Katy Perry

OF AMERICAN IDOL ON ABC

Q: I heard that Katy Perry is going to leave “American Idol” after this season. Is there any chance she might change her mind?

A: Well, there’s always the potential for someone to change their mind about anything … but in making her announcement during an appearance on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last month, she seemed to leave the door open for a possible return to “American Idol” someday “if (the producers will) have me.”

Perry will have done seven seasons on the talent competition as a judge — along with Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie, spanning the entirety of the program’s ABC run thus far — when the current Season 22 concludes, and she has indicated that she is working in new music. The show’s production schedule definitely involves a time commitment, with the judges having to go to different cities during the audition phase, then making sure they’re in Hollywood on a regular basis once the given season’s episodes are centered there.

If Perry were to return to “Idol” after leaving, it wouldn’t be the first time a judge has done that. Jennifer Lopez was a regular on the show during its earlier Fox era during Seasons 10 and 11, then she left for Season 12 but returned for Seasons 13, 14 and 15. Also, if Perry (who took a brief break from “Idol” last season) came back to the series, it wouldn’t necessarily be as a full-time judge … which might be more conducive to the schedule she apparently wants to get back to with her own music career. She could step back in as a guest mentor, a position that Jelly Roll and Tori Kelly are filling this season.