“I miss her, of course I miss her,” Simon Cowell recently told interviewers. The judge is still smarting from the departure of Paula Abdul from American Idol. The reality show has been scrambling ever since to fill her place with random guest judges. There’s no word on what they’re going to do to fill the gap - or if they will - when the show begins in January.

“It’s like comparing a carrot to a banana,” Cowell says of the judging table without Paula, calling the show “different” now that she’s gone.

Though Abdul has been absent from the auditions, there is still some reason to believe she might be returning for the stage-singing rounds of the show.

(Make sure to check out our other American Idol 9 posts.)