Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Would American Idol survive the loss of Simon Cowell?

Somehow it did. For six more seasons.

It even outlasted Simon’s new singing show.

Perhaps a better question: Would Idol survive the arrival of Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey?

The show did that, too, though Randy Jackson, the final original judge, fled the set after a year of enduring the hazards of sitting between those two.

With Idol coming up on its final episode ever, I figured it might be fun to rank the judges over Idol’s history.

Disagree? Feel free to comment in the space below.

1. Simon Cowell (Seasons 1-9): He’s given much of the credit for the show’s early success because of his straight-forward feedback to contestants. Many a time, Randy Jackson would speak, Paula Abdul would speak, and then Simon would say what needed to be said. He departed for the overhyped fiasco called The X Factor. But let’s not forget, the most successful recent act from a U.S. singing show is Fifth Harmony, a group put together on that show.

2. Paula Abdul (Season 1-8): Sure, she was a confused mess at times. Like when she judged a Jason Castro performance in Season 7 before Jason had even performed the song. But she was also the perfect foil for Simon. And weren’t their spats adorable?

3. Keith Urban (Seasons 12-15): There’s nothing flashy about Keith’s judging style, but he takes his role seriously, seems invested in the contestants and isn’t afraid to be critical. I’ve always wondered what he would say if he could be honest about sitting between Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey during the Season 12 auditions. He survived to judge again, another reason he deserves to rank this high.

4. Harry Connick Jr. (Season 13-15): He became known as “Harsh” Harry for some reason, though his worst feedback wouldn’t match a mild verbal spanking from Simon. He, too, takes his Idol gig quite seriously, though the tendency to get a bit too technical in his advice can be annoying.

5. Nicki Minaj (Season 12): Way up here, you might wonder. Yep. Look, Nicki’s comments from the judging table were a breath of fresh air on a show sorely in need of some. It’s just a shame she couldn’t control her Twitter finger. Or show up on time for that first live episode of Season 12.

6. Steven Tyler (Season 10-11): He was certainly the flashiest of the male judges the show has seen and as unpredictable as Nicki. He also gave favorable feedback to every single live show performance in Season 10 before being forced to be occasionally critical.

7. Jennifer Lopez (Season 10-11, 13-15): Won’t we Miss Jenny and her goosies? I won’t. Poor Jenny has had a particularly brutal final season – forgetting a mentor’s name, lying about the judges’ fondness for Season 10 contestant Haley Reinhart and expressing amazement over this year’s youthful cast after picking a remarkably youthful cast. Ugh!

8. Randy Jackson (Seasons 1-13): As the first judge to speak on a panel that also included Paula and Simon, he was fine. Asked to anchor the panel after they departed, his talking points became embarrassingly predictable clichés. And I’ve always wondered if he wasn’t a pawn of the show’s producers.

9. Kara Dioguardi (Seasons 8-9): Poor Kara had to replace the beloved Paula on the panel. And she knew music. But the two things I remember most about Kara’s stint on the show aren’t good. 1. Her bikini showdown with the surgically enhanced bikini girl. 2. The fact that she penned the horrendous “No Boundaries” for the Season 8 winner. Even Adam Lambert couldn’t make a hit out of that turkey.

10. Ellen DeGeneres (Season 9): And I remember precisely nothing about Ellen’s stint on the show, which she later admitted was a mistake because she hated criticizing contestants. But, hey, if you ever need a pick-me-up, go to YouTube and search for Kellie Pickler on the Ellen DeGeneres show. The laughs are guaranteed.

11. Mariah Carey (Season 12): This self-absorbed diva had the gall to lip synch a medley of her greatest hits on the Season 12 finale after judging live performances from the contestants all season. Then there was that rambling 300-word critique of a Lazaro Arbos performance that ranks as the most garbled sting of nonsense ever uttered by an Idol judge.