Season 8: Worst season ever

American Idol's eighth season is the series' overall worst season.

There, I said it. And I feel much better.

Alright, so this is not just me engaging in my usual hyperbole, this is the real deal. I truly believe this season has been such a train wreck from start to finish that it deserves the title of "worst season." There have been so many mishaps, instances of producers' manipulation, poor decisions and format issues that merit this title, and they will be outlined below.

But it's important to differentiate between being the worst talent-wise and the worst production-wise. This season's crop of talent was actually pretty solid, so the title of "worst season talent-wise" still belongs to Season 3. Still, the fact that Season 8 is far and away the worst season production-wise just drags it down so far that it easily inherits the title of "worst season overall."

Below are the major reasons this season was just so darn bad.

>Kara DioGuardi added as fourth judge

Everyone has pretty much arrived at the consensus that the addition of Kara DioGuardi to the judges' panel was a mistake. Regardless of how renowned she may be in the music industry, there just was nothing to warrant her presence except maybe an urge by the producers to "try something new." Kara has been the cause of many of this season's ailments, including the instances of shows running over the allotted one-hour time slot. Remember Top 8 night when Adam's "Mad World" overran into the 9 p.m. hour, forcing those who DVRed the performance to miss it entirely? Yeah, that shouldn't happen to the No. 1 series on television.

Kara's presence has also limited the number of songs each contestant could sing near the end of the season, as two to three songs were required per contestant in seasons past from Top 5 on, and only one solo performance was allowed per contestant until Top 3 week. In other words, this season had less bang for viewers' bucks.

Another reason Kara's judgeship was a mistake is because her comments were either repetitive ("you're a package artist," "artistry blah blah blah artistry blah blah" "you're so commercial") or she would just get things wrong, like when she wished Danny would have sang "earlier Aerosmith...like 'Crazy' or 'Cryin''" or when she had six words for Adam: "one of the best performances of the night." Yes, it's true Paula has made more blunderous statements in her eight-season history with the show, but by now we come to expect it, and Kara is supposed to be in the know regarding the industry.

Despite her hilarious sketch with Bikini Girl on last night's finale, there are just too many negative aspects about her time on the show that she is weighed down by them far too much.

>Top 36 semifinals format introduced

Even though Idol was just trying to revert to earlier times with its Top 36 semifinals format, things just did not work out this time around. True, Seasons 1-3 had similar structures, but in Seasons 2 and 3, there were only eight contestants performing in each group, with four being picked from the wild card round, whereas here we had 12 contestants in each group, with four coming from the wild card. If you do the math, that's a 25% of advancing to the finals compared to a less amazing 17% chance.

This resulted in the early eliminations of far too many talented semifinalists, like Felicia Barton, Ricky Braddy and Kristen McNamara. Looking back on the format, should Jorge Nunez, Jasmine Murray or Lil Rounds have made it to the finals over some of the aforementioned? That's debatable, but what is not debatable is the fact that this format did not result in the strongest cast of Top 13 contestants possible, and instead many bright prospects fell by the wayside.

>Gimmicky goofs get more air than greats

Anyone remember Tatiana Del Toro? What about Nick "Normund" Gentle? Katrina Darrel (a.k.a. "Bikini Girl")? Of course you do, why'd I even ask?

Now how about Deanna Brown or T.K. Hash? Leneshe Young? I thought so.

Early on in the season, we were bombarded with running jokes from the auditions, two of which actually advanced all the way to the semifinals (one of which was called back for the wild card). Now, of course this show is just that...a show, and so entertainment value is to be had in it. But never before has this kind of manipulation by the producers taken place to allow joke contestants to make it much farther than necessary. And before you get on my case about Sanjaya, please remember that he actually showed promise early in the season and he did not show just how awful he was until he made it to the finals.

Also going along with the whole TV show theme, why was it that all we got to see during Hollywood week was Bikini Girl sleeping in and the ongoing drama between Kristen, Nate Marshall and their no-name disgruntled group member? Maybe because that was all the producers felt us viewers wanted to see.

And then there was the all-new Top 13 finals format, heralded as Anoop's "saving grace" as it was meant to shock the audience and paint a picture of benevolence on the part of the show. Unsurprisingly, word began leaking out as early as January that the option might be introduced sometime in the season, and days before the wild card contestants took to the stage, there were rumblings too loud to be ignored that we were in fact going to have a baker's dozen. But since two finalists were eliminated the next week, it was pretty much a pointless waste of everyone's time.

In short, this was the season of the gimmicks, and a lot of early talent like the three contestants mentioned above were sacrificed to make room for these eccentric TV 15 minute-of-fame-whores.

>"Judges' save" option introduced

Perhaps the chief rival to Kara being added as a judge for the biggest fumble of Season 8, the infamous "judges' save" option was threatened to be used for weeks before it was finally exhausted in one of the most inexplicable moments of the season. The save was introduced in the Top 13 to keep a "shocker" from happening (i.e. Chris Daughtry, Tamyra Gray). Or at least that's what Ryan and the judges stated.

However, the transparency of the gimmick was so blatant that each week when the results were read, many people couldn't help but roll their eyes at the sight of the judges' "deliberating" while the unlucky contestant "sang for their life." If the whole thing wasn't thought to be phony based on the image of Paula dancing while they were supposed to be talking things over, Simon's hollow "sorry, it's the end of the road" spiels were the icing on the cake for this mess of a gimmick.

