Nicki Minaj & Mariah Carey’s Beef Leads to Low Ratings for ‘American Idol’

By: Taren Vaughan

Is the Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey feud causing American Idol ratings to drop? Before the airing of this season of popular talent show American Idol, viewers were informed about the changes that were being made to the judging panel as Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj were two of the new faces that were being added to it. Nicki Minaj landing the job, which she was a little reluctant about accepting at first, was said to be an unpleasant shock to Mariah as it was said that the legendary singer was under the impression that she would be the only female judge on the panel. And the talk of a Nicki Minaj-Mariah Carey beef soon surfaced because of it. Hearing about the supposed beef that they had going on, both Nicki and Mariah laughed off the rumors but turned right around and fueled them again after they got into a profanity laced spat on set. And according to Mariah and others who were in earshot of the whole blowup, Nicki was doing a lot more than cursing as she was accused of threatening to shoot Mariah, making Nicki look like she was officially off her rocker. Nicki found the claims to be ridiculous and she went after Mariah Carey again over the accusations and fired some more shots at Mariah in one of her songs.

Even though the Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey feuding has been captured on film for all too see, many people are not buying it as a real beef and think that it is all just a publicity stunt and a way to boost the show’s ratings. With all the doubt that people have about it, the two artists assured that there is nothing fake about the issues that they have with each other. Turns out though, all the bickering and name calling that Nicki and Mariah are doing is causing the show’s ratings to drop significantly.

Here’s what was revealed to E! News from a source over at Fox:

Lesson of the day: Two divas don’t make a right.

Despite throwing buckets of cash at new judges Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban, American Idol continued its ratings decline last night, with the season premiere clocking in a full 19 percent lower than last season’s premiere and 17.8 million viewers tuning in.

So what went wrong?

The widely reported Nicki and Mariah feud may be at least partly to blame.

While it’s also true that Idol is an aging entity and viewers may be suffering reality-competition fatigue (thanks to X Factor and The Voice), insiders who work on the show say they believe the bickering between Nicki and Mariah also may have turned off fans.

“People wonder if the fight was faked to get people talking about the new season,” one insider at Fox tells E! News. “It was not fake. And when the video came out, there was a lot of concern among Fox execs that there could be impact on the ratings. The judges need to be likable.”

The initial thought may have been that adding Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey would be a sure-fire way to get people to tune into the show and that their feuding would be an extra source of entertainment for viewers of the show. But it looks like the viewers would rather see the talent than watch Nicki and Mariah go back and forth with each other.