Michael Becker/Fox The four judges situation on American Idol is clearly not working out.
The time it takes for all four to chime in on the contestants' performances has made the show run over twice in the past two weeks alone. Cutting off fan favorite Adam Lambert's performance on TiVo is one thing, but pissing off the fans of Fringe, the show following Idol, is just plain dangerous.
Adding to that drama is the drama behind the scenes...
Paula Abdul and her onetime gal-pal Kara DioGuardi barely speak to one another during the show, on commercial breaks or backstage, according to set sources. And, of course, let's not forget this little comment that Paula made to OK! magazine in January: "Kara and I get along great and have known each other for years, but we tried four judges before when we had celebrity guest judges sitting in, and it just doesn't work." Kara responded with: "Paula has a right to her opinions, but I was disappointed by her comments and hurt that she did not address them to me in person."
Idol producers are already addressing the two issues of bad timing and having too many cooks in the kitchen by tweaking the judging process on Tuesday night's performance show. Instead of Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Paula and Kara each giving their critiques of every performance, only two judges at a time will do the judging—i.e., Randy and Kara judge one contestant, and then Simon and Paula judge the next contestant and so on.
Show host Ryan Seacrest explained to viewers: "We're working in teams tonight, so we make it in on time." Regardless of the attempt, the show still went over by three minutes this week, albeit much better than its eight-minute mishap last week.
Forget their bickering. We'd like to know what you think.
American Idol Judging System
American Idol Judges
We'd love to hear your take on the judging situation on Idol. State your case in the comments below.