Entertainment

TV

08:22 AM CST on Monday, December 19, 2005

By DARLA ATLAS / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

Randy Jackson can't go anywhere without being attacked by someone's vocal cords.

Now that American Idol is entering its fifth season as a monster hit, the jovial judge says he regularly endures impromptu auditions.

One day, "I was in the dressing room, trying on some jeans at Barney's," he says during a phone conference on Friday. "Some girls were outside the room, singing. It was a mother and daughter – it was like, 'Get him, he's captive!' "

The rest of us, thankfully, get to wait until the show airs to witness the warbling, which begins anew Jan. 17 on Fox. And if Mr. Jackson is to be believed, the new season is chock-full of raw talent.

"We say it every single season," he admits, "but I think the talent is far better than any other season. In the past, we knew Kelly was great, we knew Ruben was great, that Fantasia was unbelievable, that Carrie was really good. This time, it's going to come down to who grows the most this season."

And now that the singers are fully aware of where the competition can take them – Kelly Clarkson, exhibit A – they want the title worse than ever.

"There's quite a bit of interesting fighting and dialogue going on amongst the contestants," he says. "They're finally getting to the fact early on that we're friends, but hey, I want to win."

As for the show's format, don't expect any shocking changes: "There are a couple of different wrinkles that I can't speak about right now, but I think the show is really working, thank God."

One experiment they tried and are now dropping is the guest-judge gimmick. Alas, no more Kenny Loggins. Goodbye, Gene Simmons.

"We don't need them, dude," Mr. Jackson says. "Part of the problem is that we've lived with these kids for months and months and months. Every [guest judge] was just so complimentary. If they spoke freely as a guest judge, what are people going to say? 'We don't like your records, either, and we aren't going to buy them.' I think it worked for a minute, but no, we don't need it."

What the show does need, many believe, is the brilliantly nasty Simon Cowell, who recently renegotiated his contract to be around for another five years. But Mr. Jackson says the show could have gone on without him. "And you can print that," he says, adding that he, Paula Abdul and host Ryan Seacrest "are waiting on our raise to match his. We know it's coming; we're just waiting."

Mr. Jackson, who names Kelly and Fantasia as his two all-time faves from the show, suggests future contestants learn from the greats and focus on what's important.

"During this audition season, I think the outfits got really weird," he says. "People, you can lose the outfits. They aren't going to help you sing better."