The eighth season of American Idol is back on Tuesday night (8 p.m. ET on Fox) and the judges are making the media rounds drumming up support for the upcoming competition. (See our chat with the one and only Simon Cowell here.) Our TV editor T.J. Walter talked yesterday with Idol’s newest judge Kara DioGuardi who had just returned from a marathon recording session in Hawaii with Colbie Caillat. The 38-year-old Grammy-nominated songwriter/producer was quick to tell T.J. that like Cowell, she thinks the men have a slight edge over the women. “Looking at all the contestants, the males are the strongest,” she says. "There's a uniqueness to some of the male contestants in terms of voices and songs they're picking and the general direction of what their record would be. There was a lot of soul influence.”

DioGuardi has one of the strongest music backgrounds among the Idol judges and see herself as a combination of the three we're used to. “Paula (Abdul) has the heart, Simon tells it like it is and Randy (Jackson)  is the diplomat." That doesn’t mean joining them has come without a few bumps. “There definitely have been some girl power moments when me and Paula have ganged up on the guys."  And while DioGuardi has worked with Idol alums David Archuleta and Kelly Clarkson, as well as fellow Idol judge Paula Abdul, the one Idol that has escaped her is Chris Daughtry. “At one point he was going to do a duet on a song I'd written, but it never happened. I would love to co-write with him. If he is out there and would like to co-write a song, please tell him to call me.”