Some people say 10 hours of American Idol auditions might be too much. Everyone else says it's definitely too much. It's actually quite impressive that American Idol can go from highly anticipated to overexposed in four short weeks.

Last night American Idol cobbled together one more audition episode out of the bits and pieces they didn't air from the seven audition cities. Good, bad, crazy, yawn. We all understand the economics of it. FOX doesn't have an abundance of hit shows, especially with 24 being sidelined due to the writers' strike. So of course the network has no choice but to stretch American Idol as thin as possible because, even when fans get bored, they still watch.

What's the solution? I've thought short and soft on this issue (as opposed to long and hard), and I think I've come up with a brilliant idea for American Idol season 8. It consists of one word and one number: Top 36!

Let me lay it out for you, because my plan's genius lies in its simplicity. For two weeks, FOX airs two-hour audition episodes on Tuesday and Wednesday. Eight hours should be plenty of time for all the madness. On the third week, we get two two-hour Hollywood episodes on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by a one-hour special on Thursday revealing the Top 36. Doubling up on the Hollywood round makes sense because it's the best TV of the year. We see almost 200 people gathered in a hotel, singing on a stage and being put into groups. The drama is heightened, and we're also treated to a whole lot of talent. Past seasons have proven that the groups are typically where all the magic and insanity happen.

Time-wise, it's the exact same number of hours of auditions as they currently have, just structured differently. We speed through the filler and get right to the substance. The judges always complain that this is supposed to be a singing competition, well, how about we skip to the actual competitive singing and not waste time on deluded losers who just want to be on TV?

Now here's where the magic of the Top 36 comes into play. First split them into three groups of 12, and then, for two weeks, American Idol would blitzkrieg the airwaves, airing three two-hour performances Monday through Wednesday, followed by a one-hour results show on Thursday. The performances and the voting are what get everyone excited, so why not double-down on that part in the early goings? We would get seven hours of American Idol each week, and, as is the case now, two people from each night would go home on Thursday. Ryan Seacrest won't have to fill as much time if he has to say goodbye to six singers.

After those two weeks, they condense to two groups of 12, and the performances proceed as they do now, with two-hour episodes on Tuesday and Wednesday followed by the one-hour results show on Thursday. Three weeks of that, and we're down to the top 12.

It really is perfect. The entire competition would last exactly the same number of weeks as it does now, but not only would it move faster for the benefit of the fans, but they would actually get even more episodes than they're currently getting because of the extra 12 performers viewers get to vote on.

You may laugh. You may think 36 is too many. But, just like the Republicans, let me reframe the issue so that you're forced to agree with me, even if you don't. Would you like to see 12 really good singers perform, or would you rather watch that crazy dude with the giant fan? Check and mate.


-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of FOX)