Idol Producer says “We’re pleased with the fourth judge”

I’m sorry, but I don’t really like Kara. I don’t think she’s added anything to the show. She’s kind of like Randy to me — just a bunch of blather without saying much. I think she likes to hear herself talk, and she seems to have a big ego.

Three judges worked better; a fourth really doesn’t add anything. I would prefer to see Simon, Paula, and Randy next year; or Simon, Paula, and Kara. Either way — it doesn’t really matter — but three is much better.

The time issue will be a very convenient way to save face when they give her the boot.

Here’s the thing, honey, there are times when you make Paula’s comments sound sane. So, just keep on keepin’ on.

I’ve been extra disappointed in Kara because I expected her critiques to leverage her experience as a songwriter / producer / performer. They didn’t need another rambling crackpot – they needed an actual counterpoint to Simon’s A&R input. A missed opportunity, there.

But I credit Kara’s arrival with making Paula relevant, coherent and insightful. Lord. I can’t believe I just said that.

à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s hard for (the judges) to figure out whether theyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve spoken for 30 seconds or 45 seconds, so à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ ¦ weà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢re going to try and help them with that and give them a sense of their timing so that we keep it under control a bit more,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  Frot-Coutaz said

What are they going to do? Have Ricky start playing the Idol theme song when they start to go long? Getting louder and louder? Or will they use the big Idol towers to change colours as they time ticks by. Green for the first 15 seconds. Yellow for the next 30 seconds? Red for “Shut-up, already!!!”? Or they could have Bikini Girl back and she could walk across the stage every 15 seconds like those girls at the boxing matches announcing the rounds. Or will they just send electric shocks to their chairs when they’ve talked long enough? Or maybe they’ll just give Ryan a big old “Stop” sign.

These blowbags have such a high opinion of their own opinions, that they will probably ignore all these timing “hints” (Paula might even like the electric shocks).

I know I’m in the minority as I’m someone who does not mind Kara. She’s better than Randy for me.

If they were bringing Kara on to eventually replace one of the others, then they should have waited until someone actually left. Then, we wouldn’t have a choice, and we would be stuck with her. The longer she’s there, the more it become evident that she doesn’t belong there. I could see from the start that she wasn’t going to work out, but I’m kinda tired of singing the “Kara doesn’t belong” song.

I’ll even take Randy over her at this point, but I’m sure I’m in the minority there.

What bothers me more is seeing them work and rework the show throughout the entire season. It’s like the woman who puts on her makeup in the car on the way to work. The big wreck is just around the corner.

Eh, I like her. I think there are times when she’s offered much more constructive criticism than the other 3. As I read as a comment in an article somewhere earlier in the season, she’s pretty much on par with Paula and Randy at this point; the only difference is that while she’s on her first season, they’re on their 8th. So the question is not really “what’s her problem?” It’s “what’s their excuse?”

Also, I’m sorry that I can’t be bothered by a 4th judge posing a time issue when it seems like half the f*cking show is commercials. But oh, when we can get $600 K for a 30 second spot, why the hell not fill up half of a one hour show with commercials? Before long, the contestants will have no intro package, 30 seconds to sing, and Simon will be the only one to comment. The other 50 minutes will be commercials. /rant

And just lollllll at her poking fun of her math skillz. Awesome.

I think Kara has had one obvious beneficial effect to the show: her presence made Paula raise her game. This is the most coherent and most constructive season Paula’s had as a judge since the first couple of seasons. I think that’s because of the rumors Kara was brought in to replace her and because of Kara’s credentials although it could be because of the Jason Castro incident too.

IMO Kara’s smarter than her comments have shown. Maybe it’s taking some time for her to adjust to the format. Not that I blame people for thinking she’s a waste on the show.

The judges panel needed to be shaken up because they were all too settled into their roles. Kara’s brought that. I also think the producers are happy that she’s making the audience nostalgic for the original 3 judges. As far as they’re concerned I think she’s serving her purpose.

I like Kara too. I’ve been tired of Randy’s repetitive comments since Season 2. And, Paula rarely ever makes sense to me. Typically, I have no idea where she’s going with her critique. While I may not always agree with Kara, at least she has some command of the language and uses more than 4 words.

She and Randy are kind of redundant. I can’t stand her “package artist” mentality. Some of her songs are decent but she also writes utter crap for Hilary Duff types. She’s kind of a glorified hack so when you watch her you just know that while they sing great songs on the show, by the times their albums come out, it’s just going to be generic garbage.

It would be better to have a judge who wasn’t so “inside” the industry. Just so you could almost believe the fantasy that the show has bigger artistic aspriations than moving units.

IMO she is a waste of space on this show. I really don’t see a need for 4 judges. Way too many.

Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ll even take Randy over her at this point, but Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m sure Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m in the minority there.

Nope- me too.
Randy, Paula, and Simon are the American Idol judges.
That’s all.
That’s the way it started, that’s the way it endured, and that’s the way it should continue (and at some point, end).

