Like you needed another reason to love Jake

9 Awesome Tips from Fashion School Students

Get sexy loose waves for Memorial Day Weekend

‘The Hangover 2′ Stars get a little crazy

10 Awesome Items for Memorial Day

How to tell if you’re wearing the wrong bra size

Is Teresa Guidice for real??

Guess who FINALLY checked into Rehab

Paula Abdul is a Drug Pusher?

This is a guest post by Richard Rushfield, the author of American Idol: The Untold Story. For three years Richard has covered American Idol for the Los Angeles Times, writing hundreds of columns and conducting thousands of interviews with cast and crew. He is currently an entertainment columnist for The Daily Beast, a Vanity Fair contributing editor, and author of its long-running “Intelligence Report” column. For more information please visit http://www.richardrushfield.com/ and follow the author on Facebook and Twitter.

Idol was perhaps the first show on television to have as much of a life off the screen as on.   These days we are used to The Hills girls, Bachelor contestants, Real Housewives and Jersey Shore housemates seeing their dramas spill over from the shows that made them famous to the covers of the tabloids and the greater celeb-obsessed blogosphere.

But when Idol debuted on the US airwaves in 2002, such a phenomenon was relatively unknown.  The internet was still in its infancy and network programming was a remote, pristine world, largely untouched by the hurly burly press.

What brought Idol out of its shell was the steady stream of scandals it provided as fodder for the ravenous new media.  Each year it seemed, some gotcha shattered Idol’s peace; some disqualification brought it face to face with the public beast.

Ten years later, the stream of scandals doesn’t seem to have hurt entertainment’s greatest juggernaut.  If anything, the blow-ups have kept us all talking about the show, even when the singing got a little dull.

Here then, in order of appearance, are the ten greatest scandals of Idol’s first decade:

[Click on any scandal to get started.]

© 2011 Richard Rushfield, author of American Idol: The Untold Story

—

Want to win a copy of Richard’s book? It’s easy. To enter, head over to our Facebook page and cast your vote for American Idol’s biggest star of all time. Simply open the American Idol photo album and “like” the Idol contestant’s photo of your choice to vote. Then, not only will we finally prove to the world that Clay Aiken wasn’t the biggest thing to come from Idol, but we’ll randomly draw two (2) people to take home the prize and announce them on Facebook tomorrow, January 19th, just in time for the season 10 premiere!!

Is there a difference between the male and female brain?

Paula Abdul continues to be absolutely crazy

She continues to be the coolest person

Hogwarts inspired fashion

Dress so that everyone knows how awesome you are

When is it okay to be naked?

Celebrity fashion fails of 2010

Whoa! But they’re both crazy

What season are we on anyway? 10? 11? (Editor’s Note: We’re on 9). Seriously? We’ve spent the past eleven nine years watching Simon Cowell give brutally mean comments, Paula’s very much missed outlandish (and drugged out) antics and a lot of Randy’s “Yo Dawg, I liked it, you got soul.” That’s a long, long time. We’ve also had two season with fame-whoring Kara and her bikini pics and, of course, Ellen’s musical “knowledge” once Paula was pushed out.

Anyway, here’s the lowdown on last night’s ep (which I gathered in 4 minutes on the Interwebs this morning): Lee Dwyze (the guy) won. The show invited singing “greats” such as Christina Aguilera, Janet Jackson and Rihanna to perform. There was a lot of singing, performing…and blah. The only good thing about last night’s finale was the return of Paulaaaaaaa. Yes. She was still her drugged out self but still; who doesn’t love pill-popping Paula?

Now, don’t get me wrong; I’m not some never-watched-an-episode-and-just-wanna-spew-hate person. I used to be a fervent watcher of American Idol during the initial seasons of Kelly, Ruben, Fantasia and Carrie. It was simply a good reality show that proved that the power of a good voice could actually make an ordinary, just-like-us person, famous. And what’s more, it felt as if I was actually contributing to each winner’s rags-to-riches story! I religiously dialed the numbers every week, hoping and praying that my favorites were never in the bottom two.

But after eleven nine seasons, I truly think American Idol has run its course. While it was initially refreshing to watch a show that debuted a range of very talented (and very, very bad) singers, American Idol is now just another one of those reality shows banking on ratings, sponsors and viewership. And it’s a total snooze-fest. Ever since they brought on Kara as a judge, the show basically went down the pooper. She gives no helpful advice and has somehow tricked the producers into believing that she’s a good songwriter. Last season, when she stole the spotlight from “Bikini Girl” by coming on stage and shedding into her little bikini, I knew the show somehow lost its spark.

Plus, what takes those Idol peeps 3 hours to air each week could easily be shown in 90 minutes, tops. Sure, it was a sound investment of my time when the show was, I don’t know, GOOD, but now? Now it’s like a dreaded 5-credit class with that awful professor who can’t seem to work the projector. Do we really need so many close-up shots of Ryan speaking? And Miley acting as a “mentor” to the singers? Or all those flashbacks/home movies? NO. No, no, no.

With Simon leaving (who, by the way, is irreplaceable), the show is losing the only thing worth watching for. Between his tight tees, his snarky comments and that adorable bromantic relationship between him and Ryan, he made the show and everyone knows it. I know the people at Fox don’t want to admit it (and don’t want to lose their biggest money-maker), but no matter who they get to take his seat (Madonna??) American Idol without Simon is like The Hills without LC. It just won’t work.

American Idol had a good run, but it’s over. Let’s hug it out, say our goodbyes and move on…. to Simon’s new show.

Charlie Sheen’s goin back to rehab. Again.

Would you wear tiger print?

Adrian Grenier’s got no game.

Paula Abdul proves that ANYONE can get a job.

