Counting Down the Hours....

Ok - as the season 9 premiere/48 hours of audition footage is right on the horizon, I must declare my feelings on American Idol....

First off, you all know my feelings on the ever-so-useless Kara DioGuardi. Secondly, I didn't like the new format last year of having a top 36, then voting in 3 a week, then some bizarro wild card round...maybe I'm someone who doesn't handle change well in the first place, but the old format of a top 24 was definitely, definitely better. One could argue that with the new format, it's really the fan favorites who advance (plus those extra couple other judge favorites we can't seem to shake, which is true of all reality shows). Maybe a happy medium would be a top 36 that eliminates the bottom 3rd of the contestants (as opposed advancing the top 3)...I dunno. Oh, that, and I hate hate HATED the 'sing for your life' concept of last season. And them all living in one house?! Uh, the real world called, it wants its crappy late '90s reality show idea back. Anyhow - are these changes continuing into this season? Does anyone know?

That brings me to the next major change for this season....Ellen DeGeneres. Whop Whop Whop. Now, don't get me wrong, I like Ellen as a person. And I like her in the right context - doing her own schtick on her own talk show or as a guest on a show - I do find her hilarious. But I don't know that I think she can handle the backseat role that she's got to take here. She was bad as a guest judge on SYTYCD - she talked for too long and everything was a tangent into some joke of hers. That, and she only gave positive feedback - she'll be like Paula but with even less substance. I sense it getting so awkward it will be painful.... However, I can easily forsee Simon getting annoyed at her and trying to shut her up...now THAT might be entertaining.