I'd love nothing more than for Idol producer Ken Warwick to look to his show's sister program, So You Think You Can Dance, as an example of what a judging panel can and should do. The SYTYCD crew — Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy, plus a rotating guest judge — surpass the Idol panel in nearly every way. Their critiques are articulate, specific, and full of authority, and most importantly, display a degree of investment in the contestants and the program that Paula, Randy, Kara, and yes, even Simon, have not come close to matching over the last several Idol seasons. Not only that, the SYTYCD judges (especially Murphy) are infinitely funnier, and achieve a much more effortless camaraderie, than their Idol counterparts.
As for Paula, well, she certainly raised her game during season 8 — especially compared to her abysmal season 7 showing, which culminated with the Paulagate incident (in which she critiqued Jason Castro's second number before he'd even performed it). But still, I'd contend that the fallacy of American Idol's judging panel, or more specifically, Paula's place on said panel, is that "wacky"/"artistic"/"kindhearted" and "insightful" are supposed to be mutually exclusive. Look at SYTYCD's Debbie Allen, whose judging repertoire is filled with loopy surface nonsense — "you handled your big woman!" — that upon closer inspection turns out to be constructive and interesting. The woman may have her own patented brand of crazylingo, but she's paying attention to what happens on the stage and she's damned invested in making sure she provides loving, critical, helpful feedback to the show's contestants. Paula scores points for "loving," maybe, but considering how much she gets paid, shouldn't she also be able to nail the "critical" and "helpful" aspects of the equation, not to mention "concise," "coherent," and "easy for the average viewer to understand"? Based on her job performance and her overall sentimental value to the show, is Paula worth the money she's after?
My only real problem with Idol dumping Paula, in fact, is that she's really only second runner up — behind the rambling, gaffe-spewing, and consistently disappointing Kara DioGuardi and the utterly nonsensical Randy Jackson — in the running for Idol's least valuable panelist. Randy's contract locks him in till 2011, but Kara is also reportedly still negotiating to return for season 9. If the show's only getting rid of one female panelist, I say let it be the woman who foisted "No Boundaries" on beloved contestants Kris Allen and Adam Lambert, as well as an unsuspecting public. Or, if Idol is really interested in change we can believe in, if the show's producers want to proactively fight the show's slow but nonetheless real ratings decline, maybe it's time to clear the entire table to the left of Cowell, and bring in two new judges who can match Mr. Nasty in honesty, humor, and musical expertiese.
What do you think? Take our poll below (check out Jody Watley's Idol blog before you vote!) and then head to the comments section to discuss this matter of vital national importance! (Also important: Follow me on Twitter @EWMichaelSlezak!)
Comments (1-30) of 137 Add your comment
It would be wrong for Paula to go after this past season when she was often the most accurate or the second most accurate commentator on a peformance. Kara seems like a nice enough person, but is useless. Her comment about singing earlier Aerosmith like Cryin’ or Crazy still makes me laugh.
I never understood all the hate toward Kara. Paula and Randy are both useless.
Simon…well…he seems like he’s lost his passion for this show. Maybe a hefty raise will help, but I don’t know.
http://tvdonewright.com/
You know where I stand on Kara.
But that doesn’t mean I want to throw Paula under the bus. None of them need to go. I just want them all – Paula and Randy, especially – to step up their game. And I want Simon to stop being such an obvious shill.
they should keep paula and kick kara off and replace randy with missy elliot
that would be hilarious!
seating plan: Missy, Simon, Paula (jus so simon can be surrounded by them) that wouldmake the judges more interesting and in order to keep simon as the last judge to critique we can have missy start then paula then simon.
Randy’s the most useless of them all. Kara was good for a while then tried to out-Paula and out-Simon the others and lost her own voice. Randy’s never had a voice other than saying Yo Dawg.
I agree that everyone but Simon needs to go….but you’re missing a very important reason the show isn’t working and that’s the producers. They need to go too. They first need to look at musical ability and performance and THEN cast the show. Instead they seem to pick people who meet certain types and then seem to believe that they will magically develop into outstanding performers. And then then need to start delivering a quality show that can actually finish on time and is ENJOYABLE to watch instead of being moments of performance joy scattered amoung way too much angst and bull that I don’t want to watch. I haven’t watched a full episode of idol ever until the finale this year (thank adam)…its more pleasant to watch the performance recaps and to skip over them when they are awful.
Michael: I LOVE how you use the SYTYCD judging panel to explain what AI’s judging panel SHOULD be. No matter how hurtful a SYTYCD judge’s comments may be to a dancer, the dancer always knows that they are respected and cared about, that the comments are honest and insightful, and that they are in the best interest of the dancer’s career.
That can’t be said of most of the judging on Idol.
With the exception of getting rid of Kara (which, Dear God, NEEDS TO HAPPEN), this post is really off. Mary Murphy is so not funny–she’s ridiculous, and screams just for the predictable Nigel reactions. I do agree that the third judge on the SYTYCD panel is usually great, whereas Randy is completely phoning it in and is too easy to please.
