April Fools American Idol

I like to watch Jeopardy; if I can answer three questions on a show I feel a touch smarter.
After Jeopardy I left the tv on, not in too much concern as to what follow up the rear.
American Idol started with the worst April's fools joke... The show wouldn't be on, instead we'd watch an older movie starting Simon Cowell. Who's writes that crap? Viewers would seriously believe this? Or is this the kind of viewers that watch American Idol. For a show that millions of people watch, you could get some good writers, especially if you are holding a "talent contest". Maybe I'm knocking them to hard, and the idea came from above. Whatever the case, it was stupid, especially since in the bottom right corner of the screen, it said, "LIVE".
I didn't turn the set off, but rather distracted myself with other things, turning to watch the performances. It was the Dolly Parton special, where she had helped the idols to make her songs their own. I was unaware as to what a great songwriter she was, and how many classic and beautiful songs she had written.
The whole night Simon was giving terrible feedback, like a grinch of sorts. The host and other judges chewed him out for it, but I agreed with him. These weren't amazing performances, they were nice, they looked good, but that's about as far as it went.
The highlights of the night were Carley Smithson, David Cook and David Archuleta. Cook's arrangement and use of his falsetto was impressive.
Carley's voice really resonated and went well with the song of her choice. There were a lot of cute pretty performance from the girl contestants and a couple interesting arrangements and choices for the guys.
Personally I don't like Archuleta, however his amazing voice, and the feeling he put into the song brought a tear to me eye (seriously). He will probably win, because he is a fan favourite.
The rest of the performances were there to fill in the time slot.
The very last song "I will always love you", was definitely the hardest to cover. No one can pull of like Whitney Houston, but Syesha Mercado tried, and she gets a shout out for that. The first part of the song was great, soft, sweet and sentimental. Just the way Dolly wrote it, without the added flares and trills of the Houston version.
What did I learn? If I'm interested in seeing who wins than I should wait three or four more weeks to check the progress. The performances were not something I'd had the patience to watch week after week (they are just not THAT good).
And that Simon tells it like it is, that is why he's there. I felt the other judges being nice, almost too nice, especially with nine contestants left.