Look for some changes on American Idol, which saw its ratings drop last season.

When “American Idol” returns to television January 13, the show will be “more real” and “intimate,” and “raw,” according to Mike Darnell, Fox’s president of alternative programming.

“It’s going back to letting the kids be more emotional and seeing more of their reality, we’re going to allow the public to see a little more of their emotional state,” Darnell said.

And what about Paula?

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Poor Paula!

Apparently, a friend of Abdul says she won’t go back to the “haunted house” even after hiring “healers” to cleanse the house of ghosts of Paula Goodspeed, who committed suicide outside Abdul’s home.

“[Paula Goodspeed] was a deranged stalker who sent her death threats. Paula instructed guards to keep Goodspeed away from her at all costs,” said reports Page Six.

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The tragic tale of former American Idol contestant Paula Goodspeed’s suicide makes the cover of today’s New York Post.

She was mercilessly ripped by judges after a 2005 tryout.  See the sad video here.

Abdul has been a judge on the Fox talent show since its first season in 2002 and said the following in a statement:

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According to reports,  30-year-old Paula Goodspeed had been obsessed with Abdul for the past 17 years.

Her fixation led her to twice auditioning to appear on American Idol, including her now-infamous, Simon Cowell-maligned 2005 audition in Austin after the jump.

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The women found dead outside of Paula Abdul’s home was former American Idol contestant Paula Goodspeed, expressed great admiration for Abdul at the Season 5 audition.

“I really like Paula Abdul a lot. She’s really cool,” said Goodspeed when asked about her inspiration during the Idol audition process. “I’m a really big fan, and I made life-sized drawings of Paula. I’ve been drawing ever since I was a little kid, and my first drawing was of Paula Abdul.”

Check out the video of Paula Goodspeed as she auditioned. How sad.

An unidentified woman in her 30s was found dead in her car outside of Paula Abdul’s Los Angeles home on Tuesday afternoon, according to reports.

Los Angeles station KTLA quoted police Capt. Jim Miller as saying the woman had an infatuation with the American Idol judge.

Rob Bailey, a publicist for Abdul, confirmed that Abdul was not at home to witness any of the incident.

Bailey added that this woman appears to be “an extreme fan – a woman that’s been a fan of Paula’s for a while.”

To see the video and find out what Paula thinks of Rachel’s brownies, click here.

(Image via Splash)

After watching the finale last night, I have to admit that I wasn’t surprised by the results.

There’s been a ton of reports that suggested that American Idol producers wanted David Cook to win the show.

And it’s not hard to see why. He’s extremely talented and marketable. He also appears to be a genuinely nice guy.

American Idol needs a big star to keep the show going. Current winners haven’t been as marketable or that successful compared to early winners like Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.

If you watched the critiques after each one of David Cook’s performances, they were definitely a bit harsh on Cook. If you’ve watched Idol historically, you know that the American public often favors the contestant that the judges bash. Did the judges critique Cook more harshly because they thought that that would help him? I definitely think that was part of the plan.

What do you think?

P.S. David Archuleta is as talented as David Cook - but he’s not as mature professionally as Cook. But in the end, I predict Archuleta will have a much bigger career.

(Image via Splash)

After what seems like an eternity, we have the two finalists for the 2008 American Idol competition.

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