THE JUDGE'S CONSTIPATION WILL GO TO HIS HEAD: You know, I was all ready to hate the new version of American Idol. I mean, I expected to despise Jennifer Lopez, and I couldn't figure out why Steven Tyler would do it, and I know for a fact that Randy Jackson is useless. I know it's just one episode of auditions, but for my money, that couldn't have gone much better. As it turns out, taking all of the passive-aggressive tension and the muttering and the mind games and the could-give-a-shit tardiness and truancy out of an audition episode left nothing but a loose, breezy good time. Surely Tyler's sexual harassment of 15-year-olds will grow old (incidentally: he is who he is, and we knew who that was when he was hired, so I'm kind of glad he's not going to change just because he's on TV). Surely reputed diva and self-described Gervais-threatener Jennifer Lopez will not continue to be all smiles and candy. Surely, uh, Randy Jackson. But this was an important episode for Idol, and it went well.
ETA: What didn't go so well: Ratings down 13% from last year's premiere. Ratings, of course, correlate to expected quality, not actual quality.
