American Idol doesn't need much in the way of a preview after eight seasons, but here are a few stray thoughts as we prepare for what many regard as a four-month-long obsession:

Three weeks of auditions kick off tonight with a journey to Phoenix; tomorrow's stop is Kansas City. Advertising for the show has mostly focused on good singers, a few of whom have been identified by the Idol blogs. There will be less total time spent on auditions this year, so one would hope that would mean less focus on people with no talent, a reliable if inexplicable draw for many viewers (the early audition episodes are always among the highest rated in any Idol season).

However, not everyone who makes it past the Hollywood round will be have their audition shown, so it's instructive to pay attention to singers who get a lot of audition airtime, because that gives a leg up when it comes time for the early voting: viewers tend to vote for those they are most familiar with. This is an inequity that observers of the show have decried for years to no avail, especially since there is certainly time to show the audition of everyone who eventually makes it into the semifinals (set at 36 for this season).

Should we make anything of the preseason chatter that the male contestants seem to be stronger than the women, an opinion reached by both Simon Cowell and new judge Kara DioGuardi? Not really, since this is the sort of thing the judges have said before, including two years ago when the champion was Jordin Sparks and the consensus best performer was Melinda Doolittle. But because most who try out for Idol are women and so are most of its fans, the show has a vested interest in promoting its men, as something of a counterweight. The new semifinal format does not separate men and women into different groups, meaning there won't necessarily be six of each in the finals. A big fear for the show is a repeat of Season Three, when only four men got to the finals and none were plausible winners.

This season's Idol will look more like it did in its first season, when performers sang only once in the semifinals, and there were occasional glimpses of life away from the set. There are good and bad points to these changes. As I've said earlier, the new semifinal format is going to give a huge boost to those who received a lot of early airtime and/or have instantly memorable personalities, and will work against those who haven't had as many chances to make themselves known. We can only hope that no one potentially great will be lost in the shuffle.

The attempt to highlight personality is a natural reaction to the slide in the ratings the last two seasons. The whole point of Idol is to get viewers to bond with their favorite singers, in order that we might vote for them hundreds of times and then purchase their CDs. The more we think we know them as people, the easier the bonding becomes, in theory. But the downside is that personality (including singers with the ever-popular sob story) might trump artistry to some extent. We've seen before on Idol that those with polarizing personas are not necessarily in bad shape with viewers, since the voting system doesn't have any way to literally measure dislike--you vote for contestants and not against them. While watching the auditions, stay focused on those who have some sort of personality hook--an offbeat job or a cute baby or (if Taylor Hicks didn't scare them off forever) even gray hair.

DioGuardi spoke to reporters last week, but it was hard to gauge from her polished remarks exactly what she will bring to the table, although viewers will settle for mere coherence after a season where neither Paula Abdul nor Randy Jackson provided very much of that. DioGuardi declined to say what judge she most resembled, saying her style could be compared to "a combination" of all three: "I don't really mince words, but I do feel I have a heart and when you're dealing with creative people that have some talent you want to make sure that you encourage them, but also if they don't have any talent you want to discourage them because you don't want them to waste their time."

A key question about this coming season is whether Idol has made any attempt to make the program come across as more contemporary. An obvious problem with Season Seven was that the themes typically forced the performers to select songs that were several decades old, although perhaps they didn't seem that old to the baby boomers running the show. Idol has the goal of preparing singers for the modern marketplace, but at least last year it didn't give its contenders much opportunity to display the kind of record they might make. This might be where DioGuardi will help; as a songwriter who works with currently charting artists, she may bring a perspective other than simply giving thumbs-up to whoever pulls off the best Whitney Houston impression.

We'll be here all season long chronicling the surprises, thrills, and Paula breakdowns.

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