News-Record.com

I swear, it's a rite of passage. Simon is the best judge on 'American Idol,' never afraid to say exactly what he's thinking. Until the last week, and then he seems to back the producers' call.

Simon had faint praise for David Cook (although I agree Cook would have done better to reprise 'Billie Jean' or 'Don't Want to Miss a Thing' if he wanted to win), and he had nothing but fawning for Baby David. And that second song that Baby D. sang, his choice from the writers' competition songs, was a piece of treacly crap. (At least David C. made his piece of crap song watchable by singing the hell out of it.) Not to mention, Baby D. was a poor man's Clay Aiken for the first song, doing "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," complete with a dash of Fantasia's bobbing up and down movements. Third round, Archuleta sang "Imagine" again, and once again he screwed with the lyrics, which is unforgivable. And yet, Simon, who usually sees past all that, gave him the "win" each round.

Last night was a travesty in other ways, as well. What was up with the extended boxing metaphor? They had the announcer in the beginning, complete with Rocky music, announcing the contestants and their weights. He even did the signature "Let's get ready to rumble!" Then the poor contestants had to come out in boxing gloves and robes, and I swear I couldn't stop laughing. It was awful.

'American Idol' really needs to take a page from 'Dancing with the Stars,' 'Rock Star' and 'Nashville Star.' Once upon a time, it was the only game in town, but now there are similar shows who do it better. Instead of a bunch of talking and recrap every results show, let's see you do what 'Dancing' and 'Rock Star' do, and let the judges pick someone for an encore performance. Copy 'Dancing' and fill your results show with actual content: medleys and professionals and other creative things. Also, let's see the contestants do their own material, a la 'Nashville Star.' Of course, that would require picking contestants with talent instead of great mimics.

Also, I would love to go to a system where the judges come into play in who gets kicked off, like 'Dancing' or 'Rock Star.' In the first, the judges' scores count for half, with any ties going to the audience choice. In 'Rock Star,' the audience decided the bottom group, and the judges picked one to kick off from those two or three, with a sing-off on the results show to help decide. Surely a system like that would have kept the Tamyra Grays and Chris Daughtrys on 'Idol' longer.

Also, 'American Idol,' you don't get to use a clip of Daughtry when announcing the 'Idols' who have gone on to be stars. Seriously -- not an 'Idol,' didn't win, you don't get to pretend he did. And that's the biggest thing wrong with your show -- the real talent is often kicked off the show long before the winner is announced.