Fox’s bread and butter, American Idol, will be gracing your television soon. Fox announced that the pop talent show will be returning on Tuesday, January 16th. With the good news, comes the bad—the season premiere will span two nights of two hour shows. How can any viewer endure so much Idol? Well, if you’re like me, you just skip watching the audition shows altogether. It’s too bad that the people auditioning make it past the first level of auditions to appear before Randy, Simon and Paula—just for the sake of some fun on the audition shows. No wonder the people end up mad—they think they’re good enough to make it to the judges, but it’s really a joke at their expense!

Following the premiere on January 16th and 17th, American Idol will pick up the usual pace of Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. and Wednesdays at 9:00 p.m., showing audition highlights over the course of the episodes on January 16, 17, 23, 24, 30 and 31. That takes us into the semifinals in February, with the competition among the top 32 starting in late February. This is the sixth season of American Idol.

(You can find all the American Idol 6 posts here.)