Idol Chatter & Voice Views

If you enjoyed the dysfunctional judging panel on American Idol Season 12 … well, things are likely to be a bit different in Season 13.

Harry Connick Jr., the new kid on Idol’s judging block, took time Thursday to talk to the media about the new year of Idol.

Harry Connick Jr. at American Idol auditions in Austin, Texas, earlier this year. (FOX Photo)

And Harry went out of his way to praise the abilities of his judging colleagues, Jennifer Lopez and Keith Urban.

Keith is the lone holdover from Season 12 marked by fleeing viewers and the show’s first female winner since Season 6.

Idol parted ways with Nicki Minaj and the judging disaster known as Mariah Carey and brought back Jennifer after a one-year absence.

“I really love being up there with them,” Harry said of Keith and Jennifer. “They’ve extremely bright people, highly successful, have very strong work ethics and very strong convictions about what they do.”

He called Season 13 “a new day for this great show,” noting Idol has a new director and new producers and saying contestant should benefit from the lessons taught by Randy Jackson, who is switching from judge to Idol’s in-house mentor.

“We’re just having a ball,” Harry said. “I could tell from the first audition that this was going to be fun. I mean, this isn’t rocket science. We were brought on to judge. And these contestants signed up to be judged.”

As for those contestants, Harry predicts a strong group of Idol guys, something the show certainly lacked in Season 12.

“There’s some crazy guy talent,” he said. “There’s some great women, too. It’s hard to say if it’s a 50-50 split. We certainly would never try to reach some kind of quota. That would be biased, I think. We just respond to the people we see. I think it’s about even (in the number of talented girls versus guys).”

Harry said he and his wife have watched Idol since Season 1. And his wife occasionally commented that it would be great to see him as a judge on the show.

“When it finally happened, she was delighted.”