TVSquad

Even though she just got the call about the gig a few days ago, new American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi took some time this afternoon to sit down and chat with the media via a massive conference call. As we were going along, I found myself listening as much to how she carried herself conversationally as I was to what she had to say. After all, this is going to be one of the four most listened to voices in America come January when American Idol's eighth season kicks off.

She came across as smart, knowledgeable, a bit funny and clearly overwhelmed by the enormity of the situation into which she's been thrust. She spoke about how for most of her career she's been being the scenes, as a songwriter and producer. I would say that you may have seen her on ABC's The One: Making a Music Star, but then nobody saw that. But it means she's been called to judge a singing competition before, and even saw last season's Syesha Mercado there. Hell, she's practicaly a veteran at this now.

Maybe they got tired of the criticism the current panel has been getting for their devolving into piles of cliche-ridden goo. Maybe it's a test run to see if they can find someone the audience can embrace so they can get rid of one of the other three judges. Maybe it's just because they wanted to have four judges from the beginning and it just took them a long time to get there.

Kara DioGuardi joining American Idol as a fourth judge is an interesting choice. As an award-winning songwriter and producer she definitely has the credentials to be involved as a judge on a singing competition. but the show almost never features original songs. You'd think that having a great songwriter on the panel would inspire the addition of a songwriting aspect to the show. I'd love to see the contestants challenged to write their own music, or in some cases bring some of the original music they've already created to the stage.

Simon Cowell is producing One Chance at Paramount. The film will be about Paul Potts, the opera singer who competed on Britain's Got Talent. The performance on the show was his last effort at a music career. Potts, a cell phone salesman, had hit a streak of bad luck and only auditioned on BGT in 2007 on a whim. He ended up blowing away the judges, Cowell one of them. Potts won the show, went on an international music tour, and released an album.

Justin Zackman, the scribe from The Bucket List, will write the screenplay. Zackman is also working on Planetwalker, an environmental drama for Universal.

This is the American Idol judge's studio debut. Cowell is also working on a project about a musical reality show called Star Struck. I wonder if that will be anything like American Dreamz which starred Mandy Moore and Hugh Grant.

The video of Paul's audition for Britain's Got Talent is after the jump.

The Daily News has put together an article comparing the judges from American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance which confirms what I've been feeling all along: So You Think You Can Dance is the superior competition show.

Take a look at the comparisons after the jump.

We scoured the earth (and the archives at various record companies for failed projects that showed vocal promise) to create the greatest assemblage of singing talent American Idol has ever seen! So what happened? After last year's virtual snooze-fest, how did a season that truly did give us perhaps the greatest depth of talent we've ever seen (an argument could be made for Season Five) give us such lackluster shows?

After Sanjaya-gate last year, the biggest controversy to come out this year was that finalist David Hernandez used to be a stripper and David Archuleta's dad might be a Mr. Meany-Pants. And we got to be pissed that Kristy Lee Cook outlasted the likes of Michael Johns. Not until we got to the finale of Davids did things get really intense.

The battle of the Davids has come to a close, with David Cook emerging as the victor for the seventh season of American Idol.

The highly anticipated finale had everyone -- bloggers, fans and even celebrities -- buzzing about which David would be the next Idol. But even after David Archuleta's much-praised performance Tuesday night (and Simon Cowell's endorsement), many were predicting Cook to win the title.

Still, backstage at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, the result had the press gasping. Cook himself seemed surprised that he received the majority of 97.5 million votes cast. "I walked into this competition with no expectations and I'm walking out with out any," Cook told the press.

Now, maybe Simon Cowell's already had a tell-all book about his life, or revealed his childhood a hundred times, but if he has I never saw it. So when I saw this short story about his childhood, it struck me on several levels. In it he stated that he was "always bored" growing up. Apparently, he still hasn't licked that problem because today on American Idol he still looks bored half the time, except when he's pissed at a kid for rearranging "I Shot the Sheriff."

He also indicated that frustration with his life led him to thoughts of suicide, though it isn't made clear if we're talking more serious contemplation than most teenagers, who consider it at one time or another in moments of extreme emotion. So now he pushes other kids to those emotional extremes to make sure they're made of tough enough stuff. I hope they have a suicide watch in Hollywood!

Just when some people are saying that American Idol should shake things up a bit comes this bit of news from one of the judges: they might lower the age for contestants.

Right now the youngest a performer can be on the show is 16 (fan favorite David Archuleta is 17) and the highest limit is 30, which is really old in pop music terms I guess. But judge Simon Cowell tells Extra that the FOX show might drop the lowest age from 16 to 14. Then, if that works out well, the plan is to eventually have contestants audition directly from their mother's womb. That would be fantastic television, having fetuses go up against 25 year-olds.

Cowell also suggests that potential contestants, especially the girls, cry a lot more to get sympathy and get more votes from viewers. FOX should get ready for some phone calls from the L.A. chapter of NOW.

