It's not just Nicki Minaj and herself threatening to 'pop' each other; Carey admits she and her fellow American Idol judges often argue.
While the singer had a large (orchestrated or otherwise) bust-up with Minaj during the audition stages of the popstar search show, Mariah admitted all four judges, including Keith Urban and the perennial Randy Jackson, have disagreements about the contestants.
She told E! News: 'We have to go against each other sometimes to say, 'But wait, this person has something amazing! Maybe you're not seeing it. It's a little bit beyond your comprehension at this moment, but there's something great about this person.''
However, they don't always disagree: "We're also unanimous about a lot of great people that are here! We're excited about the people that are here right now. We all feel that they're above average in talent and personality."
While Nicki found it easy to reject contestants during the auditions, she has struggled to do so as the series progresses.
She explained: "The human side of you comes out eventually, when you're looking at people that are this close to fulfilling their dream and in their head they have already seen it come to fruition, so saying no, it's like a dagger." A dagger which you get handsomely paid for. Every cloud.
This here series of American Idol kicks off on TV3 this coming Saturday at 6.30pm.