But Paula, one of my favorite people on reality TV, MORE than deserves her contract. She is the one who cares about those contestants. And Slezak, she DOES make sense–when she says things were in the wrong key or that certain phrases were off-pitch, she knows as a singer what she’s talking about (I’m a singer too). I love Paula, I hope she doesn’t go.
Although I don’t watch regularly, I feel like the Dancing with the Stars judging panel is more impartial and delivers more technical critiques than the Idol crew this year who clearly had agendas to push.
Missy Elliott was amazing as a judge on the MTV dance show.. she can replace Randy or Kara
I’ve seen Idol in other countries. It still works with a different mix of judges – sometimes two are sarcastic, or two are industry experts, etc. They can stir the pot and get something better.
The judges need some weight to their critiques . . .like paddles/scores on DWTS. Then they would pay attention and care when the singers sing. Once they get past selecting the contestants, they have no purpose with the current system.
Simon is the only judge worth keeping around. Randy has a 5 word vocabulary and Paula says nothing worth hearing. Get rid of them.
Hey Michael–still waiting for that list of collaborators for Kris Allen; I’m really interested in reading and discussing your ideas for him!
As for Paula–I’d be okay if she left; the four-judge format made the shows run waaay too long last season, to little benefit for the contestants or the audience.
If anyone needs to go, it’s the biggest douchebag on television, Ryan Seacrest. And they just gave him a huge deal to stay! So if he stays, then Paula should, too. She is a lot better to watch and listen to than he is!
Agreed: Kara’s “No Boundaries” is reason enough to NOT have her contract renewed. Disagree: Mary Murphy IS not funny or insightful. All she does is scream and/or cry, blurring any semblance of a critique.
Cyndi would be an excellant replacement for paula or kara if one them had to go. She is smart, knows what she is talking about, would put simon in his place, tell how is, cares about ppl, has lots expierence n success, she is just plain cool, etc. Cyndi would be awesome. The only way I’d want Paula gone is if Cyndi replaces Paula. I liked Kara at first but I’d like to see her go too.
I think they are clearing out Paula to pay for Seacrest and Cowell’s huge salary bumps and she is playing right into their hands with this publicity.
I think Cyndi Lauper would be good. Courtney love would be awesome because she is very knowledgeable about music, not afraid to speak the truth and awesome train wreck entertainment.
Also there is an industry songwrite named Anne Preven who wrote the song Torn and many songs for MAdonna, Myley, Christina, Dreamgirls.
She used to front a band called Ednaswap. I would love to see her.
WOW 40% of ppl took poll agree with me lol. I love the idea of Cyndi Lauper becoming a judge. If Paula had to go Cyndi is ONLY one I want replacing Paula. But I’d like to see Paula stay and replace Kara instead. So I say keep original 3, ditch kara and if have to have 4th judge bring in Cyndi.
I’ll never quite understand the frustration with Kara. She’s had her bad moments, but her critique is far more accurate than that of Randy or Paula. I want judges that actually critique the singing and let’s face it…Paula is hardly qualified. Give Kara another season and I think she’ll come into her own and end up providing the most valuable critiques.
Get rid of Paula!!! She is horrible to watch, I can’t stand it. I cringe every time she opens her mouth.
I would vote for Dolly Parton as replacement! She’s incredibly smart and well-spoken. She’d be an asset to the panel.
KEEP PAULA, Paula is the only reason I continue to watch the show, she is the only one with heart for the contestants. Randy in the second reason. Kara is a lost cause and has no clue how bad she comes off on the show. Simon is Simon, and he is the acid that is needed in the show.
I am confused. (much like Paula) but didn’t they already hold tryouts for next season and if so, was Paula there at the tryouts? And if she was, do they cut her out in the editing room? If she was not there, then she knew a long time ago? or am I just confused on how the whole audition process works?
I liked Kara at first but as the season progressed I found most of her comments to not only be useful but often senseless. We’ve sort of grown accustomed to Paula making no sense but she always does so while trying to be kind. In addition, Kara TOTALLY lost me when she did her little showdown with Bikini-Girl in the final show. That was just unnecessary.
I was Kara’s biggest cheerleader, until No Boundaries. Now I say she must go.
Paula stays. This is just one more money ploy on her part…just like last year. I like Paula because she has a kind heart and always tries to lift people up with her critique.
Kara can go and Randy should have gone a long time ago ( Dawg !) He is an idiot. Cyndi Lauper would be great but who cooked up this list ? None of those peeps is being considered for ANYTHING.
Honestly, they are all pretty terrible. None of them is constructive or helpful. Simon just goes for the nasty factor – which can be a little comical, but is usually just cringeworthy. Randy is totally worthless. Paula is clueless. Kara, is – well – Kara. Dump them all and start from scratch.
If Paula leaves IDOL, she can co-host “Dancing with the Stars”….Samantha Harris needs to get the ax anyway…I CAN’T STAND HER!!!!!!!
Mike, I think a lot of the frustration comes from us not seeing her critique the contestants singing, as much as their hair, clothes and general look. She kept calling contestants that obviously could not sing “commerical” simply because they were pretty.
I’m with Slezak. Get rid of Paula and Kara and bring in someone new who will actually critique the performances. Maybe if Simon has some competition as the “judge who tells it like it is” he’ll start actually doing his job again.