The whole time it was easy to see that the save was nothing more than a safety net for TPTB's favorite contestants in case they went under prior to the Top 5, mainly Adam and Danny (Lil at the beginning of the season but not in her last few weeks). After they realized that none of the above were going anywhere for a while, the judges decided to waste it on Matt. Really? Yes, they used it on Matt. It's not like he was a bad guy, but he was one of the last contestants of those remaining that should have been granted the honor.

One cosmetic side effect of the save was that it damaged the suspense factor for half the finals. Even though it was a good guess the option would not be put into effect on a given night, just the idea that the vote was revealed and that contestant still did not know his or her final fate was both annoying to the contestant and anticlimactic to the audience. Therefore, it would be a complete and utter mistake for this cheap shenanigan to return for Season 9.

>Producers' manipulation reaches new heights

Alright, so this is nothing new. Manipulation courtesy of TPTB has been around since the first season, but things continued to trend downward this season as evidenced primarily by how Adam was presented on the show. Exhibit A is the coveted "pimp spot," which was all but reserved for Adam the entire season, as he received the slot five times since the Top 36 (Top 36 Group 2, Top 8, Top 5, Top 4, Top 3). TPTB's excuse would most likely be "Adam was the best performer so he was the best one to close out the show." Yeah, whether or not that's true is irrelevant because there were other talented contestants that deserved just as much of a chance as he did.

Other odds and ends that showed manipulation by the judges include the placement of Adam in the Bottom 2 Top 5 night (and the refusal to place Danny in a similar position throughout the course of the season), the fact that no instruments were allowed to be played during the singing of the coronation song on Tuesday and the disqualification of Joanna Pacitti prior to the Top 36 because an unfair relationship between her and 19E management was brought to light. It's like, what made them think none of that would leak out to the public? It's just evidence of the laziness of the way this show was run this season.

>Sheer stupidity on the part of producers & judges

Even though many fans rejoiced at the news that former Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe would not be returning for the eighth season of the show, it was soon very apparent that things were not much better under the executive productionship of Ken Warwick and Cecile Frot-Coutaz. Poor decisions like the already beat-to-death Kara debacle and lazy research as seen in the Alexis phone sex line mishap in Top 13 week are prime examples of the lack of foresight and effort spent on this season.

Another stupid move on the part of the producers was the agreement to have oodles of non-Idol-related guest performers like Katy Perry and Flo Rida. Didn't they learn something from Season 6!? Some did prove to be entertaining, like Lady Gaga, but others just did not hit the mark, like the alleged "disco greats." And then there was the lip-synching mishap, in which a rep came out and denied there was any lip-synching taking place during the group performances, only to came out the next day and make excuses for the obvious lipping that was taking place. Goings on like these easily place Season 8 atop all seasons in terms of poor production quality.

And how about when Randy predicted Allison would be leaving Top 11 night (and by Allison...he meant Alexis...)? Sure, it's an easy mistake because both of their names begin with the letter "A," but still it was one of those things that's got to sting, especially since Alexis did end up leaving that night because the save was not used on her.

>Lack of "wow" factor

Alright, so every Adam fan will probably claim he was the "wow" this season, and even though he made things exciting, it is hard to deny that Season 8 was a bore. It lacked the freshness of Season 1, the competitiveness of Season 2, the XX chromosome pairings of Season 3, the awesomeness of a country star's birth of Season 4, the diversity in musical styles of Season 5, the "battle of the divas" of Season 6 and the dynamics in talent of Season 7. Just about everyone and their mother pegged Adam as the winner near the beginning of the finals, with Danny being his only serious challenger. Yes, the fact that Kris came from behind and took the title proves that there was at least one big surprise this season, but it does not really make this season memorable.

>The finale was anticlimactic

Regardless of how the results came in, the finale as a show over the two nights was very bad. It paled in comparison to last season's showdown and was quite possibly the most lackluster one in all eight seasons. Simon Fuller's song choices were poor, Kara's song disappointed and neither Adam nor Kris looked like they were really in it to win it. To add to it all, the seven thousand-filled Nokia seemed subdued throughout most of the nights in comparison to years past despite all the special acts that came out for the party. The finale is supposed to be climactic, not tranquil.

The second night of the finale, while it included some great performances, was also pretty dull in comparison to last season (and many other seasons that came before it).

> Random things that went wrong with S8

In addition to the topics touched on above, there were a slew of random things that went wrong with Season 8. Some of them include the stage falling apart prior to the performances Top 4 night and Simon's empty threat of sending contestants packing if they forgot the words during the Hollywood rounds. While minor, these blips on the season's radar were not positive developments for the show. Okay maybe the stage was a little out of their control, but maybe it wasn't. Shouldn't they inspect the safety of the set's props?

Don't get me wrong, there were a few good aspects about S8, including the effort put into inviting back as many Idol alums as possible to perform on the same stage that gave them fame and the fact that "Idol Gives Back" was skipped out of sensitivity to Americans during this recession. But to say this season is anything better than the worst this show has offered to date is being generous. Very generous indeed. And I don't want to take anything away from Kris, Adam or any of the other talented finalists from this season, as they had no control over how this show was run.

Unless some major changes take place next season (and by "major changes" I mean a reversion to Season 7), many viewers may leave Idol for good.