FOX
I haven’t been much of a fan of American Idol’s guest-judge expertiment for the first post-Paula audition rounds, but last night Katy Perry had me wondering whether they could just can Kara or Randy and replace them with her. While Avril Lavigne spent the first half of the show contributing little, smirking from underneath her Where-the-Wild-Things-Are hoodie, Perry’s tart-tongued sauciness, her needling Kara and, above all, her willingness to say no to aspirants was refreshing.
The general problem with having guest judges is that it’s not really in the publicity interests of most of them to, well, judge, and risk looking like the bad guy. Perry, on the other hand, was willing to embrace the Cowellian spirit of Idol—namely, that you can’t just advance someone because you like them or feel sorry for them—and her judging round was better for it.
I still look forward to Neil Patrick Harris, in this as in all things, but beyond that, Perry has been the only enjoyable part of the guest judging. She worked it out; she did her thing. Were you feeling it?