The original panel of judges – Randy, Paula and Simon – had a chemistry together that has not been duplicated since Paula left. So they should bring Paula back, right? Nope, it was definitely time for her to go – just like Simon’s departure, which was long overdue.

You can’t force chemistry between people – it either happens or it doesn’t – a point excruciatingly illustrated by the current panel of judges. So bringing in a bunch of pop-star “ringers” won’t likely improve the situation and could make things even worse. (Think about those really awkward mentoring sessions on the show… now imagine that happening all the time from the judges panel.)

Simon and Randy weren’t household names when Idol started, but they had the music industry cred to back up their criticisms, and that’s what the show needs now (and that’s why Ellen, as nice and funny as she is, just doesn’t fit in.)

Personally, I think the best possible change they could make is a really obvious one – one vote per contestant, per phone number. The current voting system – which allows people to vote as many times as they can hit redial in a three-hour period – is responsible for some of the worst Idol debacles.

The outcome of any given elimination night (or even the whole contest itself) is too susceptible to the adolescent whims of teenage girls and other disproportionately large voting blocs. Remember Jasmine Trias? While not a bad singer (there are far worse examples) she made it to 3rd place because of the sheer volume of votes she received from her home state of Hawaii. Had voting been restricted to one per contestant, per phone, she never would have made it that far.

There are even groups who exploit this obvious flaw by “gaming” the system and purposely voting multiple times for the worst contestants, just to see how long they can keep them in the contest.

This flaw had had a very noticeable and negative impact on the show.