Yeah, he really is stepping up his game, I noticed that too. I reckon it's because of the other judges: Kara and Simon vying for most astute, Ellen vying for pithiest... Randy's "man, that was hot" just doesn't cut it.

Or maybe now he's not in proximity to Paula and her gibberish, he's stopped absorbing it by osmosis. It must be like the fog has cleared.

Looks like she's doing alot of people's head in.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/american...s-on-idol.html

The live shows got off to a pretty poor start all round. The performances were poor, particularly on girl's night. I think maybe Ellen had expectations that weren't lived up to and that's why she seemed to be fumbling. Maybe by next week she will improve. Hopefully the performances will too and Si will cheer up a bit!

She's OK, but she isn't capable of giving the advice. Paula was my fave, gutted when she left...

I adore Degeneres but why was she picked as a judge? She knows nothing about the music industry.

Come back Paula, all is forgiven!

Add me to the list of people who think Randy is doing a good bit better this year. I don't know if he's up to taking Simon's seat but he and Kara are beginning to look like a decentish core of a panel for next year. I'm hoping Ellen settles in to being the comic relief element more than anything else for the time being.

i don't think idol will suffer for quite a while and as long as you find a competent judge for simon's replacement who knows his or her stuff idol competing against x factor will be very interesting

there is always the chance that x factor could tank over here

p.s i would love to see what you guys would do with pop idol now

Well Ellen week two has been much better. Obviously you expected her to be iffy on her first live show, and not to disagree to much with the others. but you could tell last night on the girls night she was giving her own opinions, and I think she has taken on board some criticism, that she wasnt funny enough the first week. BEcause thats what we like about her: She is funny. ANd this week, she was.

Her comments usually past me by.. still reckon she's not up to par with the rest and just there to provide comic relief to the audience n contestants..

I pretty much agree with this review of Ellen so far:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...,2369771.story


I had been liking Kara a bit more but on the girls show she had me squirming again. Her critiques of Haeley:


Lilly Scott:


Katelyn Epperly:


I don't even know what it is, it doesn't look as bad in type as it does when she says it on the show. She can be patronising on a whole new level at times and other times I wonder if she has inherited Paula Abdul's rambling syndrome because she talks for ages and says so much at such a speed that at the end I don't have a clue what just went on. With the Lilly Scott one, it was just cringetastic.

However, Randy might win the "Abdul Award" for this one:

"Truth is reality. You are the truth." (to Crystal)

Tension between Seacrest n Simon?

Cowell will be delighted with Ellen - she's making Paula look good, which bodes well for The X Factor.

Ellen possibly the worst judge on such a show ever - clearly out of her depth and resorting to rather unfunny and unoriginal one-liners which don't sit comfortably in the show. She'd probably be alright over on America's Got Talent, but on Idol - a show which takes itself far too seriously - she's useless.

They should have just stuck with Randy (who ain't much better), Kara (who is superb) and Cowell for this series, then perhaps bought in two new judges replacing Cowell next year - one with the industry credentials and one with the star pulling power.

There was a lot last night. Ryan commented on Simons botox use! It was classic!

She has struggled on the live shows. Maybe they could bring it back to 3 judges.
Randy has improved this season. I would bring in Shania Twain - That is if she will do the show next year.

Sorry, I think he is as useless as ever. Praising awful performances and slating performances which were actually quite good. I always breathe a sigh of relief when it gets to Simon as he gives a critique of what we actually heard. The thing is, you then see Randy shaking his head in agreement in the background even though he said the opposite! Useless.

Ellen was much better in week 2. Stil finding her footing though.

Kara has been so much better this season, last season she was the worst judge but this year she's an awful lot better. Well done.

Paula I never cared for, she was pretty useless and the whole 'playing games' with Simon just annoyed me.

If you judge on Elen on what she's there for, she's doing a decent job. She's the public's voice as such. She's not got the musical experience, but then she's not really judging them in that sense. I've agreed with most of what she's said so far.

I find Ellen verging on terrible.

The public's voice though comes through the voting, not through the judges. The judges are there to judge them on the music - and you can have a good idea about what the public want and still have the music credentials to back them up.

What annoys me about Ellen is that whenever Ryan asks her a question about anything she feels she has to make some quip first, half the time they're not even that funny and I think it makes her look a bit like she thinks she's there for comedy value / light relief

I agree; I don't think any of the judges are especially good in terms of offering serious advice on music, anyway. That's not what the show's about. If you really wanted to improve your singing/performance skills, is Idol/X factor really where you'd go?

I think the reason I like Ellen is that these shows are so manufactured, and we're so aware of that these days - the significance of performance order, song choice, judges' comments and so on - that it's very difficult to take what the judges say seriously, Simon in particular. I like Ellen because she's so sharp and straightforward it's difficult to imagine her toeing the producers' line. She's there to provide that connection with the viewer, and to at least give the appearance of cutting through the manipulative crap. I like her a lot so far.

Pop Idol was junked here because, basically, Simon required that to give X Factor a free run. It's one reason why if he gets the US version of X Factor right, AI will likely tank. I understand it's on the same channel. To lose both Paula and Simon and to be on in Season 10, it just sounds very predictable and boring. I find this year's shows nothing like as compelling as previous years, there's rarely anything we haven't seen or heard or even heard from the judges before.

We would never go back to Pop Idol here in the UK because X Factor is a superior more varied format - it allows people of all ages to perform and to come on as individuals or in groups or to be placed together in groups by the judges. This means it is much more varied year to year, week to week and commercial part to commercial part.

It's also more internally competitive with the judges acting as mentors and competing with each other. In XF they have to work the last 12 weeks, not sit on their backsides warmly congratulating the finalists. They are up against each other and the audience is judging them as well. The categories of contestants and the wider variety of music and styles that allows mixes the whole thing up hugely.

I think the USA will take to XF if it's well done and AI will tank or fade away.

I never saw Pop Idol but definitely think American Idol is superior to X Factor. The latter seems to take a bunch of reasonably talented people and try to fit them into the same mould. That's mentoring for you. And the endless repetition, week after week, of exactly the same procedure with no attempt to mix things up a bit drives me crazy. Not to mention the ott artistic direction and unnecessary dancers and other props.

But to get back to Ellen. She's very funny, and has now become my favourite judge. Kara is irritating me more and more all the time though. She takes herself much too seriously, and why does she keep leaning on Simon - literally.

Yeah, see, there's tension. And there's tension.

I've always thought it was a red herring. Seacrest has been to Simon's annual Xmas jamboree in Barbados.