American Idol may be the number one show in America, but that doesn’t mean it’s flawless. In fact, among the major reality series, it may suffer from the most flaws. So why only limit this list to five? Because, otherwise you might be reading for days.

Ryan Seacrest as host
Sure, it’s hard to find an affable host for anything these days. Even top notch comedians bomb at the Oscars. Still, Ryan Seacrest is no incredibly grating on most of America’s nerves that there has got to be a better choice. Perhaps go with the original plan which was to bring a former contestant back to, at the very least, co-host the show? There’s no sense in alienating most of your audience right from the cold opening. Seacrest out.

Randy Jackson as judge
Randy Jackson seems like a really nice guy, but he’s terrible as a judge. Simon is mean, and America loves that. Paula is a bit loopy, and America loves that. What does that leave for Randy? Is he the music expert? The well spoken critic? No, he’s the 18-year-old high school kid telling you how “dope” that song was. He easily ranks third in interest among the judges and, truth be told, is even more boring and less watchable than Seacrest.

Themed music weeks
Yes, it is sort of fun watching 16-year-olds try to reconcile disco hits. But it’s fun in the way watching a train wreck is “fun.” In other words, American Idol needs to stop the themed music weeks. Let the kids sing what they excel at. Why are there country artists trying to cover the hits of Aerosmith? It makes no sense. It would make significantly more sense to let them do what they do best each week. America doesn’t require range or diversity from its pop stars, just look at Daughtry and Nickelback.

The cute kid syndrome
Sure, it helps if a pop star is good looking. It also helps on a television show to have looking people parading about. Still, not many have ever accused Bob Dylan, Keith Richards or Steven Tyler of being lookers. Granted, Idol isn’t exactly looking for the next Dylan, but it couldn’t hurt to at least allow for the possibility. Yes, there are the occasional such contestants, but you usually get one finalist per year. That’s simply not how the proportion of good-looking people works.

The judges are worthless
Yes, this is a second attack on the judges. Except, well, this really isn’t their fault. The first couple of rounds of American Idol are entirely decided by the judges (and producers), but after that the audience has complete say. While that’s great for audience participation, shouldn’t the judges still have some semblance of a role? Give them a say each week in who stays and who goes home. Make it 20% of the vote or something, but please give them a reason for being there on stage each week. Right now they just sort of seem like the uncomfortable kid at the party who doesn’t really know what to do with his hands.

Related posts:

1. Randy Jackson actually says, “Dawg”
2. American Idol reject Josiah Leming signs record deal
3. American Idol Blake Lewis kind of makes a jerk of himself on radio
4. Did Clinton endorse McCain, or is it more media pandering to their candidate of choice?
5. Is this the way the music died?