Simon Who?

For me, American Idol has never been about the judges, it’s about the contestants and the talent. Even still, I was nervous when I realized that Simon wasn’t coming back. He arrived in the first season of American Idol, an unknown to American audiences and left the show an institution.

People proclaimed all kinds of calamity for the show without the presence of Simon and with the announcement of the new judges, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler, many more got nervous (including me). Jenny from the Block has a serious diva reputation and Steven Tyler? Well, he’s a living example of that old, this-is-your-brain-on-drugs commercial with the fried egg (watch it here).

But I have watched two of the audition rounds and so far, so good. I found myself actually asking, “Simon who?” All three have had turns giving good advice and being goofy and the decision to focus on the better auditions have made some good TV watching.

But we really won’t know how good they are until we get to the live performance shows where they won’t have the benefit of extensive editing.

They might want to institute a 7 second delay for Tyler though. He’s a loose cannon, not to mention, a bit of a dirty old man!