“AI” judge Kara DioGuardi used to read comments made online and elsewhere about her work on the show. Then she stopped. “It was so destructive,” she says. “You have to believe in your heart you did the best you could do.” She was added to the judging panel last year, and the negative comments started immediately. At the same time, because “Idol” had added a fourth judge, there was a challenge at times fitting everything on the show.

Kara also got tagged as the person producers brought on to push Paula Abdul out. “The fact that they brought me back means somebody saw something good,” she says the show can go on without Simon Cowell, who is leaving after this season. “It would never be the same without him,” says DioGuardi, who will also be judging a Folgers coffee-jingle contest (www.bestpartofwakinup.com.). “It’s a powerful show. It’s about helping people realize their dreams.”