American Idol (season 14) talent. Some of these changes came in response to the falling popularity and viewership of "Idol" in comparison to NBC's competing series "The Voice"; viewership of the thirteenth season had fallen by 27%. Former judge Randy Jackson, who served as a mentor on the previous season, left the show and was succeeded by Big Machine Records founder Scott Borchetta. In May 2014, Ryan Seacrest signed a two-year extension to remain host of "Idol" through 2016, which would be the show's final season. Long-time sponsor Coca-Cola ended its relationship with the series, and the Ford Motor Company maintained a reduced role.
Judge Jackson Judge Jackson Judge J. Jackson (March 12, 1883, Montgomery County, Alabama - April 7, 1958, Ozark, Alabama) was an American sacred harp composer, songwriter, and educator. His 1934 publication "The Colored Sacred Harp" was later recognized by scholars such as Doris Dyen and "New Grove" writer Joe Dan Boyd as an important document of early twentieth-century shape note singing practice. Jackson was raised in a family of sharecroppers and obtained little formal education as a child. When he was sixteen years old, he left home and took work as a farmhand in Dale County, Alabama, where he settled and eventually