After getting through the first night of Simon Cowell’s new show X Factor, I couldn’t help but feeling a little deja vu. That is to say I thought I was watching American Idol all over again, with a few minor exceptions.

The lack of originality is what really got to me, so I decided to do a comparison list for you, to rank the differences .

AI Format: Back stories, backstage interviews, talent’s hopes of a bright future, a talent performance followed by a judge critique and possible advancement to the next round.
XF Format: Back stories, backstage interviews, talent’s hopes of a bright future, a talent performance followed by a judge critique and possible advancement to the next round.

AI Simon Cowell’s Energy Level: near his exit, it dropped to a 3
XF Simon Cowell’s  Energy Level: Closer to a 8, with full snarkyness intact.

AI Format: Private humiliation of bad performers.
XF Format: Public humiliation of bad performers. Tryouts are held in front of a live audience.

AI Categories: Solo singers, male & female, 16-28.
XF Categories: Seems like anything goes, but they did divide it into Boys, Girls, Over 30 & Groups.

AI Performances: Potential candidate howls, holds a note for too long, gets upset when they are criticized.
XF Performances: Potential candidate howls, holds a note for too long, gets upset when they are criticized.

AI Simon Cowel & Paula Abdul count: 1 + 1
XF Simon Cowel & Paula Abdul count: 1 + 1

AI Host: Ryan Seacrest
XF Host: British version of Ryan Seacrest

AI Showings Of Simon’s chest hair: Too much.
XF Showings Of Simon’s chest hair: Still too much.

AI Annoying British influence: Simon Cowell
XF Annoying British influence: Simon Cowell, New host Steve Jones, Judge Cheryl Cole. Note Cole has already been replaced by Nicole Scherzinger of The Pussycat Dolls.

In all, that’s not a lot of difference for me.  I may give it one more shot, before going back to watching Modern Family, which shares the same time slot.

This makes me wonder what items at Paula Abdul’s house are NOT laced with drugs?

Former American Idol judge Kara Dio Guardi was on the George Lopez show last night and admitted that she accidentally ate pot brownies while at Paula’s home.

Kara says she got hungry and ate six  tiny brownies from the freezer, without realizing they were…special.

DioGuardi said she spent the following three days sick in bed, hallucinating, on an IV.   But before anyone jumps to conclusions, DioGuardi, who claims she drinks but doesn’t smoke marijuana, said the brownies weren’t Abdul’s — someone had left them in her freezer after a party.

Suuuuuuuuuuure they were.

Skip to the 4:14 minute mark…

There is no doubt in my mind that you’ll be having them after seeing these freaky images of American Idol winner Scotty McCreery.

Thanks to bestweekever.com, we’ve assembled a GIF wall of some of Scotty’s creepier dance moves and facial expressions.

Again, I’m sorry.

Here’s a good bet to make today.

Bet each and every co-worker of yours that you can correctly predict the very last line in the songs that the American Idol finalists sing tonight.

It’s easy. The very last line will also be the title of the song they’re singing.

Want to know how I know this? Check it out:

After watching American Idol last night (and thanks to everyone who participated in our Idol Chat,) I believe it’s now a freak show.

We may have witnessed a serious jumping of the shark last night as the show derailed into vaudevillian stage antics.

Casey Abrams VERY AWKWARDLY kisses Jennifer Lopez.

Ryan Seacrest shows up in a beard.

Steven Tyler, drops a series of F-Bombs and puts his tongue through a picture of Seacrest and flips it around.

Was that all very Rock & Roll? Sure

Was it a fit for what we know American Idol to be? No way.

At least on the surface, Idol has always had something of a bubble gum image, not really sexualized and mostly PG rated.  It was expected that the show format would change with the introduction of Tyler, but last night’s show was more like cheesy comic antics mixed with what goes on in a rock star’s dressing room.

Was it bad?  Not necessarily.  It was just out of format and for a prime time show.  I for sure can say it’s just another freakshow.

Sorry Simon, you’ve been replaced by someone smarter, funnier and more talented….Steven Tyler.  PS – is it weird I find Mr. Aerosmith oddly attractive?

Glee you had an AMAZING Christmas episode, thank you.  Little did I know you threw everything you had at it because you were checking out for 8 weeks.  I know Seacrest has to have his American Idol spotlight or he gets cranky, but COME ON!  2 months?! Wanna know what’s even more sad about this?

Now instead of watching peppy, talented American teens deal with drama and triumph through witty dialog I have to watch mostly dumb, talentless real American teens deal with rejection during the first weeks of Idol.  I dare you to find anything this season on American Idol that is as groundbreaking or entertaining as this:

It makes sense.  The show with the biggest mouth on TV should have a host with the biggest mouth.

Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler is confirming today that he has signed on to be a guest host on Idol for the upcoming 10th season which is set to premiere on January 12th.

FOX and Idol producers won’t confirm it, but they’re promising that they will reveal the new judges by next month.

I guess the big question now is: will Steven Tyler be allowed to eat the losers?

Oh boy, it was a nail biter on American Idol last night.  Thank goodness the right two got in.  One more week with Casey’s crappy singing and I was going to switch over to some terrible CBS show.  But enough of Casey, we’ve got our two contenders, and they’re both midwesterners!  Take that Southern states.

If I were a betting lady I’d put my money on Lee at this point.  3 weeks ago I would have said Crystal for sure.  Is it me or does Lee remind you of every guy you went to high school with?

Did you catch Crystal’s diss of the Idol organization last night?  She told Ryan that she fought to play original music all season…a battle she lost until she went to her hometown.  There was something so unbelievably emotional about Lee walking into that paint shop he used to work in.  Hands down, those were the moments of the night.

Looking ahead: Seacrest flipped a coin after he signed on and according to USA TODAY Crystal won the toss and chose to sing second.  In true idol fashion the coin had the face of each finalist on it.

If you forgot what these two were like before they were superstars, here’s the audition tape:

Here’s another Kim Kardashian shocker. It’s being reported that before Kim dated and split from Reggie Bush, she was in an abusive relationship. Most people know that Kim was married to Damon Thomas-a partner at underdog entertainment, however they were married for 4 years and things were horrible. Star magazine is reporting that Damon was a monster of a human being and was both physically and emotionally abusive to Kim. They even quote Kim as saying, Damon hit her in the face and cut her lip open which caused her to fall into a bedframe and hurt her knee. Surely we would have heard about this sooner if there were any truth to it!
Heather Locklear might be going to jail. It was just learned that she was arrested for hit-and-run over the weekend. Heather was driving around Westlake Village, California around 4am when she went over a curb and plowed into a “No Parking” sign. She fled the scene, but witnesses said that they saw her car. When police went to her home, they found damage on the front of her BMW. Heather was arrested for a hit and run, which is bad news for her because she is on probation already. Back in 2008, she was arrested for a DUI for prescription drugs. If she is found guilty of this charge she is going to jail for 3 months!
Idol spoiler: Tim Urban finally got booted off last night. But one of our favorites, Crystal Bowersox is still in the running and she opened up about her emotional performance from Tuesday night. Crystal says that she knew her dad was wearing sunglasses because that was his plan to hide his crying. When she saw him wearing them during her song it made her cry because she knew he was getting emotional. As for Ryan being the one convinving her to stay on the show? Crystal says that she really respects Ryan and all he did in their conversation was giver her good advice. She says she was never considering leaving the show!