“American Idol” executive producer Cecile Frot-Coutaz said News Corp.’s departing COO and President, Peter Chernin, is “a big part of the show,” Broadcasting & Cable reports. “He understands the show [Idol] in terms of what works, he understands the need to protect it and he was there from the beginning,” Frot-Coutaz told the trade paper.
—Aimee Picchi