TVSquad

FOX has unveiled the roll-out schedule for the seventh season of American Idol. As announced, the series bows with a two-night, two hours each, premiere on January 15th and 16th. After that it settles down to its usual one hour episodes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays until the "Hollywood Rounds" on February 12th and 13th, with the Top 24 announced on the 13th. That's one month, ten episodes and 13 hours before we get to the Top 24!

From February 19-March 6 we go to three nights a week with the boys performing on Tuesdays, the girls on Wednesdays and the bottom two voted off each Thursday. And finally on March 11th, after two months on the air, the Top 12 perform and the show really gets going! From there it's two nights a week in the usual format, with extended episodes when FOX wants more ratings (and don't forget Idol Gives Back on April 9). The full schedule breakdown after the jump.

The first month will feature the best and worst of the preliminary auditions held in San Diego, Dallas, Omaha, Atlanta, Charleston, Miami and Philadelphia earlier this year. Admittedly this is the "guilty pleasure" portion of the show, with some of the most amazingly god-awful singers this planet has ever spawned.

As much as I enjoy seeing the "loser's bracket" during these early episodes, I think they've taken over a bit too much the past couple of seasons. It's getting to the point where the majority of these episodes feature the terrible singers, and I think it should be more balanced or maybe even skewed a bit toward the talented. After all, it's the good ones you want us to come back and vote for week after week, so why not spotlight more of those?

If the strike lingers into the new year enough, how many hours of Idol do you think will FOX give us? Remember Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? ABC killed that show in one season when they had nothing else worth airing. I think Idol is in a precarious position this year. I think people are a bit jaded about the quality of this past season, so they're hoping to see these promised improvements lead to a better product on the screen. And if they don't, this could be the year the juggernaut officially stumbles. Hopefully producers have learned their lesson and will get back to what made this show the hit it is, a focus on the new, young talent.

[All times are Eastern]