J-Lo Sweeter Than Sugar... Who Knew?

Houston, we have a problem.
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Despite the fact that Fox and the producers of "American Idol" are desperately trying to get the news out that the ratings for the first post-Simon Cowell "American Idol" are higher than ever, let's face the truth: the show is boring.
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(james dunn)
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Last night's episode was the first in which the final group of singers began the real competition. No more dwindling down a bunch of contestants; the final group was selected last week, and last night, the final group began to sing the songs which would either make them stars or get them booted from the show. And the cream of the crop quickly made themselves known. Casey and James are clearly the most talented, with Thia a close third. If the world was perfect, these three would make the finals of the show.
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(thia megia)

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But the talent on the show is not what has wrecked the show. Ever since Idol began, there have always been singers who were obviously better than others, and other singers who struggled from week to week just to find the right songs and the right notes within those songs. No, what the show is now lacking is an honest judge.
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Last night, there were some singers, who, quite frankly, sucked. And yes, we are looking at you, Stefano, Ashthon and Naima. But the judges, who were all trying to "out-nice" each other, rarely criticized any of the most awful singers. The worst we heard last night about any of the bad singers was that they were "pitchy". Can we outlaw that word, please? We, and Idol, need a Simon Cowell to tell the truth; forget "pitchy", how about "You can't sing, and you have no business being on this show!"?
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(casey abrams)

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"American Idol" will go on, and will probably continue to do well in the ratings. Despite the lack of good criticism by the judges, it's still a highly entertaining talent contest. But if we had known that Jennifer Lopez, of all people, was going to be this sickeningly sweet, we would have held a fund-raiser to pay for Paula Abdul's rehab just so we could have kept her sober and pill-free long enough to prop her up for another season.