A couple of ideas.

1. One vote per household.

2. No more plants or anyone with a recording contract, or anyone who ever had one.

3. Dump Paula and replace her with a guest judge every week.

4. Ban country songs.

5. Have a lottery before every show to see who goes 1st, 2nd, 3rd, ect.

6. Have a bring-back week where fans can vote for one kicked-off contestant to come back and compete again.

That actually sounds like a really good idea.

Some people, though, I don't know if I could stand for 10 straight weeks.

And I say - eliminate the results show altogether.

Who really cares?

Just say at a random moment - the person's next performance, whatever - "Oh, sorry. By the way, you suck. You're off."

AND NO MORE CRAP GOODBYE SONGS.

oh hell yes, that would draw more viewers than the greedy ass PTB could ever dream of, our papaya is American Idol

I am totally with you here. Making it an even number of guys and gals is stupid. It should be who is the best or most entertaining, period.

Do away with the results show all together. Announce who is out at the beginning of the next performance show. That way more people will tune in to see who gets the boot.

ooOOoo I like the lottery idea. But I still think it should be unlimited calls.. anything less would just take the fun out of it.

Also.. I think they never should split the boys and girls up, it is just silly.

1) Fire Randy, and replace him with a rotating guest judge. Or, if you prefer three for Hollywood, make Clay Aiken the third judge. Yes, I'm kinda serious

2) A friggin' Styx night. Something for everyone! Cheesy ballads (Babe, Don't Let it End)! Hard, screamy rock (Renegade, Grand Illusion, Miss America)! Chances for falshitto (Come Sail Away)!

3) Fire Ryan Seacrest, and replace him with the forgotten and underrated Brian Dunkleman (fresh off his weight loss in CFC6).

4) Officially ban Stevie Wonder from all performances ever. Sorry. I like Stevie, but the kids... they kill it.

5) Pay for an actual group of musicians to do the backing tracks on stage and in the studio.

6) Want to get hype going? Release the studio versions of Idol performances to Top 40 stations. What gets buzz going for these artists like having people be able to request their music?

7) More Hollywood Week. Seriously. Much more.

8) Make the audition times two weeks. Good auditions on the first Tuesday and Wednesday, with backstories so people can get SOME kind of pub and not be thrust upon us for the top 24 (Garrett Haley?), and bad ones the next week, for those with a pain fetish. Shortens it by a week, giving more time to Hollywood week drama, and still gives the Idol execs enough audition stuff for high ratings

9) Put Hollywood/The Chair episodes over two weeks. Hollywood on a Tuesday/Wednesday/Another Tuesday schedule, and the chair the next day. Three episodes of drama, and then the chair, where you can bring up the backstories again. All the backstories and behind the scenes looks makes the contestants look more human. Making a more human contestant makes them relatable, which makes them marketable. There's a reason record sales dwindled after Kelly, with the exception of Farmbot.

10) Kill the ad plugs. No iPhones, none of that. They can keep the Coke cups, that's fine, but am I the only one sick of "American Idol... brought to you by Johnson's Bean Mulch, now with more Mulch!"? Leave it for the commercial time.

They need to figure out how to do something with the voting. Like have it independently monitored like they do with the lotto or something like that. There's no way I believe Seacrest's number count.

Also lose those hand waving twits in the front.

Oh crap I have to go home from work! I'll post more later, when I think of stuff. HEH!

Love almost ALL the comments in this thread so far!! In all seriousness, Fox would be WELL SERVED to actually read this thread!

Almost all the serious and semi-serious suggestions would be improvements to what they are doing now. So rather than comment on a bunch of the many really good ideas - I'll just propose one -

Just for the hell of it, just ONE season, make it a REAL Singing competition, and go out and get 24-50 REALLY GOOD SINGERS. Forget the compelling "back stories" and don't cast for 12 pre-conceived "roles" (i.e. the rocker, the "sweet girl", the "country" guy or girl, the R&;B guy, the Celine or Whitney wannabe, etc).

It wouldn't be difficult in the least. I've said over and over that on any given Thursday or Friday night in ANY major city in America you could find 12 better SINGERS working in clubs and bars - Chances are the First 15 you found at random would yield a group of 12 that is better top-to-bottom than ANY Final 12 that Idol has fielded yet.

SO, Imagine if JUST ONE YEAR They conducted real auditions instead of the farcical "Show pony" competitions they actually put on.

Maybe its just me, but I think THAT show would be darn compelling to watch. And lets face it - if you know anybody who sings in a bar or a club - can you imagine any group of 12 of THOSE people that didn't include several colorful "Characters" ? ? ? ?

Bring back and stop dissing your biggest audience grabber (and biggest concert draw) TAYLOR HICKS. The man is pure entertainment - something that is sorely lacking since his victory.

Nigel!????? You listening?