Mariah Carey is the highest paid judge out of all the competition shows!

American Idol officially signed on their first judge! Mariah Carey signed a sweet $18mil deal to join the show, making her the highest paid celebrity judge on television. She released a statement saying, “I’m so excited to be joining ‘Idol’ . . . I can’t wait to get started in a couple months. It’s going to be fun and rewarding to help find new talent and give back.”

Fox is ecstatic about their new addition. They gloated that Mariah is the biggest recording artist that any of the competition shows have ever had. And since Randy Jackson had such a big hand in bringing Mariah in (he’s her manager), he might actually get to stick around as a judge and not just a mentor.

Idol is making some other changes too. This year, they are allowing family and friends to nominate an unknowing potential candidate. If that person is picked, the camera crews will show up to their house to surprise them. They are also launching a ‘Small Town Audition Bus Tour’ that will go to 10 towns to find singers who can’t make the trip out to one of the major audition cities.

But those aren’t exactly original ideas. CW is launching a show next month called ‘The Next’ where Joe Jonas, Nelly, Gloria Estefan and John Rich go to small towns to find some undiscovered talent. And VH1 is developing a singing competition where people can secretly nominate contestants that they think can be a star.