Eh, I like her. I think there are times when sheà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s offered much more constructive criticism than the other 3. As I read as a comment in an article somewhere earlier in the season, sheà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s pretty much on par with Paula and Randy at this point; the only difference is that while sheà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s on her first season, theyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢re on their 8th. So the question is not really à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“whatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s her problem?à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“whatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s their excuse?à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬ 

Also, Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m sorry that I canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t be bothered by a 4th judge posing a time issue when it seems like half the f*cking show is commercials. But oh, when we can get $600 K for a 30 second spot, why the hell not fill up half of a one hour show with commercials? Before long, the contestants will have no intro package, 30 seconds to sing, and Simon will be the only one to comment. The other 50 minutes will be commercials. /rant

I think Kara has had one obvious beneficial effect to the show: her presence made Paula raise her game. This is the most coherent and most constructive season Paulaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s had as a judge since the first couple of seasons. I think thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s because of the rumors Kara was brought in to replace her and because of Karaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s credentials although it could be because of the Jason Castro incident too.

I totally agree. The old trio should be replaced. Randy’s vocabulary is so poor it’s not even funny, Paula’s critiques are obviously scripted and Simon is the main manipulator. Their comments are so predictable. Bring some fresh blood, we need three new judges to join Kara!

And I agree about the commercials.

I don’t mind Kara either. It’s her first season, and she’s made blunders, but unlike Paula and Randy, she has the potential to be really useful once she overcomes her learning curve. Like someone upthread said, Paula and Randy are on their 8th season, what’s their excuse. Oh yeah, they’re nimwits. Kara’s a smart girl, she can and needs to step up and do better. She just needs to stop babbling, stop agreeing with everyone, and be meaner, but in a more constructive way than Simon by drawing from her industry experience.

I can ignore Kara as easily as I do the others, so she doesn’t bother me. I just wish they would get the show in in whatever amount of time they’ve scheduled it for so they don’t screw up my Tivo! The week they cut off Adam’s performance it resulted in the end of Fringe being cut off too and I had to track it down online to watch the ending. Pain in the ass! So if they can’t get it in in an hour make it 90 minutes and then stick to it!

I like Kara and much prefer her to Paula who I agree with Mateja is often scripted. I know she has things prepared to say about Adam because they’re obviously rehearsed and don’t even make sense with the song (ie he was brave for doing BTBW). Randy doesn’t bother me as much but agree he’s pretty useless most of the time. Simon seems to hate what he’s doing a lot of the time these days although doubt they could do without him. The only problem I see with Kara is that the others or at least Simon & Paula seem to resent her and therefore aren’t making her transition easy.

For me, Kara adds nothing to the show but I could put up with her if four judges didn’t take up so much time. It slows the show down too much and she’s not worth it.

Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ll even take Randy over her at this point, but Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m sure Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m in the minority there.

Nope- me too.
Randy, Paula, and Simon are the American Idol judges.
Thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s all.
Thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s the way it started, thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s the way it endured, and thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s the way it should continue (and at some point, end).

Well, I can say his words don’t care weight, or whatever, but people sure were in a tizzy when he said he didn’t like Kris’ performance and that he was pitchy. Someone worthless can talk until he’s blue in the face, and no one would listen. On the other hand, I wonder how many people actually put stock in Kara saying it was one of his best performances ever. I mean, even she squee’d when Simon agreed with her assessment the next night.

I’m sure she’s still cutting her judge’s teeth and all, but I’m looking at the here and now, not the future.

All in all, the season pretty much sucks, so listening to an extra person try to make it seem interesting isn’t high on my list of priorities.

I know Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m in the minority as Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m someone who does not mind Kara. Sheà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s better than Randy for me.

Nope, I agree with you. Randy too often seems to be looking for the next big diva type, the next generation of Whitney/Mariah. But Cowell already covered that with Leona, lol. Plus I’m tired of him reaching into his bag of 5-6 catchphrases and lazily stringing them together to form a “critique”.

Kara at least is actively working with artists right now and has a better sense of what the kids need to do to be successful in TODAY’S music scene.

She needs to move away from the cheerleading type of critiques though, leave those to Paula!

As far as I’m concerned, they can keep Simon and Kara and dump both Randy and Paula and bring in a new person. If forced to choose between Randy and Paula, I’d keep Paula. Kara has forced Paula to up her game and sound coherent this year.

As for Randy, yo dawg, ya got nuthin’ to say.

I like Kara. I think she’s been a breath of fresh air to this show.

Keep Kara, boot Randy. She occasionally gives out helpful advice, all he does is sprout gibberish. I’m sure she’ll improve once the main source of stupidity is removed.

I don’t have a problem with Kara (although it looks like I’m in the minority in this forum). She may not be able to count (ha!) but at least she speaks English, unlike Paula.

