Slimmed-down American Idol back for season 14

American Idol is practicing addition and subtraction in its 14th season.

Longtime judge, short-time mentor Randy Jackson is gone. Music executive Scott Borchetta, whose impressive credentials include acting as mentor to Taylor Swift, will play that role for contestants and the winner will be signed to Borchetta's Big Machine Records.

There's another shake up ahead for the series, which returned this week with an hour-long episode on Wednesday and a two-hour episode airing on Thursday: Starting with the live shows in mid-March, American Idol will cut back to a two-hour show once a week, on Wednesdays.