Great column from the AJC, and I agree with all the reasons, but there are two big ones:
Steven Tyler: A wild-card pick by producers as a new judge, the Aerosmith lead singer has proven to be a delightfully quirky presence. He has embraced the challenge, throwing out hilarious, out-of-the-blue bon mots with abandon.
And this one:
The talent: this is one of the strongest top 24 pools in recent history. Last year was hampered by pale imitations of past contestants and too many singer-songwriters hiding behind guitars. This year, the ”nicer” judges sent a whopping 327 contestants to Hollywood, double the normal number. They then put them through five rounds of singing instead of three.Potential stars to watch include vocally dextrous 19-year-old Casey Abrams (who killed “Georgia On My Mind” in Hollywood), raise-the-roof R&B/gospel phenom Jacob Lusk and smooth-singing Long Island teen Robbie Rosen.
I didn’t bother with the first two weeks of Idol, thinking it would be a trainwreck. In honesty, the only reason I watched any of the episodes at all was that Beth was out and I wanted to watch something the DVR wasn’t recording. When she got home I was like “You know how we said we weren’t gonna watch Idol this season? Yeah. We’re watching it.” Since then, we haven’t missed an episode.
Tyler has been my favorite part of Idol, but the talent level is absolutely ridiculous this season. It’s a level which has not been reached on prior seasons and I think that, more than anything else, will get eyeballs as some of these super-talented kids start getting the buzz going for the show.
Idol is back, baby.