Please end "AI" after this season, if you are too greedy to do that then at least improve it., NCAA Tourney Day 2 thoughts.

Hello,

"American Idol" had it's lowest ratings since the first season, "only" 19 million people watched it. Yes, that's still more than any other show, but the show continues to drop like a rock. Let's see if we can figure out why. This is by far the weakest cast ever. Literally there are only two people who I would pay to see- Casey Abrams and Pia Toscano. Lauren Alaina has potential, but that's all she has at this point. For future seasons, the age needs to be raised. I would suggest to at least 21, but 15 is way too young. I would also raise the maximum age to 40, many people say 40 is the new 30.

As TPTB continue to extend this show's life, so they can suck every penny possible out of it, it continues to deteriorate quickly. Who watches the show for the judges? Not me, but they are all too nice. This show misses Simon Cowell, the most lucid and intelligent judge ever. They need to also get rid of the "barnacle" Randy Jackson.

Other suggestions: The results show is a hour, cut it to a half-hour. The group numbers always suck, why do they still keep showing them. I know "American Idol" is there to make money, but toning down the commercialism would help a lot. Also cut a lot of the filler, like the Ford commercial. Finally the most obvious thing let the contestants sing the full song. The show can do okay without the judges. Also the worst change for this season is seeing the producers and Jimmy "One Hat" Iovine "advising" the contestants. That doesn't add anything to the show, in fact it hurts the show. I haven't seen an insightful comment made by Iovine or the producers yet.

Day 2 of the NCAA Tournament has been terrible so far, it's 3:25 MST. After a slate of great games yesterday and some upsets, today has sucked. So far the lower seeded team has won every game and a lot of those games haven't been close. Duke destroyed Hampton, no surprise there. Duke won by 42 points and it seems like they were on cruise control the whole game. Tennessee gets the award for team who could care less about being in the tournament. They were demolished by a so so Michigan team 75-45. Now Duke plays Michigan in the third round, not really the third round, but whatever. Anyway whoever beats Duke, I'll go on-line and buy a hat from your university. I know, what an amazing incentive. Go Wolverines!

Later today I'll be cheering for North Carolina and UNLV. The MWC is now 2-0 and should finish the tourney with a winning record, on the strength of SDSU alone.

themusicaddict