I admit, I am part of this season's missing audience. I watched all the audition shows as well as the first few weeks of competition, but I stopped watching.

I just didn't care what happened anymore.

It seems I am not alone in this assessment as rating are down and the future of the show is in doubt. For me that raises two questions about Idol.

1) Does Idol even come back next year?
The show still pulls ratings and does better than most things Fox could through out there to replace it. I think we assume yes and move on to question two.

2) How do you FIX the show?
I don't think that a tighter format and new judges are the cure-all, but I can see some help coming from that direction. Still, I think they need to freshen up the format. Survivor changes locations, mixes up the tribe and brings back favorites every five years. Each season has a twist of its own. How does Idol replicate that.

Would love to hear some opinions, thoughts and rumors. What do you all think?

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.