New Season Of American Idol Will Be Emotionally Raw

Fox's president of alternative programming, Mike Darnell, in an interview in TV Week, said that when American Idol returns to TV on January 13 it will be "more real, more intimate and more raw."

Pressed to explain what in the world he meant, Darnell explained that American Idol "is going back to letting the kids be more emotional and seeing more of their reality, we're going to allow the public to see a little more of their emotional state."

Does this mean we are going to be seeing a lot more of Paula Abdul crying? I didn't realize that American Idol had not been allowing the public to see the kid's emotional states. If anything, to my eyes and ears, we get shown an awful lot of crying, screaming and other types of emoting.

The changes to American Idol will supposedly reflect changes in the mood of America, according to the Fox marketing chief, Joe Early, who told TV Week "It would be reaching to say we're trying to tie into the election itself, but what we are tapping into is what we've just been through and the mood of the culture and the state of our economy. We've been through a lot of divisiveness lately, and our message is, it's time to stop arguing and fighting, to all pull together."

Does this mean that Simon Cowell is not going to be so harsh and mean to the kids and Paula Abdul? I'm guessing I won't be able to detect any change if I decide to watch the next American Idol.