PAULA AGAIN INVITED TO JOIN SYTYCD

It appears that departing American Idol judge Paula Abdul will not need to search "Help Wanted" ads or pound the pavement to find a new judging opportunity! So You Think You Can Dance executive producer and judge Nigel Lythgoe, at Tuesday night's taping of the dance competition finale, repeated his invitation for Paula to become a guest judge and choreographer on the show, according to sources.

Lythgoe, former executive producer of American Idol, had previously opined that Fox would be crazy to let Paula go -- and should contract negotiations between Fox and Abdul completely break down, SYTYCD would happily take advantage by inviting her to join their cast.
Abdul, equally as famous for dancing and choreography as for singing, has worked with many celebrities, including Janet Jackson.

"We've certainly invited her here," Lythgoe told MTV. "And we've invited her to do some choreography this season as well. We just haven't been able to get it together at the moment, obviously because negotiations with Fox have been at the top of her mind."

Abdul was reportedly earning between $2 million and $3 million for her American Idol stint -- and wanted a raise with any new contract. American Idol presented her with an offer that she "didn't like at all," a source said according to TMZ. Abdul countered AI's offer -- but the show's executives would not agree to her request so sent a counter offer to her.

"Rather than responding to the second offer, Paula shocked everyone by tweeting her goodbye," reported TMZ. "The weirdest thing ... 'AI' took the tweet seriously and responded with an official sayonara."

However, Paula maintained frequent contact with her fans through messages on Twitter. She revealed that she wanted to return to Idol, but "I hope you can understand that I can only return to Idol if the deal is fair."

Rumors flew that after host Ryan Seacrest inked a $45 million contract with the show and Simon was in talks for a contract with big numbers, Abdul wanted a significant salary increase. Adding to this speculation, Lythgoe said, "I'd never been involved in negotiations when I was with the show (American Idol), but having spoken with (Fox president of alternative programming) Mike Darnell, I know Fox wants to keep Paula. The figures that have been quoted for Simon and Ryan are great figures. I don't know if they're true, but Paula seeing those figures would make her pretty upset."

So it appears that Paula finally decided that it was time to move on. In her final messages to her fans on Twitter, she wrote, "It is with sadness in my heart, I've decided not to return to #IDOL. I'll miss nurturing all the new talent, but most of all being a part of a show that I helped from day 1 become an international phenomenon."

But with the SYTYCD offer on the table, it doesn't seem that Paula's days of nurturing young talent are necessarily over. Fans wanted her back on American Idol, but the suspicion is that they will equally enjoy watching her display her judging and choreography skills on the popular dance competition show!