Despite recent rumours, American Idol bosses are insisting that Paula Abdul’s position as a judge on the show is completely safe, thought they do plan to shake the show up in other ways.

“There’s never been any discussion that we would want to get rid of Paula,” the show’s executive producer, Ken Warwick, revealed to reporters in a conference call.

“She’s one of the foundation blocks of this series. And I certainly wouldn’t want to lose her, and I don’t honestly think America would want to lose her either. She keeps Simon (Cowell) well in control, which is worth its weight in gold.”

He added: “America loves Paula. She’s an integral part of this programme. And as far as I’m concerned, I hope she’s there till the day it comes off the air.”

Thie new season will see the entrance of new judge Kara DioGuardi. Other changes include the return of the wildcard system, extending Hollywood week to two weeks and having 36 semi-finalists instead of the usual 24.

“Wherever we can, we want to change things up a little bit,” Ken said.

“There were no panic changes. It wasn’t, ‘Oh my God, we’re down seven percent. We’ve got to change the whole show’. This show wouldn’t have been on TV for eight years if it wasn’t doing it right.

He added: “We are tweaking it around, trying to make it a bit more interesting. Some things will work; some things won’t.”