Popular Idol Season Debut Gives us Bikinis and Catty New Judge

It wasn’t the most watched American Idol season debut ever - that came in 2007, when the season’s opening episode was watched by 37.4 million viewers – but it may have been the one that will remain the most talked about. 30.1 million viewers saw the show on Tuesday evening, down slightly from the 2008 debut as well, but what those 30+ million were treated to has the entertainment world buzzing. First was Katrina Darrell, the 20-year-old contestant who showed up on stage at the Phoenix, Arizona auditions wearing nothing but a bikini. Next came new judge Kara DioGuardi, who opened up with some understated criticism but then turned the cattiness up a notch when a fan of hers, Lea Marie Golde, performed below her expectations.

Speaking of the lower-than-in-the-past (but still impressive) viewing numbers, Fox entertainment chairman Peter Liguori noted, "We’re unsatisfied because within the ‘Idol’ universe, you never want to see year-to-year erosion. With all that being said, I think we’re optimistic about the show’s performance from this point forward." While we didn’t know that there was an entire "universe" dedicated to the Idol show, we are at least happy to know that Liguori "thinks" that he’s optimistic. We’ll check back later, of course, to report on any further level of certainty that the chairman may obtain on the matter.

In an odd twist, one of Fox’s rivals, CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler, actually complimented Fox when she said, "You won’t find these kinds of numbers on cable or any other medium. Network television still works when advertisers and audiences respond to creative, high-quality content." Hmmm…high-quality? That day may have passed us by long ago, but "entertaining in a train-wreck sort of way" seems to suffice nicely in the modern day. Still, such an indictment of modern television probably would be seen as weakness from the CBS chief, so we don’t blame her for candy-coating it.