NEW YORK — “American Idol,” for all its success, is not above tinkering — especially after last year’s revolving door of celebrity mentors and Sanjaya Malakar’s improbable run.

Not TOO much tinkering, though. Why mess with a trusty formula?

The Fox ratings superpower returns for its seventh season tonight, and will doubtless dominate January through May as it did last year and the year before that. It could even attract a bigger audience in 2008, thanks to the Hollywood writers strike.

But Nigel Lythgoe, an executive producer for the show, downplayed speculation that the lack of alternative programming as a result of the strike could equal more viewers for “Idol.”

“Everyone is sort of saying that there isn’t anything else on television to watch,” Lythgoe told The Associated Press.

But the other networks are so intimidated by the most-watched show on American television that “they don’t really schedule anything around ‘Idol’ anyway,” he added.

While some 31.2 million viewers watched Jordin Sparks win last year, that was less than the 36.6 million viewers who watched Taylor Hicks claim the title the season before.

The show starts at 8 p.m.

 

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