I cringe every time Paula opens her mouth and stumbles and stutters through five minutes of completely unintelligible gibberish. It’s like she has memorized what she’s supposed to say, but remembers half the words in the wrong order. Plus, even if the performance sucked so badly it caused the implosion of a star in some far-off galaxy, 9 times out of 10 she’ll find some way to describe it is “great” (using 20 more words than necessary). How is that constructive and helpful?? If I have taped the show, she usually gets only two words out of her mouth before I dive for the remote and press ‘fast-forward’. She just drives me bonkers. Listening to her makes me wonder “Is this what an aneurism feels like? What kind of drugs has that woman been smoking?!”

And it absolutely drives me crazy when she gets up and dances during the performances. Sit the eff DOWN, woman! How can she possibly be paying attention?

…Okay, rant finished. lol

I cannot stand this little twit. She makes Paula look and sound like Einstein.
She’s never had an original thought in her life.

“As far as Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m concerned, they can keep Simon and Kara and dump both Randy and Paula and bring in a new person.”

This.

I would vote for the third person to be someone young and at least mildly relevant, someone who is actually familiar with current music.

The only thing entertaining about Paula is watching the look on Simon’s face while she talks. In general, Simon and Paula spend way too much time distracting each other (like middle-schoolers) and not enough time focusing on their freaking jobs!

Randy’s just useless.

But I credit Karaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s arrival with making Paula relevant, coherent and insightful. Lord. I canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t believe I just said that.

Truer words have never been typed. LOL Seriously, I really do not like her. She blatters too much and I hate how she is so intent on placing the contestants in a particular role or genre.

I like Kara a bit. Her addition has made Paula raise her game. Too often Kara parrots comments made by others and if it’s Randy… that’s serious trouble.

As I’ve said many times, Randy is useless, IMO. He doesn’t seem to understand any singing style other than belting out songs. Subtle nuances escape him. He never met a run in a song that he didn’t like. The more runs the better seems to be Randy’s way of thinking. USELESS.

The CD that Randy put out last year really, really, sucked. His judging opinion didn’t mean much after listening to the songs on his CD. USELESS.

I like Kara more as a personality than as a judge. I thought that she would bring a fresh perspective as a singer and songwriter, but really she seems to be serving another purpose imho. He over the top kissing of Danny’s ass show that she is just another pawn in tptb’s arsenal. I mean Paula has her meds, what’s Kara’s excuse.

Randy, Paula, and Simon are the American Idol judges.

That is how I feel too. I think it just works. Even Randy. I also trust him more than Simon when it comes to both pop culture and voices. I would prefer someone as a judge who produces Overnight Sensational for Sam Moore, than the dude who brought us Il Divo. I purchased them both, but guess which one I actually listen to?

Anyway, for all of her scripted moments, and even her wtf moments, Paula is the heart of this show. Both literally and figuratively.

ETA: Pauler isn’t the only one to excel in hyperbole~

Reading some of these positive Kara posts, reminds me of how she pretty muched packed a lot of her friends in the audience to counteract the obvious lack of interest in her. One week it seemed that it went silent when Kara was announced, then a few weeks later, Megan’s brother heckles her and the audience agreed, then suddenly, from reports of people in the audience, there seemed to be plants there cheering her on.

Kara is an intelligent person but she is not really showing it in her critiques and her conduct. With all due respect to her, unless you were in the industry, or are like me, someone who reads album liners to see who writes what songs, you wouldn’t know who Kara is. She seems to have this sour face on, or a completely fake smile. It’s either one or the other. It’s as if she is being prompted to keep a smile on because she is so hard looking.

As for her critiques, she had the POTENTIAL to be the voice of reason speaking to her experience as a singer/songwriter/performer. However, she abandoned that in favor of looking for a package artist, instead of celebrating a talent, who may not as yet found their niche. Seeing her trying to force people into a box to fit her perceptions was a let down at best, aggrivating at worst.

For all of those acting as if Kara is responsible for raising Paula’s game….hogwash. If you’ve watched AI since the beginning, it has been Paula who has been spot on way more often that the other judges. She doesn’t have to be as rude and smarmy as Simon to get the point across. We’ve all figured out her code for letting everyone know that she thought someone sucked by her commenting on their performance or how they look. She doesn’t have to be a tool like Simon and pound these kids egos and dreams into the ground.

AI should stick with 3 judges: Paula, Simon, and Randy or Kara (if she works on her game and junks the package artist crap). Personally, I prefer Randy to Kara.

I simply cannot forgive Paula for what was done to Jason. I wanted an on-the-air apology, but everyone tried to gloss it over. Her “type” of judge could be replaced. Now, Randy has been dubbed the “useless” judge and he hasn’t gotten any better this year.

The old trio should be replaced. Randyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s vocabulary is so poor ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s not even funny, Paulaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s critiques are obviously scripted and Simon is the main manipulator. Their comments are so predictable. Bring some fresh blood, we need three new judges to join Kara!

At this point, if they replaced Paula and Randy, the show would survive with Kara and Simon. The other one or two judges would have to be someone greatly respected in the industry. After 4-5 shows, we would get over the loss of the two who were replaced.

Kara knows what she’s doing with one major exception – that’s when she goes crazy bananas over Danny’s average performances.