'American Idol': Please control yourself

Fans of "American Idol" -- and DVRs -- are a forgiving bunch. We didn't hold it against producers when they allowed the show to run out of time before Anoop was picked for the Top 13, forcing DVR users to turn to the Web to find out what happened.

Then when Alexis Grace finished her rendition of "Dirty Diana," the judges gave her abrupt reviews, and that was that for DVR viewers. Those who recorded it did not see performance playbacks and contestant telephone numbers, and they missed judge Simon Cowell and host Ryan Seacrest discussing the big secret that was coming -- the new judge's save. Again, viewers forgave.

But last night, the producers' inability to control the live show -- that is, to restrain the blah blah blah of the judges -- kept DVR viewers from watching the last "Idol" performance from fan favorite Adam Lambert, unless you happened to be recording "Fringe" as well.

And if you're a "Fringe" fan and didn't record the Fox News at 10 p.m., you missed eight minutes of your show.

Seriously, how many times is Fox going to let production get away with this?

You can watch Lambert's performance here. For "Fringe," we recommend hulu.

-- Maria Elena Fernandez

'American Idol': Top 12 doesn't have to be gender-balanced

The "American Idol" top 12 will be picked next Thursday night, and the finalists will not have to be evenly split between males and females, according to a Fox source.

That means literally any one of the top 36 finalists who were not chosen by America still has a shot to compete in this year's pursuit of the American dream. The last time America didn't have to choose an even split was in Season 3, when eight females competed against four males.

The four judges will pick their three wild cards on March 5, when the top 12 is formed and the competition heats up.

-- Maria Elena Fernandez

Photos: Fox

Simon Cowell looks ahead to Season 8

As the drumbeat toward Season 8 continues (27 days to go), the world’s peek inside the season-to-be continued this morning as hizzonner Judge Simon Cowell addressed the media in a national conference call.  In topics including the format changes, the fourth judge and his own plans for the future, Cowell expressed a typically candid sense of uncertainty about how the changes would work out but cautious optimism that the season was shaping up well.

Asked about the addition of Kara DioGuardi as a fourth judge to the lineup, Cowell said, “I have no idea whether this is going to work or not, because I haven’t seen the shows back yet.  The thing I do support is at least trying new things. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.”

On the wild-card round being added this season: “I think it’s a good idea.  I wasn’t crazy about the process we went through the last couple years where we were given a group of contestants that you were bored with by show 5.”  He expressed confidence that judicial intervention would help insure some more interesting personalities stuck around to keep things lively.

On whether the guys are stronger this year than the girls: “My memory of that overall is the guys overall, maybe five or six of them were stronger.  But I’ve said this in the past and I’ve been wrong.”

On the overall crop: “My feeling having done the Hollywood round is that we’ve got an
interesting bunch.  Last year it became the battle of the blonds and you couldn’t tell one
from the other.  This year they stand out and are different and they are standing up for
themselves a bit more.  I’m actually optimistic.”

'American Idol' producer Ken Warwick admits, 'It got a bit boring'

“Wherever we can, we want to change things up a little bit,” said “American Idol” executive producer Ken Warwick during a conference call with the media this afternoon. During the call, Warwick echoed the sentiments from his exclusive conversation with “Idol” expert Richard Rushfield.

Warwick confirmed that the ninth season of “Idol” will feature a wild card round in which the judges can rescue eliminated contestants. “By the time we got down to the final 8 ... if any of them didn’t have fantastic characters, it got a bit boring,” confessed Warwick. Thus, the wild card round will prevent a group of dullards from highjacking the ninth season.