Whitney Houston Was to Serve as Mentor on This Season's AMERICAN IDOL

AMERICAN IDOL producer Nigel Lythgoe revealed on his Twitter account that superstar Whitney Houston, who died in her hotel room this past Saturday night at the age of 48, was in talks to serve as a mentor on this season's AMERICAN IDOL. 

Revealed Lythgoe, "What is even more shocking to me regarding the death of #Whitney is that only this Wednesday (February 8) she responded positively to mentoring on #Idol." 

In addition, it was revealed by X FACTOR creator Simon Cowell over the weekend that Houston was being considered as a replacement judge on the upcoming season of his singing competition. Recently, judges Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger were let go from the show. 

Speaking of the late singer's death in an interview on radio station LBC 97.3 over the weekend, Cowell commented, "It was a [complete shock], because I knew quite a few people who have worked with her over the years and we all knew that she had issues. I last met her when she came on X Factor when she was in England doing her comeback album, and you could sense at the time that there were still a few problems."