud roar of approval from AI fans, most of whom believe the show lost its way after he left at the end of Season 7. I would be one of those people.

After Nigel left, a fourth judge was brought on the show. And although I liked Kara DioGuardi (was I the only one who did?), there was absolutely no reason to add her. Having four judges completely ruined the flow of the show. It also took too much time away from the contestants, time that could have been better spent in longer songs or longer pre-performance videos. In addition to a fourth judge, Nigel never would have allowed Ellen DeGeneres to become a judge. He would have known that she would not have been a good fit and would make the show a laughing-stock (if only her jokes had been funny enough to laugh with her instead of at her).

Which leads us to the second bit of major news to come during the off-season. Nigel made it clear from the moment he was rumored to be coming back that the four-judge set-up was history. We also suspected that Nigel’s return would mark the end of both Kara and Ellen’s Idol tenures. This happened almost immediately as Ellen announced she had decided to quit and Kara announced that her year-to-year contract was not being renewed.

The third bit of news is another one that I, and a lot of others, were extremely happy to hear: Clive Davis and Arista were out; Universal Music Group were in. There is no question that Clive and the folks over at Arista helped guide several Idol contestants to stardom. But over the last few years, they have been seen as a joke to many fans. The initial albums signed contestants were releasing had long ago stopped being tailored to fit the contestant. Instead, they were forced to put out generic music that reflected little of the artist themselves.

For years Arista has given fans the impression that they only cared about cashing in on the fame of the latest crop of contestants. If the company didn’t feel like an artist would make them the money they wanted, they would only provide said artist with the minimal amount of support required by the contract (I’m looking directly at Taylor Hicks and Kris Allen on this one, though there have been others).

The good news of the record label switch came with this bit of bonus good news: The “celebrity of the week” mentor is gone. In its place is Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records (a subsidiary of Universal). Jimmy and his team will coach the contestants beginning the week after Hollywood all the way through the finale. This should not only provide the contestants with a higher quality of mentoring, but should also give the label a better idea of what kind of sound a contestant should have for their first album. At the very least, we’ll know that they care about the contestants.

The last bit of news I’ll talk about today is the judges, a story that took over four months to unfold. Of course, we know now that Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez have joined Randy Jackson at the judges’ table. But prior to that announcement, just about every name in the music world today was tossed around in the news at least once.

Some of the rumors, I thought, were good ones. Harry Connick, Jr. was rumored to be in the running several times. He might have been the hands-on favorite of Idol fans because of how well he did with his mentoring last season. I would have loved to see him get the job simply because it would have driven Sir Darryl nuts (and you think MY forehead vein throbs). Shania Twain was another one that appeared to have the support of fans.

Some of the rumors had to have been the product of some reporter who had writer’s block five minutes before deadline. Jessica Simpson was one such rumor. As much damage as Ellen did to the credibility of the judges’ table last season, there was no way Nigel was going to let Jessica anywhere near the panel.

And don’t even get me started about Justin Timberlake being rumored for the panel. I just had dinner and don’t care to taste it again.

Elton John reportedly was offered a spot, but he turned it down. That doesn’t surprise me since he called Idol viewers “racists” back in Season 3 (Elton John: ‘American Idol’ Is Racist). He made his disdain for the show, and its singers, very clear again after he turned the show down (Elton John: ‘American Idol’ Is Boring, Brain Crippling). Just as well he didn’t take the job. He would have spent more time insulting the viewers than critiquing the contestants.

I think that’s enough news to digest for today. Over the next couple of weeks I will talk about some of the other known changes we will see in Season 10 of American Idol. Until then, leave your thoughts about the above off-season news items in the comments below. And don’t forget to share the story with your friends by clicking the Facebook Share button at the top or bottom of the post or through one of the other services shown below.