JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum American Idol 2009

I think the editing is a bit nicer this year, not the judges. It's clear after the suicide that they wanted to tone down the negativity. All the promos and non judging segments have been WAY more popular. They filled in some of the brutal attacks with retrospective clips of previous years and idol winners (and even losers). That appears to me to be because they couldn't rely on the footage already shot as much and since the judges stuff was mostly taped before the death, they had to be creative.

When they get to Hollywood, where I think they were when the death happened, it will be interesting to see how they act. But there will only be a handful of really bad contestants still in the running (the put through a few obviously terrible singers already as they always seem to do).

I don't think the new judge has added anything to the show. It's not because she COULDN'T.. she's way more in tune with reality than the other 3 including Simon, but Simon's role is to be the logical one and the others to be comic foils. I can't figure out what her real purpose is yet other than a fail safe for an ultimate Paula meltdown that would have left them with 2 judges. I think she's insurance. I will say, however, that unlike Paula, she can definitely SING. I enjoyed the segment where she was throwing down some vocals with the contestent. Randy has producing chops (and can play some bass) but it was nice to see a real singer (who is also a huge songwriter) on the panel. Though I actually liked Paula's music when it was out, she was a studio creation.

Brian