Thursday, August 06, 2009

TCA: Paula Abdul is off 'American Idol,' but the four judge idea lives

Over at NJ.com, I have some Paula Abdul news from the Fox exec session: specifically, that while Fox is more than ready to move on without her, they seem to think "American Idol" will be better of with a fourth judge.

Sigh...

8 comments:

Adam said...

NOOOOOOO! Because guest judges -- with the rare exception of a Quentin Tarantino -- almost never judge; they're afraid to be unlikeable.

Also, four judges are too many.

Also, I saw people from TV Guide and Newsweek on the Today Show this morning arguing that Paula should be paid at least as much as Seacrest. These. People. Are. Insane. They have no concept of how hard it is to sustain Seacrest's role on the show -- host, consoler, quipper, foil. He is an unflappable savant.

James said...

Exactly! Remember when Ashford and Simpson were on the panel and the judging when on and on for eternity? I like the idea of having more current music stars rotating out, but I'm not a fan of Katy Perry. Also, I can't see any other current stars being able to call out trainwreck contestants like Tatiana from last season, except Madonna maybe.

Nicole said...

I know Nigel isn't the Idol boss anymore, but he should know more than anyone that guest judges, unless trained in that area, are completely useless. Ellen DeGeneres was on SYTYCD and while funny, was not able to contribute any actual comments relating to the dancing.

As for the judges, there is no need for four because no one really cares what Randy or Kara will say. Just Simon, and when she was crazy, Paula, otherwise, we don't care.

Sophie B. Hawkins said...

I'll do it for $300 an episode.

Jin's English Tutor said...

While they're doing new contracts, Idol should take a dump truck of money over to Nigel Lythgoe's house to get him to come back. last season was horrible.

Anonymous said...

No more drunken/narcotic slurring? That'll be missed....I agree that three judges are right. Randy and whats his name are very different and that's good. Not sure who I would add as the third. Ryan is irreplaceable. He is the best at what he does.

Anonymous said...

Ryan and Simon are the only two who are really irreplaceable. If they were going to dump a judge it should have been Randy. He's even more useless than Paula but does not add ANY entertainment value to the show. And at least Paula was good at finding something nice to say to the contestants.

Four judges is absolutely one judge too many. Especially since three of them will have nothing of value to add. The only judge I actually want to hear from is Simon, even though I don't always agree with him.

I get that they maybe wanted to change things up to keep Idol fresh, but there has to be a better way of doing it than cutting down on the number of songs contestants perform... you know, since it's a SINGING competition!

Mike F said...

I can't believe they don't realize that 4 judges is too many...the show isn't about the judges (or product placement); its about contestants