With the second round of American Idol auditions about to commence, the news fans have been waiting to hear for the entire offseason broke late Tuesday night, as Paula Abdul announced via Twitter that she will not be returning to Idol for a ninth season, making her the first member of the original judging panel to leave America’s top-rated show.

And thus ends the process set into motion nearly a year ago, when Kara DioGuardi joined Idol as a fourth judge. At the time, it was widely assumed that DioGuardi was serving an apprenticeship with an eye towards making her Abdul’s eventual replacement, in the event that contract negotiations went south during the coming year, or if Abdul’s gaffes and bouts of incoherence made it impossible to keep her on.

Negotiations were contentious and became more so after news came down of a major raise for host Ryan Seacrest. All Abdul wanted, claimed her new manager, was fair treatment (read: a huge raise) from Idol. Paula and her fans took to Twitter for mutual stroking sessions, augmented by shows of support from ex-contestants, that were designed to put public pressure on Fox and 19 Entertainment. But when it was announced on Monday that DioGuardi, whose original deal was for just one year, would be coming back in 2010, that appeared to close the door on Paula’s Idol run.

The four-judge format used last season met with disapproval from most hardcore fans. None of the three original judges cut back on their critique times to accommodate the newbie, which meant that the average performance show ran longer but contained more talking and much less singing — hardly an entertaining state of affairs. After a promising start, DioGuardi fell prey to common judging foibles: an overreliance on cliches; blatant playing of favorites; and talking up the commercial potential of contestants instead of telling us how they sang. No doubt inspired by the new competition, Paula had a decent season, for Paula (although the extent to which she relied on scripted comments remains an open question). But like fellow veterans Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson, she still showed signs of being bored with the show, a status best illustrated by the night she presented Cowell with a coloring book and he returned the favor by drawing a mustache on her face — while Allison Iraheta was performing.

My suspicion is that Paula overplayed a decent hand. A certain percentage of the Idol audience (the same people who boo when Cowell is introduced) really loves her and the kind approach she takes with even the most hopeless contestants. The producers have consistently recognized that and been quick to defend her; after all, she was easily the most famous of the judging panel when Idol was just another reality wannabe hoping to catch on in the summer of 2002. But she’s not as important to the show today as Cowell, the only judge whose opinions appear connected to both the English language and to what we can see on the screen. And she’s not as important as Seacrest, who does his best to keep things running on time — in fact, Paula’s inability to get to the point has been the cause of most of the Idol time issues over the years. Asking for a raise is one thing, but her demands for Cowell money in the midst of a recession were easy to brush aside.

As for Idol, the franchise ought to come through just fine; although it can’t be ignored that its ratings have slipped for three straight years, it is still easily the most popular and lucrative show in prime time. And there is no reason why Abdul’s role as “the nice one,” assuming it is even necessary, can’t be filled by one of the other judges — DioGuardi made a few stabs at it last season, but without completely ignoring the reality of an awful performance the way Paula typically did. In the end, Idol is about the singers, a truth that the show finally recognized in the middle of last season when it dropped the overblown judges’ intros that added so much wasted time to the proceedings.

So unless Idol does something foolish like add a new fourth judge to replace Paula, the series ought to move on with a renewed spring in its step, and greater credibility now that someone who can’t be trusted to perform live herself is no longer making artistic judgments. As for Abdul, good luck in finding something that pays as well as Idol, leaves you with half your year free, and provides the same exposure. She is likely to return to the same oblivion she was in as recently as 2002, when the Idol producers hauled her out of the “Where are they now?” bin.

Tags: american idol, paula abdul