Topshop attempts to bring back the unibrow?

Get the no-makeup makeup look.

You guessed it… American Idol.

From the very first season, American Idol was an instant hit.  Kelly Clarkson was the winner, and albums later, she is still a pop sensation.  By the start of season 2, Randy, Paula, and Simon became household names and it was impossible to escape references to these eccentric judges.   Each season the show attracted more and more viewers and had record breaking numbers of votes at each finale.  The economy may suck, the weather is more unpredictable than ever, but the one thing we could always count on as a society was the stability of American Idol.  We knew that no matter what, every Tuesday and Wednesday night, we could tune into FOX to hear Randy give shot-outs to his “dawgs” while Paula applauded each contestant for being unique and “making the song their own.”  And finally, we knew Simon would always be there to knock them right back down in his English accent with a black t-shirt from Baby Gap.

That is… until last season, when things started to change.  A fourth judge? America was reluctant.  Kara Dioguardi climbed on board as America was forced to accept the adjustment.  She was cute and seemed to know what she was talking about, so we gave her the OK.  As long as we still had the Simon and Ryan rivalry to look forward to, one extra judge would not cramp our Idol style. 

Little did we know, even BIGGER changes for this season.  Goodbye to Paula?? Now who are we going to accuse of doing random drugs before (and maybe during) the show?? It was almost more than we could handle.  And then FOX announced that Ellen DeGeneres would be replacing her.  Personally, I was torn.  Ellen is hilarious, that is for sure…but Cold Hearted Snake and Forever Your Girl will ALWAYS be on my iTunes top 25 most played songs; there’s just no replacing Paula.  Putting my own love for the scat cat aside, I accepted the change once again.  After all, Simon, Randy, and Kara would still be able to offer legitimate criticism from the music industry’s stand point, Ellen would just be there for entertainment value.  Even if FOX were just trying to get some rating points, you can’t help but love Ellen.

But then.
Oh God.
I can’t even bear to say it.

Simon announced he was leaving.

And to make matters worse, rumors are now swirling that HOWARD STERN could be taking his place.

[Breathe.]

I don’t even know what to say. This is just taking things too far.  Sorry (well, sorta) to knock the Stern, but what the hell does he know about music and producing it? Probably…nothing.  Sure he may be a radio host, but that does not mean he is qualified for the coveted job.  Especially since the guy hasn’t played music on his show in decades. Besides, no one wants to hear crude and belittling comments if they’re not done in an English accent. Or have nothing to do with music and focus on the singer’s tits and ass instead.

If the rumors are true, I’ve lost whatever faith I had in FOX. It seems that they’re willing to do anything just to boost their ratings, even if it jeopardizes the integrity of the show. (One of the only reality shows left with any…) FOX is making it clear that Idol is all about the ratings and not about the talent, and if that’s the case, why should we watch?

Well, besides to see Kara and Howie duke it out.

Waaaaah (Snooki voice). It seems our once trusted source for music’s newest breakthrough stars might soon fall through the trashy TV cracks and land right next to the ever-so-classy “Temptation Island.” As a long-time Idol addict, I won’t stand for it.

After months of speculation, Ellen DeGeneres will finally have the chance to prove herself worthy of the seat between ‘American Idol’ judges Kara, Randy and Simon. Tuesday night marks her much anticipated ‘Idol’ debut, replacing former judge Paula Abdul.

The addition of DeGeneres to the gang is expected to boost viewership, which has been down compared to previous seasons, Reuters reports. Fox is hoping these viewers will stick around for the rest of the season.

“Ellen brings a huge fan base and people will be curious to see how she does,” said Michael Slezak of Entertainment Weekly. “But if she performs poorly, that is bad for the show’s long-term health.”

‘Idol’ viewership peaked in 2006, with about 30.8 million per episode. So far, the ninth season has only reached 26.8 million, according to Fox.

While many people have criticized DeGeneres for her lack of experience in the music industry, she believes this could work to her advantage, as she represents the average viewer.

What do you think? Read the rest at Popeater.com!

Is Shaq the next Tiger Woods?

Conan rips NBC a new…well, you know.

Simon and Paula may be together again!

Wanna travel more? Try a little of this.

Work out tips from Kristin Cavallari.

What’s on Obama’s DVR?

Seriously, we could do better on Jeopardy.

Tucker Max’s movie is happening.

Kate Gosselin: talk show princess.

Take note: vagina massages are not a real thing.

Paula Abdul strikes back at Ellen.

I never wanna do karaoke with Rihanna.

Miley is NO Celine Dion.

When I think of divas, my mind automatically goes to artists such as Mariah Carey, Celine Dion or Whitney Houston. But VH1 has other plans for this year’s Divas show, premiering live tomorrow night. Kelly Clarkson, Adele, Leona Lewis, Jordin Sparks, Jennifer Hudson and Miley Cyrus will be the headlining performers this year.

Now, I love Miley. “Party in the USA” has become my new anthem. But would I qualify her as a diva? I don’t think so. I don’t think she’s been alive long enough. And to have her share the same stage as Cyndi Lauper and Sheryl Crow, who will be special guests at this year’s show, well it seems almost disrespectful.

This is definitely the youngest set of pop-stars VH1 has grabbed yet. Many only have two or three hit songs. Perhaps they should rename the show “Divas in the Making” or “Not a Girl, Not Yet a Diva.” VH1 is presenting us with greatness in the making, with host Paula Abdul picking up where they are lacking in divaliciousness.

I won’t disagree that these young girls are hugely talented, but I think their addition to the show is a bit premature. While the majority of them are American Idols, I don’t think they are ready to make the crossover to American Divas just yet.

So now I have to ask… Will the real Diva please stand up?