“American Idol” Finally Premieres

Ryan Seacrest talks to the contestantsLast night after months of tabloid stories about the show as well as months of advertising the new season of “American Idol” premiered on FOX with Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez joining Randy Jackson behind the judges table. I was kind of expecting a mess and I was nicely surprised with last night’s show as both of the new judges did very well. Steven Tyler is wacky as expected but his comments are straight forward, Jennifer Lopez was expected to be like Paula with emotional outbursts she was sensitive but also held her own.  Both of the new judges were very comfortable in front of the camera which isn’t surprising as both of them are performers but it brought a relaxed tone which the show didn’t see last year. Yes I do miss Simon but it looks like Steven will somewhat fill the role of the one that is plain talking. The third judge Randy Jackson has sensibly not tried to compete in star power and moved in to a supportive role of the other judges on the desk. I’m sure last night’s premiere had big ratings as people tuned in to see the new judges the question is will the same audience stayed tuned to the show over the next several weeks. It will be later in the season before we see what the effect the new judges have had on the show which has seen declining ratings over the last few years but has still been televisions number one rated show.