Mariah Carey equates 'American Idol' job with 'hell'

Nov. 13 (UPI) -- Mariah Carey's onscreen feud with Nicki Minaj was the subject of so much American Idol airtime last season that industry insiders blamed them for alienating viewers.

Carey and Minaj have since left the show -- with a friendlier dynamic between Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr., replacing them -- but the 43-year-old singer doesn't look back fondly on the experience.

"Honestly, I hated it," she said during an appearance on Hot 97 Tuesday.

"Honestly, I thought it was going to be a three-person panel," she said. "They gave me a nice dangling monetary moment and I was like, 'OK ... Randy Jackson will be there' -- you know he used to play bass for me -- 'This isn't a big deal, this will be nothing.'"

"But it wasn't that," she continued. "It was like hell going to work every day in hell with Satan," Carey joked. "I'm just playing; it didn't affect me that much. I was disappointed."

Carey said she loved meeting talented contestants.

"It was disappointing when they would, for political reasons, not put people through," she added.

[MTV, People]