"American Idol" Season 11: Is there Potential?

Like millions of other people, I have been watching American Idol for many, many years. And also like millions of others, I've been watching it slowly get worse and worse every season. I do still enjoy it--especially the early episodes with the auditions--but not nearly as much as in the Simon Cowell years. These days, I skip the results shows and fast-forward past the contestants I don't like.

What it comes down to is I MISS SIMON COWELL. When the worst thing a judge ever utters is, "I'm not sure if that was the right song for you," you know things have seriously gotten off-track. I miss how the contestants would begin to shake and stammer when it was Simon's turn to critique them. It made them work harder, I think. Ahhh, the good ol' days. Because these days, Randy is the mean one, which is just pathetic.

This year's final 13 is awful. Bland. Where's the James Durbin or Adam Lambert of the group? Erika Van Pelt--the spunky, saucy D.J. from Rhody--is the closest thing there is to a rocker, and the fact that she's in the running is no thanks to America (she was a judges' pick, not voted in).

I sort of like Phillip Phillips, but that's mainly because, 1.) He seems to be a decent guitarist, 2.) He offers up something a little different from the others, and 3.) He's cute. But he's really not so hot on an individual basis--it's just that compared to the others he seems fresh and unique. 

On Thursday's show, Jimmy Iovine said about Phillips, "We desperately need originality on this show." Meanwhile, when my husband sat down to watch a few minutes of Idol with me a couple of weeks ago Phillips came on and the first thing he said was, "Could he be more Dave Matthews? He's got every D.M. tic down pat." So much for originality.

At least cute little Phillip has the decency to imitate someone talented. You can't say the same about DeAndre Brackensick. He very unfortunately seems to be channeling Milli Vanilli's Rob Pilatus (and, yes, I went to Wikipedia to look up his name). 

Pretty scary, huh? DeAndre looks, dances, and probably maybe even sings like Mr. Vanilli. His falsetto is painful but the little girls love him. I have a feeling he'll be sticking around for a while.

Heejun Han is one of the more interesting contestants but it's not because of his impressive "it" factor (because he has none). His voice is smooth and rich but he's not exactly Idol material. No, he's interesting because he's a total spaz who says amusing, dumb things. Did you see him at the end of Thursday's results show? He was bopping up and down like the Energizer Bunny. Weird dude. And fun to watch.

I like Skylar Laine's energy and her kick-ass country rocker persona is fresh(ish), Jessica Sanchez is gorgeous and has an incredible voice but may end up being boring and predictable (that remains to be seen), and Colton Dixon is indie, which is at least better than straight-down-the-middle mainstream but he's about as vanilla as indie can be.

And that, folks, is how I see it. But I'll still be watching in the hopes that I'm proved wrong and a true original talent is born. You never know...though in this case I'm pretty sure I know.