The dreaded "judges' save" gimmick returns

I must say I was a little surprised tonight when at the beginning of the Top 12 results show, Ryan asked Simon to explain how the "judges' save" tool works. For a second I thought we were accidentally warped back in time to a year ago, because no one had brought up part of last season that no one wanted to remember because of its sheer stupidity. When I realized this was not the case, I was both sad and confused: why would the producers bring back an option that was widely panned by fans and critics alike?

At the completion of Idol's eighth season, this is what I had to say about the gimmick:

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.

Needless to say, I still feel the same way. I don't think the judges would use the save on anyone other than Crystal Bowersox, Casey James or Siobhan Magnus. But then again they used it on Matt Giraud last season, so maybe they would waste it on a Didi Benami or Andrew Garcia?

Either way, the decision to invite the save back is foolish to say the least.