Free of American Idol- Finally

So I’m a little late to the party.

For about 4 years I’ve swore that I’m giving up on American Idol. For whatever reason, though, come early January I couldn’t help myself and ended up DVR’ing AI and getting roped into 4 months of TV banality at it’s best. Hell, even Ellen didn’t drive me away last season. And I would choose digit amputation before I set eyes upon her show. (Side- she’s not funny. She’s not a comedian. She says something, fumpers around nervously laughs, and then, for some strange people, other people laugh. I’m not making this up. Next time you see her, really WATCH. She won’t say anything funny.)

Last night I finally got the first shows of this season- a run of about 3-4 weeks that are nothing but auditions from various cities all over the US.

As you may or may not have heard, Simon Cowell left this show (along with Ellen) and added Steven Tyler and JLo as new judges. Randy “Dawg” Jackson is now the most tenured judge and de facto final decision voice on AI.

Some observations.

1- Steven Tyler is the most coherent I’ve ever seen him. Good for his family… bad for TV.

2- JLo. I mean, maybe the producers thought that Tyler was going to need a counterweight on the panel. And maybe they told JLo to tone it down and be as rational as possible. But she’s exceedingly boring as a judge. No insight. No opinion. Doesn’t really even talk that much. Couple this with the fact that Randy was always kind of the token music business guy that wasn’t that interesting of a figure and you’ve got 3 judges that are just meh.

3- Tons of 15 year olds. I feel like they could hold this against me in court if they really wanted to. Just because they lowered the age, did every 15 year old in America need to try out? Worse, did FOX need to air all of them?

Listen, for the audition round these judges will work. But what happens when the final 12 really start competing? Where will the entertainment come from on the judges panel?

I think it’s finally time to let go.

I gave it a shot knowing that not having Simon Cowell would be a blow. But it’s kind of an awful show now. Awful because it’s boring.

Now, the Friday Links…

• The sickest limo interiors you’ll see all day. LINK HERE
• Stick Figure Hamlet. Wish I had this back in the day. LINK HERE
• Things that always happen in the movies, but never real life. LINK HERE
• The faces of the State of the Union. LINK HERE
• Rahmen Emanuel… the Tumblr. LINK HERE
• The 20 best business cards of all time. LINK HERE
• We have a front-runner for mom of the year. LINK HERE

With that, it’s off to San Diego. Have fun with that 30 something degrees, suckers.