After last night's travesty on American Idol, the show should now more appropriately be titled "Fallen Idol" -- referring not to Chris Daughtry, but rather to the show itself as a "fallen" entity.

Who is at the helm these days? Perhaps a better question would be, is ANYONE at the helm? The show seems to be running itself.....into the ground. Over time, judges Randy, Paula and Simon have undermined their own credibility and authority by hamming it up for laughs. And Ryan Seacrest (whom we can't help but like) has sadly added to the demise of their credibility.

The talent on American Idol is just as good as ever, but the contest itself has become a farce. The voting has now resorted to (after last night there is no doubt this is happening) America frantically supporting the person they don't want to see booted off the show.... yet. Chris Daughtry should have been one of the final two contestants, if not this year's American Idol. Everyone "knew" Chris would go to the finals, so they voted for the person they wanted to keep in the running ALONG WITH Chris. The approach obviously backfired, but the problem is not that viewers are dimwits, but rather that the whole stability of the show is beginning to crumble. The judges no longer respect each other's opinions, so why should we? And the problem is exaggerated by Ryan Seacrest's flippant banter with the now "dysfunctional family".

By far the worst problem with the show is the voting method. The most reliable method for determining who are the most wanted contestants on the show would be for the viewers to vote for the contestant they want to go home each week. Using this method, the least effective contestant is eliminated each week, until the truly best performers (at least in America's opinion) are left. This voting method WILL work, because viewers would be choosing the ONE person they want to leave the show. Instead, with the current system, viewers are having to choose among several of their favorites and guess which one needs to be voted for in order to survive another week. The current voting system only works when there are two remaining contestants to choose between. And, tragically, at that point some of the better singers (Chris Daughtry is the best example in the history of the show) have already become victims of the flawed voting process. It is not difficult to predict the beginning of next week's show, when Ryan Seacrest will acknowledge the tragedy of Chris leaving the show and then blame the audience for not voting for him. How many times does FOX expect viewers to buy that worn-out argument?

After last night, American Idol is simply too flawed to watch any more. If FOX is attempting to produce a farcical parody, they are succeeding. But if I want to watch really good farce on television, I'll tune in to "The Office". American Idol has become a joke.