American Idol- Judging the Judges

Now that the terribleness that was this year's American Idol auditions are over, we can get down to brass tacks* here and talk about what has gone down so far. To be fair, I don't really pay that much attention during these eps, but it seems as though the quality is way down this season. No one has stood out at all so far. Having said that, last year's winner was never shown in the audition episodes, so they have that going for them. Other than the Pants on the Ground guy, I'm not gonna remember a single audition from this season. Speaking of the latest Idol craze, Jimmy Fallon's version he did on his show was just fantastic.

*I recently heard this phrase for the first time in a while and realized it is fantastic, but I had no idea where it came from. After doing a bit of research on wiki, it seems nobody really knows.

The only part of the auditions that is really worth talking about is obviously the judges. Sadly Paula is gone and while the producers took their time finding her replacement, we got guest judges for each of these audition sites.

• Victoria Beckham- blah
• Mary J. Blige- blah
• Shania Twain- annoying
• Kristin Chenowith- insightful
• Avril Lavigne- cute
• Katy Perry- FANTASTIC
• Neil Patrick Harris- annoying
• Joe Jonas- blah

Going into this season of American Idol, there was only one out of the eight guest judges that I had any pre-conceived opinion on, Joe Jonas. He's fantastic on JONAS and in Camp Rock, but here he was either to scared to say anything or the producers just cut everything but "yea" out of the episodes.

Posh, Mary J., Avril and Joey didn't bring anything to the table as judges. Kristin Chenowith seemed to know what she was talking about and made an effort to give some pointers, but was still boring in her approach. Then we get to my two least favorites of the guest judging era. Shania Twain and Neil Patrick Harris, although most people loved them, were incredibly annoying. Neil was just trying to take over the whole panel and it just didn't work for me. Shania, meanwhile, seemed to almost be a reincarnation of Mary Murphy from So You Think You Can Dance. Off the wall and having no idea what she was talking about. Kinda like Paula on speed, except unlike Ms. Abdul, the things she said weren't ridiculous enough to be funny.

And then we have the one guest judge who could and should take a permanent seat behind the table. She was funny, she was honest, she was mean when she needed to be, and by golly she got into plenty of fights with the devil they call Kara DioGuardi. Whether it was Katy explaining to Kara that you shouldn't let a contestant through just because you feel bad for them, or Mr. Russell Brand threatening to throw her coke in Kara's face if she continued to sing "I kissed a girl", she was incredible throughout the episode.

She continued to shine, while Kara continued to fall deeper and deeper into her place as one of the worst people on television. After one person auditioned for the judges Kara noted that this guy had just enough 'talent' and just enough of a 'story' to go far in this thing. Katy responded with "This is a Lifetime movie." Although the producers and many of the fans seem to think that the people that go far in this thing should be those that come far hardships and have fantastic stories, Katy, Simon and I know that people should do well because they are good singers and they have the personality to connect with America. That is it. The more Kara tries to come up with new things to say this season, the more she is going be unbearable. I didn't think she could get any worse than what she did to our television screens last year, but it seems she might be up to the task.

With the Hollywood round starting on February 9th, we welcome Ellen DeGeneres as the new full-time judge, as she sits in Paula's vacant seat next to Simon. I have both high hopes and high expectations for Ellen going into the ninth season of Idol. She is nothing like Paula, so I think she will bring a bit of new life to the show. Unlike the other three judges sitting behind the table, Ellen has the ability to come up with interesting and new things to say all the time. She does it all the time, for a living. Yeah I know Simon is usually awesome and says really mean things to the contestants, but sometimes the things he says get repetitive. His repetition will always be miles better than the garbage that flows out of the mouths of Kara and Randy, but it can still sometimes become boring. I feel Ellen has the chance to be insightful and creative up there. Let's just hope she knows anything about music.