The talk so far about American Idol 9? The Judges!

Usually after the first episode, the talk is all about the auditions, but this year is shaping up to be different on lots of accounts. In the second year of Kara, we get to see if she got laid in the offseason or if she’s still as horny as ever.

Paula Abdul? Out! Ellen DeGeneres? In! In what could be a great “free source” of advertising, they brought in Ellen, who’s daytime hit the Ellen Show could help ratings.

But the biggest shocker is the announcement that Simon will be in his last year at Idol. This, season 9, will be his fairwell tour before starting The X-Factor, also on Fox next year. This is his hit British Franchise they are moving to America. Will it be more like the Beatles? Or scarfs with sweaters? We’ll have to see. But we’re surely going to be talking about it. A lot!

Oh, and even Ryan isn’t out of the rumor mill. Some say he could be called into double duty next year, as a host and judge. Could be interesting? But don’t see it happening. Also, rumor has it that Ryan took the news very hard that Simon was leaving. That man-crush that Simon always refers to seems to have some merit.

Simon Leaving American Idol, Starting The X Factor

So the biggest news of the new season might not be Paula leaving or Ellen joining.  It might just be that this will be the victory lap for Simon Cowell who will be leaving American Idol after the season to start an American version on his hit The X Factor.  While this is stunning news for Idol fans, it could be a blessing in disguise.  We’ll still get to see Simon on Fox and Idol could drop a peg, allowing it to tone down a bit on the “bad” and become more about finding the best talent.  Then The X Factor could be another huge hit that gave us more stars.  Who knows how it will pan out, but we can dream, right?

Simon Cowell’s “not so sure” take on our American Idol

After last night’s “upset”, seems like one of the judges is still not so sure about our newly crowned American Idol.

We already heard Simon mention more than once that  Kris Allen wasn’t “good enough” to compete in American Idol’s finale,  and Simon Cowell is apparently still not so sure that he deserves to have been crowned the show’s eighth-season winner.

Kris Allen  was crowned Idol’s eighth-season winner defeating Adam Lambert.

Cowell talked about his feelings on the winner; which we all know  he is not shy about , this morning during a radio show broadcast with Idol’s host Ryan Seacrest.

“[Kris] is probably the right winner in terms of being a nice guy,” Cowell told Ryan “[But] was he the best singer in the competition? No.”

“You know what my feeling on the show is,” Cowell added. “I mean he’s popular. If you allow America to vote, you live with the vote. I wouldn’t have said he was the best singer in the competition, no. He was like a little puppy dog.”

Seacrest then asked Cowell to rank Allen in comparison to American Idol’s seven previous winners, causing Cowell to just laugh and pose the same question back to Seacrest.

“I’d probably put him in the middle,” Seacrest told Cowell.

“In the middle?” Cowell laughed. “Okay, who’s below him?”

“Ruben,” Seacrest said, referring to second-season Idol champion Ruben Studdard.

“He’s below him?” Cowell asked.

“Yes,” said Seacrest.

“Okay, [who else]?” Cowell replied.

“Who’s won the show, I can’t remember!” Seacrest said.

“Taylor Hicks,” Cowell offered, referring the fifth-season Idol champion that Simon  has repeatedly has said to be  the show’s worst winner.

“[Yes], Taylor Hicks!” Seacrest said.

“Okay, well he’s above him,” Cowell replied.

Last week, Cowell’s remark was  that Kris was “not a good enough singer to compete with Adam” in the finale.  Cowell said that Danny Gokey  was “the only one who can compete with Adam on vocals.”

Once Danny was voted off Kris was left to battle it out with Adam.

“Listen, congratulations Kris. Anyone that gets the public vote, good luck to them,” Cowell said later in his interview with Seacrest.

Simon Cowell On Ellen – “Adam Should Win”