[via TV Tattle]

The rumor that Paula Abdul will be a contestant on Dancing With The Stars has been floating around for a while now, and gained a little more steam with Paula's recent appearance on the show. Now, along with all the fan chatter, we are getting reactions from some of the people involved with the show. Our pals over at TV Guide sent along a press release for their upcoming issue, which you can find in its entirety after the jump, with quotes from Carrie Ann and Bruno.

In a nutshell, Bruno thinks she would win. Carrie Ann says that Paula is fragile and won't realize how much pressure is on her until she's signed up and can't get out. I asked DWTS pro Jonathan Roberts about it Monday night and his take was that he would be surprised to see Paula compete on the show because of her extensive dance background. He added that he thinks Paula has been around reality TV enough that she would know what she is getting into. I say, good or bad, it's a spectacle waiting to happen. What do you think? Click on through for a poll, and to sound off in the comments.

It's become a Tuesday night staple in this country. We all pop some corn, snuggle into our afghan blankets and huddle en masse around our tubages of boobages just to watch the litany of lyrical losers parading across our flashing screens. We cheer early on as they rant and roar, calling foul and blaming the judges and camera crews for the fact that they just plain suck. And we eat it up like candy.

But once it all settles down and we're left with only those singers with real talent, where can we go for our weekly dose of crazy? Yes, this is something that is an important part of the American Idol experience. The producers aren't stupid. They know that once the crazy contestants are flushed away they risk the chance of losing the 'slow down to look at an accident and I better see a body if I had to sit in traffic for more than ten minutes for this or at least a severed limb' crowd. And that, my friends, is why I bring you 'Exhibit A': Ms. Paula Abdul.

When American Idol's Randy Jackson announced that he was producing a competition for dance crews, instead of solo dancers like So You Think You Can Dance, I thought this was a great idea. On SYTYCD there were always these great street dancers who couldn't handle the discipline of ballroom but where great at what you could do. Well, apparently Randy had the right idea because Randy Jackson Presents: America's Best Dance Crew was a monster hit for MTV this past winter.

So it was inevitably renewed, and we've just gotten the list of audition dates and cities. The rules are pretty simple. Be 18 years and up and be part of a crew of 5-7 members. Then be able to get to New York April 18th, Houston April 21st, LA April 29th or Chicago May 3rd. Or, if you kind of suck, plan to go to all four sites. Maybe I should dust off my old dancing shoes and see if I've still got it. For more information check out America's Best Dance Crew's website or Season 2's MySpace page.

I'm not ashamed to admit it. I grew up with the Paula Abdul vs. Janet Jackson rivalry. Janet had a better singing voice, but Paula was the better dancer. Now, here it is six hundred years or so later and while Janet's never stopped recording, it's been awhile since we've seen Ms. Abdul sing and dance. If you missed her Super Bowl performance, now she and Randy Jackson have released the official music video for their new single "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow."

For a woman of 45, Paula looks and moves great. Her vocals are about what they've always been, but nevertheless this has a great dance hook and should do very well in the club scene. Maybe this will be the beginning of a full-fledged comeback for her.

Of course everyone knows about a little project named American Idol that judge Randy Jackson is a part of. But like Simon Cowell before him, Randy wasn't content to sit on his laurels and collect that fat paycheck. He had other ideas, and MTV was smart enough to pick up his latest reality competition.

As someone who spent ten years in dance, going so far as to perform with the St. Louis Ballet Company, it is always exciting for me to see dance represented on television. And when street dance troupes started appearing on So You Think You Can Dance auditions I felt that a competition show should be built for them. Most were brilliant at what they did and incredibly popular with the audience, but struggled in the structured more classically-styled demands of So You Think. A competition tailored to the type of dancing they excelled at would be perfect and should prove popular.

I'm trying to think back in my mental Rolodex to the season of American Idol that featured Katharine McPhee and Taylor Hicks. I know that Simon Cowell wasn't too big on Hicks, but didn't he at some point praise McPhee and her singing?

That seems to have been forgotten by Cowell. He tells ExtraTV.com that he "didn't care much for Katharine McPhee. I don't think she was a credible recording artist. Katharine will end up on Broadway!"

Well, it wasn't halftime, but Paula Abdul did "rock" the Super Bowl. Somehow, when I sat down in front of my TV for a second before heading out, it was just at the moment when Ryan Seacrest was introducing the Abdul performance. This was about two hours or so before the game in the middle of FOX's fifty-six hour long pre-game coverage, so it was sheer luck that I saw it at all.

That said, I don't know what I think about it. The song is nice enough, and it was fun seeing good old Randy Jackson jamming out behind her on bass guitar, but it sure seemed like she was lip-synching. I even feel pretty damned confident I saw her out of synch with the track at a few points. That said, my girl can still dance and proves that over forty can still be hot.