American Idol: tinkering with the rules.

Last season's American Idol led various commentators to propose various rule changes, and it turns out American Idol is going to change a rule. It's going to raise the age limit by 2 years (to 26). That's a modest change. Some people thought the voting method should be changed to guard against whatever injustices were perceived last season. One of the worst ideas was to change from voting for your favorite to voting against your least favorite. (Discussed here) A more sensible idea might be to raise the lower age to 18, or maybe to have two competitions, one with 16 to 24 year olds and another with 25 and up to whatever the age is when there has to be something wrong with you to be willing to put up with that sort of overhandling. But, really, why should they tinker too much with success?