Ken Tucker at Entertainment Weekly thinks with the recent departure of Ellen, the firing of Kara Dioguardi and Simon Cowell retiring, American Idol should throw in the towel. I actually think the show should just become the next American Bandstand.

Eliminate the judges all together and just have the contestants compete week to week with just America voting. This way you don’t have to worry about the judges and every week you get see what people want, the performances. Then American Idol can be solely hosted by Ryan Seacrest and he can introduce and interview each contestant which virtually becomes the next American Bandstand.

Could American Idol survive without judges?

http://watching-tv.ew.com/2010/07/30/american-idol-cancel-it/

At a recent performance, an audience member asked last year’s American Idol winner Kris Allen to play his song “Live Like You Were Dying” , the problem is his song is actually “Live Like We’re Dying”. Kris ended up playing the Tim McGraw hit “Live Like You Were Dying” and then played his tune in a later set. Through out modern music history, there have been many song titles that are later repeated, but this situation is unique because the hits are released so close to each other.

Songs With Similar Titles
Live Like You Were Dying – Tim McGraw (2004)
Live Like We’re Dying – Kris Alllen (2009)

Can you think of any other hit songs with similar titles released so close to each other?

Last year on the American Music Awards Adam Lambert, the runner-up to 2009′s American Idol, created a stir with a provocative dance move during his song “For Your Entertainment”. On Lopez Tonight, George Lopez said, “Why is everyone making a big deal about Adam, he isn’t even a star yet?” Do you agree with him?

Coming to a town near you, it’s the American Idol Channel. I’ve mentioned this concept before however everyday the volume of content to fill the channel becomes more apparent. For example, tonight was the Jennifer Hudson Holiday Special on ABC, another American Idol (AI) graduate gone big time. Jennifer hit it big with her performance in Dream Girls a couple years back and has not been looking back ever since. A couple weeks ago Carrie Underwood had her holiday special. I just heard Danny Gokey on our local Clear Channel Country station pushing his new single. David Archuleta is now on tour in support of his new holiday album.

The AI machine is in full swing, so when will the 24/7 AI channel come to life? I am guessing 2011.