It's about time! Paula brought nothing to American Idol since . . . forever! I for one will not miss her slurred and incomprehensible critiques (much like my blogs here). Watching the interaction between her and Simon made me nauseous and was totally disrespectful to those on stage.

Those who will be the most sad now that she is gone will be the TV and radio personalities who made her daily fodder for their shows by mocking what she wore, what she said, how she said it. I will miss that.

I hope she becomes a judge on So You Think You Can Dance. That's where Paula's expertise (did I just use Paula and expertise in the same sentence?) lies. I would love to see her and Mary hash it out each week. Chick fight!

I wasn't totally sold on Kara last year either. But I'm thinking now that she has a year under her belt and that Paula won't be there, she might be able to step up and really bring some coherrent and intelligent insights. A three judge panel will make the show move along better. It's about the singing, not the judges, right?

Can't wait for January. Bring it on!

It will be odd not seeing Paula sitting between Randy and Simon, but I can't say that the show necessarily loses anything with her absence. Several seasons back I think Paula assigned herself the job of contestants personal protector. Unfortunately, along with this came one less opportunity for the contestants to gain constructive criticism and insight on what it takes in the business. Sometimes, you need to hear that you sucked rather than, "It was maybe not your best performance but I still love you and I think the fans will still blah blah blah."

I also think she became much to quick to argue with and talk over Simon in the last couple seasons. Back when it was an occasional boil over it was entertaining. Recently the constant attempts to interrupt Simon's opinions became a nuisence and a detriment, because despite the harshness, Simon offered the contestants something they could use to grow in the competition.

So overall, I think Idol may be better off without Paula and her creative, babbling brand of "critique".