After 13 seasons of working on the show since its inception in 2001, talent show judge Randy Jackson is to end his association with Fox reality talent show American Idol… this time for good, apparently.

After announcing his departure at a similar point last year, Jackson ended up returning to the show replace Jimmy Iovine as a contestant mentor, as opposed to his more familiar judging position.

But it now seems as though one year of that reduced role is enough to satisfy him as he departs before the upcoming 14th season on the network. He had previously been a judge since the first season of the show alongside Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul, but now only presenter and executive producer Ryan Seacrest remains from the original ‘cast’.

In an official statement on the matter, Jackson noted: “After 13 seasons, I felt now was the perfect time to leave American Idol. I’m proud to have been a part of a series that discovered some incredible artists and will go down in history as one of the most successful television shows ever. A true original, Idol started it all. Onto what’s next.”

American Idol’s production companies FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment launched a joint statement, tributing: “Randy has been such an integral part of American Idol since day one, both as a judge and as a mentor. He’s provided great advice and support, shaping the success of so many Idols we have discovered over the years. We wish him all the best in his next chapter. Randy will always be part of our Idol family and we hope he’ll visit from time to time.”

Whilst American Idol moves on with its 14th season and an unusually 100% rate of judge retention from the previous season (with Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr sitting at the panel), Randy Jackson will look to find another job to fill the time now available to him, considering his home life is hectic enough:

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In what is just becoming more of a daily occurrence rather than a surprise announcement, Netflix have revealed something new regarding their fast-growing slate of original programming, the latest designed to be a British series that is their jewel in…

The Crown will be designed as a series that tells the story of the life of reigning British and Commonwealth monarch Queen Elizabeth II (pictured), chronicling the key moments in her reign so far, primarily in the latter half of the 20th century.

Confirmed after six months of rumours, The Crown (inspired by the play The Audience) will initially show a 10-episode first season in 2016, with production coming from Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon) and Stephen Daldry (The Hours). Also executive producing will be Morgan’s co-producers on The Audience, Robert Fox, Matthew Byam Shaw, and Andy Harries, of Left Bank Pictures.

The show, like the play, will look at the Queen’s traditional role of having a weekly audience with Parliament, as well as the behind-the-scenes activity with political leaders at both Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – as a backdrop to major events of the eras portrayed. The first season is confirmed as looking at the then-Princess Elizabeth, 25 years old in 1951, as she faces up to the declining health and eventual death of her father, King George VI, and in his gradual replacement as monarch begins building a relationship ‘domineering and war-hardened’ Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Claire Foy has reportedly been approached to play the lead role.

Netflix’s vice-president of original content, Cindy Holland, said of the format: “The Crown is storytelling that lives somewhere between television and cinema from Britain’s foremost chroniclers of modern politics, class and society. We are enormously proud to be the exclusive home of a series from Peter Morgan and Stephen Daldry that promises to fascinate and entertain audiences around the world.”

Morgan noted of his creation: “The Crown is not only about the royal family but about an empire in decline, a world in disarray and the dawn of a new era. I am beyond thrilled to be reunited with partners from film, theatre and television for this epic project and delighted to be working for the first time with Netflix.”

Left Bank Pictures’ CEO Harries added: “Queen Elizabeth II has reigned throughout a period of unprecedented cultural and political change and her influence as monarch has been universal. Peter is a writer at the height of his powers and Stephen Daldry is one of the most entertaining and original film directors in the world. The series will be hugely ambitious and surprising, and perfectly captures the changes and complexities of a post war world.”

Daldry, meanwhile, summarised: “Peter Morgan’s scripts turn a tumultuous period of history into a thrilling story on an epic scale; dealing with both intimate relationships and international affairs. I cannot wait to bring The Crown to life for a global audience on Netflix.”

While it may seem a little strange for a company so completely embedded in their popular Vine mini-clip brand to make their own video streaming platform, Twitter have done just that, announcing they plan to have a ‘native video service’ in place on their microblogging site as of next year.

The social media giants claim that their newest upcoming feature is one that will provide tweeters with the capability of filming, editing, and posting short videos via the official Twitter app, with designs on launching it in ‘early 2015′, according to official sources, who claim it will be amongst a number of new ‘standalone apps’ for the brand.

One of those ‘official sources’, Twitter’s vice-president Christian Oestlien, said of the plans in the company’s announcement on the feature yesterday (12 November): “We also want to give [users] as many tools as possible to create and, or share great content themselves. Imagine the power and impact of Twitter on world events and personal experiences as they unfold in real time on our platform through video.”

Looking to perhaps take over somewhat from the YouTube embeds that currently dominate the site for supporting video content (but act as a compliment to Vine rather than competition), will Twitter’s own-brand video platform be something that can become #1 in this regard at least, or would starting a new video brand with such expectations against a dominant force, even on their own website, just be setting someone up for a fall?

In their efforts to keep up with rivals Netflix, Amazon, through their Instant Video and Amazon Studios brands, are looking to draw people in with a number of original series of their own for exclusive streaming, with their latest project coming to realisation being police drama series Bosch.

A creation of Michael Connelly (through the novel The Black Echo in 1992), Bosch sees Titus Welliver star as LAPD detective “Harry Bosch”, as he investigates the homicide of a 13-year-old boy, whilst facing separate accusations against himself over allegedly killing a suspected serial killer in cold blood.

Supporting cast members for this series include Amy Aquino, Amy Price-Francis, Annie Wersching, Jamie Hector, Lance Reddick, and Scott Wilson.

The premiere date of the show is planned to be in February 2015 exclusive to Amazon Prime Instant Video, a year on from the original airing of a pilot shown to streamers in the company’s method of gaguing public opinion between a number of new projects at once, with Bosch being one of the lucky ones in that batch to be well-received enough for a full season order by Amazon Studios.

A trailer recently released for that upcoming first season of Bosch can be seen below. Amazon accompanied this with the following brief overview: “Get a first look at Bosch, a new Amazon Original Series based on Michael Connelly’s best-selling books coming to Amazon Prime Instant Video in 2015. Starring Titus Welliver, Annie Wersching and Jamie Hector.”

HBO, like AMC, seem to have a reputation for more hits than misses when it comes to producing well-received and critically-acclaimed content, and hope to have a new item on that hit list soon in the form of Foundation.

Based on the Issac Asimov trilogy of novels, Foundation will be adapted into a TV series for the premium cable network Jonathan Nolan, the writer of recent sci-fi film Interstellar. Support in developing this to screen will come from Warner Bros TV, according to The Wrap.

Believed to be a long-term goal for Nolan to create, he recently said of his dream concept to Indie Wire: “I f**king love the Foundation novels by Isaac Asimov. They’re certainly not [unknown], but that’s a set of books I think everyone would benefit from reading. That’s a set of books where the influence they have is just f**king massive. They have many imitators and many have been inspired by them, but go back and read those, and there are some ideas in those that’ll set your f**king hair on fire.”

The franchise found success enough in the printed form to encourage writer Asimov to make a number of prequels and sequels to the story, which focuses on mathematician “Hari Seldon” as he develops an idea of ‘psychohistory’, which utilises the laws of mass action as a means to predict future events. After predicting the destruction of his world’s current ‘Galactic Empire’ to be followed by a dark age, he seeks to form an empire of his own before it’s too late. At present, it is unknown how far-reaching into the franchise’s book collection the series will delve.

Previously having worked with wife Lisa Joy on Person of Interest and co-writing another new HBO series in Westworld, Nolan will look to continue his relationship with the network and the TV industry in a strong manner, and with the content he is working with, will he also be able to help twist a few viewer’s minds as his brother did with Inception…