'American Idol' brain trust will save show from death spiral, right? Right?

From reading the other posts on this blog, it seems as if "American Idol" is going into a death spiral. Paula gone, Simon with one muscle-shirted arm out the door, Kara and Randy still there, Ellen still not funny. It almost makes one wistful for the Taylor Hicks era.

Fear not, faithful watchers, as I'm sure the wise Fox network executives have a plan. As we know from recent events, network executives are crafty business people who know what they are doing, right? So let's do some quick fact checking to see what those execs have in their back pocket!

(Note that none of these facts will actually be checked. This is a blog, where we post stuff gun-slinger style. If innocent bystanders get hurt from our poor aim, well, that's tough. Once Microsoft puts a "fact check" button next to the "spell check" button, then life will be much easier for all of us. So get on it, nerds.)

Simon Fuller is the creator and executive producer of the show (yes, I guess it is a different Simon after all). According to his page on Wikipedia, he has been in control of Amy Winehouse's career. Hmm. Oh, and the Spice Girls! Hmm-hmm. Let's move on.

Another executive producer is Cecile Frot-Coutaz, CEO of Fremantle Media, which also brought us the masterpiece of a show, NBC's "America's Got Talent." From this September 2008 article we learned that she also was the braniac behind bringing in our fourth judge, Kara DioGuardi: "We need to make some changes so viewers feel the show is evolving." Oy.

Which brings us to Ken Warwick, another executive producer (and former dancer!). He said in December of 2008 that "there's never been any discussion that we would want to get rid of Paula. America loves Paula. She's an integral part of this program and, as far as I'm concerned, I hope she's there until the day it comes off the air." He sounds like an honest fellow.

At the top we have Rupert Murdoch, owner of the Fox Network; and I will not say much about him as he is currently controlling my brain using my DirectTV satellite dish. I suddenly have an urge to watch Fox News ... .