American Idol Without Paula Abdul – Foxes On Idol Writers Share Their Thoughts

Readers might wonder why Foxes On Idol has been silent on the departure of Paula Abdul from American Idol. To be completely honest, most of the reason is due to the fact that Editor David Bloomberg didn’t think it was actually happening! He figured this was all just a publicity stunt/contract negotiation tool by Paula, and it would be sorted out within a few days.

That obviously didn’t happen, so the writers of Foxes On Idol and Reality News Online have joined together here to present their thoughts on Paula’s departure from the show that made her famous once again (and, arguably, more famous than she was the first time around).

Jenn Brasler: It's interesting that her departure came so suddenly, since there were rumors throughout last season that Kara was brought on to eventually replace Paula, and everyone quickly denied that that was true. If it's true that that wasn't the intention, it's a big coincidence.

I think ultimately it comes down to money. I'm not sure why else Paula would decide to leave, since we haven't heard about her starting any new projects or getting any offers to do anything else [other than a few unsubstantiated rumors and her just-announced role as the host of the one-time show, VH1 Divas, airing on September 17]. I don't think it helped that when Seacrest was offered $45 million for the next three seasons, the news was splashed all over the press. I'm sure she felt wonderful reading about how much her coworker was making.

Sting7: There is a part of me that wonders if Paula's "failed contract negotiation" wasn't a polite firing. She hasn't made things easy on herself:

1. Corey Clark – I don't entirely believe him, but that is a massive lie to be made up out of thin air, and an oddly detailed lie at that. And where is the libel suit? Or slander? Lawyers?
2. Loopy is Only Cute for a While – Folks have been wondering what exactly has been in Paula's Coke cup for years. Maybe Fox/Fremantle/19 got tired of having to pooh-pooh Paula's strange behavior.
3. Kara – Maybe Paula knew the writing was on the wall when Kara showed up, but she wasn't exactly classy about her rival's arrival. Publicly predicting the audience won't accept her with a snide "we'll see" was definitely not endearing.
4. Stalkergate – You just can't go around publicly saying your bosses put your life in danger for good TV. Everyone with a title on Idol has denied this, but Paula persists. Maybe she truly does believe what she is saying, but that doesn't mean she should air it in public.
5. All of These Things Combined – It’s not exactly the best looking employee review!

Brion Neeley: From a writing perspective, I imagine she made the show more fun to write about. Foxes On Idol will most certainly miss her. Joel McHale from The Soup is going to need to look harder for reality TV clips if Paula Abdul isn't a regular on any series.

Chris Harris: You stole my thought about Joel McHale, Brion.

The dynamic she had with Simon was always one of the more oddly-compelling parts of the show. The back-and-forth with the judges just won't be the same, since you get the feeling Simon and Kara don't really like each other all that much, whereas Simon-Paula was almost sweet at times (albeit in a very tortured way). I don't see Simon drawing fake facial hair on Kara, for example. As wacky as she was (and as useless as I generally found her critiques), she will be missed.

William Hammon: Good riddance to bad narcotics. I always thought it was a bit BS that a woman whose singing "talent" wouldn't have advanced her past the first round on the show got to sit in judgment of others' abilities.

David Bloomberg: I fall somewhere in the middle as far as whether Paula’s departure is a good thing or a bad one. If Kara had been a better judge last year – heck, if she had been as good during the finals as she was during initial auditions – then I’d say replacing Paula with her was moving up. However, she turned into a Paula clone as far as worshiping certain contestants and failing to provide any real feedback. So the only good thing we’re getting with Kara instead of Paula is less loopiness.

That said, when I filled out Fox surveys about Idol, I always ranked Paula near the bottom as far as who was most important to the show (she did beat out Ryan Seacrest in my rankings, though). Her critiques were useless. For example, even when pressed by Seacrest about who in a group of the three lowest vote-getters should go, she would rarely ever commit. She was simply too nice and too out of it to do any good.

Yes, Paula may have been upset at the amount of money her cohorts were getting, but she needed to realize that outside of Idol, nobody is going to pay her the money she was being offered. Now she’ll learn that the hard way, and Idol will go on without her.

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