'American Idol' Is Dead! Long Live 'American Idol'!

Ironically, Cowell says this year is one of its best.

"I think personally it's one of the strongest years we've had in a long, long time," he told TV critics in one of the many news conference calls that's passing for Winter TV Press Tour 2008 -- one of the early victims of the Writers Guild strike. "It is younger. I think the talent is more current."

By "more current" he means "not a talented stage-school singer."

By "a talented stage-school singer," he means Diana DeGarmo.

"Diana DeGarmo . . . for me is a talented stage-school singer, a nice person, very good voice, but just didn't seem current to me or even relevant to the music business," Cowell explained. "I was praying this year we just wouldn't get a load of stage-school wannabes, that we'd find someone a lot more interesting, and I genuinely believe that we found that this year."

By "younger" he means "not as old." Which is surprising, given that the producers upped the age cap for contestants a while ago and virtually everyone involved with the show and at the network insisted that had resulted in more talented contestants.

Mercifully, "younger" also means far fewer contestants who have tried six times to make it through, we hear.

"This is a much better season than last year," Cowell promised the TV critics.

"We always say on this show we can't guarantee that we will find a superstar. We'll do our best, but we're at the mercy of who turns up for the auditions," he said.

And, as we've learned over the years, when they get the right mix of competitors on "American Idol," they have a great year. If they don't -- they have a great year.