Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj’s Riff,Nick Cannon Defends Mariah

So it seems as though there really is a lot of drama that has been going on behind the scenes lately during the American Idol auditions. Last night, a video leaked to the net that showed Nicki Minaj cursing out Mariah Carey while filming Idol auditions in Charlotte, and it seemed like a perfect set up for a publicity stunt.

But would American Idol really go that far for ratings?

After the video made it’s way on to the web, her hair stylist and wig creator, Terrence Davidson took to his facebook to let folks know that they’ve only seen a small portion of what really goes on behind the scenes:

LET ME TELL YALL SOMETHING. STOP HITTING ME ABOUT WHAT HAPPEND! AT THE END OF THE DAY IT IS WHAT IT IS AND IF U WASNT THERE SAVE UR SPEECH. U ONLY SAW 1 MIN OF THIS COMPARED TO WHAT I SEE AND HEAR ON SET SO BE CAREFUL HOW U JUMP LIKE A FROG ON THE WRONG LILY PAD! AND U CAN CURSE ME OUT ALL DAY CUS WHAT!!! I DONT KNOW U ANYWAY

Meanwhile, Nick Cannon was a guest on Access Hollywood Live early this morning and he said that even though he was proud of Mariah for being classy and keeping her composure, he feels as though the cat fights are taking away from the quality of the show.

When you think about what the show is actually about and represents…I feel like it’s taking away from the quality of what ‘Idol’ is all about. This is about people accomplishing their dreams, experts guiding these young people to do what they’ve done.

My wife is the strongest and classiest woman that I’ve ever met, if you watch the video, she just maintains her composure…I don’t think she’s moved by the theatrics and pageantry of it all. She signed up to do a job to help young people accomplish their dreams and this is like a sidebar. I hope that’s not what this show becomes, about the cat fights. The show is solely about a singing competition, that’s why America loves these shows, they want to see people reach a certain goal or win …and then to make it about something it’s not, it kind of shows that the producers and the network are losing their foot a little bit.

After the hosts read the transcript of what was said by Mariah and Nicki, Nick Cannon alluded to it being some jealousy on Nicki’s part by responding:

If you read that, anyone can see what the issue actually is and it’s one of those things, like I said, my wife is strong, classy and maintains her strengths. It’s not about the theatrics! Let’s get back to what the core of the show is about.

Ryan Seacrest was also asked about the spat this morning and responded:

[There's] nothing wrong with disagreeing . . . That’s gonna happen, and it’s okay. It was intense! I’ll be honest with you . .. It went far last night. It did get intense.

We want that! We want them to be on this panel together. This is a good team, a great team, to go out and look for the next American Idol . . . the feedback that they give is very good.”

He’s clearly all about the ratings…