Professor Elam

Okay amid Michelle Obama's speech, Russia's incursion into Georgia, trhe housing slump, what is it that has Americans riveted with attention, well you might have missed this were it not for the blog but

American Idol will add's  a foruth judge next season. Actually I do have a few observations about this.

Resistance to New ideas – When Simon Cowell pitched the idea for an AMerican version of Pop Idol which had huge audiences in Britian, all three traditional networks turned him down. Indeed it took a call from Rupert Murdoch's daughter to Rupert to get the idea considered. Moral, it is tough to get anyone to buy into a new idea.

Benchmarking –  Now however American Idol is an established idea in its product maturity stage, so what to do to change things up. Do you note the spin in the article, Paula has had to endure being the only female! 

My guess is that Paula has been thrilled to be the only female judge, it certainly revived her moribund career! Now she gets to share the stage with a genuine talent who writes songs sung by Idol winners (no accident there I would say) and who is clearly, gulp, younger.  I am sure Paula is saying oh swell, but at least she is still on the panel, eh?d  Paula was opriginally a cheerleader for a Pro Team that bvecame a sort of manufactured pop singer by a reccord label. Her actual talent is choreographing dance routines, not surpising given the cheerleader background. By the say, can you name the signature Paula hit tune, I didn't think so….