New American Idol Mentor – Bobby Bones
Bobby Bones will appear on the upcoming season of the re-tooled American Idol. The popular country music radio personality broke the news on Wednesday morning (Feb. 21) live during his morning radio show, and shared it via social media immediately afterward.
Bones will serve as a mentor to the top 24 contestants on the new season of the iconic reality singing competition, which is returning to television on ABC just a year after it was canceled by Fox.
The new season of American Idol premieres with two episodes airing on Sunday, March 11, at 8PM ET and Monday, March 12 at 8PM ET. Idol will air opposite longtime rival The Voice on Monday nights this season, with Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie serving as judges. Longtime host Ryan Seacrest has returned to American Idol for its new season, which will steer its focus away from the laughably bad auditions that used to be such a large part of the early part of the season.
Showrunner Trish Kinane told reporters that the show’s new season will deliberately avoid that kind of cheap sensationalism, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
“It doesn’t feel comfortable to put borderline unstable people up on stage and laugh at them,” Kinane says.
By Sterling Whitaker | Taste of Country