'Idol' Pundits Weigh In On Season 10

With the American Idol season 10 premiere only days away, news site AI Now approached several pundits -- USA Today's Brian Mansfield, Rodney Ho of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Andy Dehnart of Reality Blurred and yours truly -- to gauge expectations for this milestone year. Not surprisingly, some of the proposed "changes" are going over better than others, but one thing is for sure, just about everyone is looking forward to putting season 9 behind them.   

Here's Brian Mansfield on whether the use of instruments should be limited: "Maybe the image of a guy with a guitar is just that strongly imprinted into the minds of the voting audience; maybe the instruments suggest a level of songwriting ability that many voters want their Idols to have. Whatever the reason, this seems to be the part of the system that most needs to be changed if producers want to have a different kind of act at the end of the day."

Rodney Ho is looking forward to Jimmy Iovine's arrival: "Given his track record, we can only hope Jimmy Iovine can be a tough cookie and really work on “artist development.” Last year’s crew was woefully poor on stage craft. If he can truly help the top 12 enhance their abilities to entertain us, we can end up with a decent season."

And my take on how people will look back on this season: "I think it’s safe to say that, sink or swim, the judges will bear the brunt of the blame or the credit. And even if memory fades on Simon Cowell as the weeks and months go by, you can bet that, in looking back on season 10, his exit will be a consistent footnote when it comes to how the show fares in ratings".   Read the full story here.