A Brand New American Idol: After Simon Cowell, Changing for the Better

As we all know, this will be the last season we will see Simon Cowell's smiling face being "utterly horrendous" to the American Idol contestants. I, for one, won't miss him although I'm quite sure he will pop up in articles being asked for his opinion on Idol's direction without him, if the show isn't all washed up.

I fully understand the entertainment factor of having a rude and unfair judge on your panel - the guy you love to hate. It gets the old adrenalin pumping and lots to talk about for about an hour. After that, who can remember or even gives a cup of tea what Simon, Ellen, Kara or Randy had to say? And no, I don't want Perez Hilton or Howard Stern on the panel. I would like them to replace ALL the judges every season. Randy Jackson is the only one I would let stay one more season. Your welcome, dawg.

They should have one DJ, one manager, one respected recording artist and the last one can be a floater if they absolutely feel the need for 4 judges. In fact, with my idea, it would be very entertaining. We will have several different personalities come in as the 4th judge over the course of the season. Perhaps a guest blogger who has covered American Idol regularly, like MJ Santilli of MJs Big Blog one week, then somebody from Vote for the Worst the next. You get the idea: people who have made a science out of following American Idol. That would certainly liven things up.

I would make the judges all listen to the songs that the contestants have chosen before their interaction with the mentor of the week. I am sick, sick, sick, I say, of listening to them knock song choices. It's not a valid criticism. If the song is on the list, it can be chosen. It is not only not entertaining to listen to this idiotic babble about song choices, it is unprofessional. I have seen the judges act like they never heard a song before -- most surprising to me, I remember even Randy saying he was unfamiliar with a particular song once. (Of course, that was not as sinful as the time he said a contestant sounded like Sam Cooke). They will listen to two versions of the song, not necessarily Elvis and Frank Sinatra. Maybe I'll even make them look at the list when it first arrives and cross off ones that they think are "boring," "old-fashioned" and "corny."

And speaking of Frank Sinatra, strike that. This would be the last season you would ever hear Old Blue Eyes on American Idol when they put me in charge. Besides, I like Dean Martin better. Ain't that a kick in the head?

Seriously, where is the sanity in criticizing the American Idol contestants week after week for being "old-fashioned" and then handing them a list of Frank Sinatra songs to sing? If they can sing more updated versions, even the doo wop versions of "Blue Moon," "In the Still of the Night" and the Flamingos, "I Only Have Eyes For You," it might not be that bad, but who wants to hear these kids sing stuff like "Love and Marriage," "Pennies From Heaven" or "Strangers in the Night?" There are only 5 Idols left -- doo bee doo bee doo -- and there are something like 50 song choices (see them here). What is up with that?

It would also be the last you will see of that stupid "judge's save." A better way for the judges to have some influence on the results would be to tabulate their scores and let it count along with the voters. I'll have to work on whether that should be 50/50 or what once they let me take over.

Of course, if Ryan Seacrest gets wind of this and has any say, it's not going to happen because I'm sure he already knows he'll be the first one out the door.

Sources: embedded