NEW JUDGE JUDGING: Jennifer dinging the vocally weak yet "hot" Stormi Henley for not having a strong voice? I agree with her, but I also think the concept of "irony" turned itself inside-out when that happened. Although who could blame him? The lousy-audition-to-decent-one ratio made the hour-long show seem almost as long as Wednesday's 180-minute episode. RANDY JACKSON'S VAGUE COMPLIMENT OF THE NIGHT: Perhaps the gravity of being in the Grand Ole Opry's Ryman Auditorium put a bee in Randy's bonnet, because last night the newly anointed head judge was all about doling out the tough love. Because Lauren Alaina is the only one who matters, dig? Now, the question is this: Will the pre-release drum-beating by Nigel and the other Idol executives result in Lauren triumphing? Does no one remember the similar "game-changer" hype surrounding eventual runner-up Adam Lambert two years ago? Does this mean that the legions of female fans who call and text obsessively will overrule the suits' wishes and put an unassuming dude in the winner's circle for the fourth straight year? Perhaps the disconnect here won't matter so much in the long run, because the lyrics the contestants will be tasked with singing will be more akin to the Kidz Bop cover of "DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love Again" than anything too overly emotional. This performative lyric blindness afflicts way too many of the younger Idol singers, and it torpedoes them early on in my eyes-or at least it did in the past nine years, when the show was more about emotion-laden singng and less about The New Pop Music Thing.