Oh no, dawg. For me, for you? It's bad news. Hooting, catchphrase-mangling judge Randy Jackson is leaving American Idol. Well, OK, the accomplished musician and producer is not leaving the show entirely, since he's still going to be on the show as a "mentor," but his days of being a front-and-center judge are over. This is what TMZ is telling us anyway, so who knows if it's really true. If it is, will you be sad? We will be. We're not huge fans of Jackson, but other than Ryan Seacrest, he's the only thing left from the show's early days, the lone holdout judge who, if nothing else, knew the system and all the beats and rhythms of the show. His departure from the judging table means that the panel will be all novices, among them Mariah Carey and a reported Nicki Minaj, which will be interesting to watch.

Interesting, but not our familiar old American Idol. It'll still be mostly the same. Thank god Ryan will be there, but something elemental will be missing. Some mangled phraseology, some garbled criticism. Sigh. 

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Richard Lawson