Was last night’s Idol better without Paula?

I realize we’ve yet to see the makeup of the new panel of judges on American Idol (Ellen DeGeneres joins when the show hits Hollywood), but we did get our first exposure to life without Paula last night. So, what did everyone think?

Personally, I loved it. As much as I think Kara DioGuardi is completely incompetent (and infantile), and least she’s not a rambling, bumbling stream of nonsensical adjectives, strung together only so far as one literally follows another. I don’t care whether Paula was on something or not … no one should turn in work that sub par on a regular basis. I say so long, and good riddance — you certainly were not missed last night!

Even when David Beckham’s wife (how funny was the person who called Victoria that?) spewed nonsense about looks and appearances, I didn’t feel as if she was talking on as vastly inapplicable a plane as Paula used to. Even as Kara shouted at Simon for being Simon I didn’t feel the urge to punch her in the face the way Paula’s fights with him used to make me feel. Hell, even as Kara got into an unbelievably juvenile and embarrassing argument with the oddly Clark Kent-looking contestant, I was still thanking the money men at FOX for saying so long to Paula. They sure did us a solid.

What I do wonder is how many people are going to call Kara “Paula” this season. We saw one last night, and there are bound to be more. And you know it’s going to be Kara who gets it — she’s not at all recognizable the way the guest judges are bound to be (although “V” could walk up to me and introduce herself and I still would have no idea who she was), and everyone knows who Ellen is (she’s the talk show host who looks like a little boy, right?). Kara, on the other hand, is a non-entity, and, like Paula, has dark hair. Yeah, she’s going to get “Paula”-d for a long time.

Although there’s no telling how long the show will actually last post-Simon. As my wife opined last night, contestants (and industry experts) are likely to start calling a post-Simon American Idol win less-than, which would surely number the show’s days. But then that’s not surprising — I’ve never heard a contestant in the confessional mention anyone other than Simon when discussing who they were looking to impress, or whose comments meant the most to them.

But all that is next year’s problem. Right now things are good with Idol … Paula’s gone, Simon’s still here, guest judges are in town, train wreck contestants await, and, while she may excel, Ellen has yet to disappoint (not that she will, I’m just saying that an unknown future is still a bright and shiny one).

What did you think? Was the hard-to-miss absence of Paula’s voice a gift from the gods, or did you find yourself longing for her great musical insight? Or do you fall somewhere in between?

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Jan 13, 2010 @ 14:00 EST5EDT