Analysis: Judging the new judge

There has been a lot of talk of Idol's freshest face, judge Kara DioGuardi, over the course of the past few weeks. Although there were many that speculated the addition of Kara would cause more headaches than it would create solution's to the franchise's tiring formula.

Fortunately for both fans and casual viewers of the show, Kara was viewed as being a generally positive aspect of the auditions (thus far, at least). Kara's critiques have been more meaningful than those Paula usually doles out and have been less pointlessly scathing than those Simon is used to granting auctioneers with. The fact that she is a singer-songwriter also gives credence to her advice, because she genuinely knows what those auditioning are going through most of the time.

Perhaps her brightest spot in the first two audition cities was how she handled obsessive fan Lea Marie Golde. The 16-year-old girl that gave Kara a binder full of original songs she wrote was in denial following her nasal take on Cascada's "Every Time We Touch," but Kara was able to tell off Simon for mocking the girl. She then firmly stated that the reality was Lea was not good enough, but gave her props for having the guts to perform. Even though it made for an extremely awkward few minutes, it goes to show that Kara can be both honest and gentle at the same time.

This segment was extremely eerie because of the suicide of Paula's obsessive fan Paula Goodspeed late last year, which happened after this audition took place. It was a little shocking that the producers went ahead and kept the segment in light of the tragedy, but that just makes Kara's handling of the situation that much more admirable.

Despite showing much promise, there was one episode where the inner cat came out in Kara, as she and Paula ganged up on bikini girl Katrina Darrell. Even though she was not the greatest, Katrina showed she could sing, but Kara's jealousy over the girl's attire clouded her judgment and even brought her to show the girl "how to really sing" her audition song, "Vision of Love." Granted, the girl had the attitude of a six year-old pageant queen from Alabama, but Kara's approach was less professional than it could have been.

Another thing the producers are probably counting on is that there will be an inevitable cat fight between the two female judges, but so far Kara has been just as cautious as Paula despite the fact that this scenario is still very much a possibility. Paula has actually been making more constructive comments than usually, which is probably a direct result of the addition of Kara. All in all, a good thing for the show.

Luckily for Kara, millions of viewers seem to be on her side and the balance and credibility she brings to the judging panel is worth the extra chair and Coke cup that will be needed each week.