I don't believe Adam is lying. I think he is honoring his contract. I agree that the "ups and downs" in reporting are a media manipulation. I think you have to take everything in the articles about AI with a grain of salt. Just because it's printed doesn't make it true. As I've said before, I've believed since July that Adam has the job, which means I don't think Enrique has been in the running all this time (at least not for Adam's spot).
An anonymous source can float Enrique's name without his consent (they probably used several other celebrity names in the same way). Some people deny the rumor when it isn't true, but sometimes they don't because there's usually no harm in the rumor or maybe the rumor has publicity value to them. Or maybe Enrique stayed silent because he has a relationship with Fox since working on
X Factor, or maybe we'll find out down the line that he has some other kind of project pending with the network. I think he's always just been a smokescreen, and when the smoke clears we'll find Adam at the judges' table. They're already beginning to ease Adam's name back into the conversation, but for those in the public who haven't been paying close attention, he will be a surprise reveal in this suspense saga Idol's been puppet mastering.
Idol doesn't leak all the right names early because that would undercut their official announcement and it would be an anticlimactic end to the fake drama they've engineered to keep the show in the media during the dog days of summer. Also, once all the names are known, people move on to the next story, and there would likely be a void in AI news because Idol would not have a "next story" to feed folks until judges' rounds or later. So they have to milk this story, through whatever means, until they're ready to replace it with another story.
Reporters are complicit (it serves their interests, too, to keep the story going) because they print things that they likely know aren't true. Until the end of the week, some articles were still trying to sell the possibility of Kanye joining the panel, or dredging up names that were debunked long ago. It's just a media game to ramp up interest in advance of the big announcement. How will it all turn out?! Stay tuned!
I'm sure that at some point in time Fox and the producers were debating a three- or four-person panel, or deliberating about what to do with Randy, etc. But I don't think they're doing it
now. Yet the current articles try to make it seem like it's still all up in the air, down to the wire, for drama's sake. I'm sure Nicki signed before she made the costly business decision to cancel her concerts yet articles try to make it sound as if there's still a chance her deal could fall through. And they try to create a cliffhanger by making it seem as if Coke and Pepsi are battling it out over her even though we know from the Pepsi spokesperson that they approved Nicki's involvement with the show long ago. I believe Keith Urban signed when that country blog reported he'd signed, yet some articles still try to make it seem as if he's not a done deal either 'cause if they reported that it was all actually a fait accompli then there would be nothing else to write about on that front and no new Idol-related news to take its place. Publicity black hole. Waning public interest when they probably want to keep everything on an upward trajectory between now and January.
No matter what I read, I don't believe there's real tension between Mariah and Nicki. I don't believe there are several candidates waiting in the wings to swoop into the fourth chair at the last minute. I don't believe all of the judges aren't signed. I have only believed one thing.
And I'm gonna go ahead and celebrate the new single,"Trespassing," too, even though it's not official either! Let's go!!!
With that said I would love to hear Adam sing Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah