We can finally stick a fork in Australian Idol— at least for 2010. The series is being “rested” after a year of embarrassing ratings and may be relaunched in 2011. The show definitely needs a nanna nap. Those two hour Sunday night marathons were a hard slog towards the end. I’m a bit Idol-ed out, but I will be tuning in for the new season of American Idol on Wednesday (Fox8). It will be interesting to see the judges sans Paula Abdul and, of course, the big question is whether or not Ellen Degeneres can save the show. Do you think it was a good idea to shelve Australian Idol? Will you be watching Ellen’s debut this week?

The tide has turned. Australian Idol producers, who sacked shock-jock Kyle Sandilands five months ago, are now desperado for him to return to the show. They dropped him like he was hot after the infamous stunt gone terribly wrong on his radio show involving a teenage rape victim, but now they’ve changed their tune. Freemantle Media Australia conducted top secret research which showed viewers thought Jay Dee Springbett, Marcia Hines and Ricki-Lee Coulter were a snoozefest. Meanwhile, they missed Kyle and liked Dicko. Fremantle has until December 31 to renew the judges' contracts and throw money at Kyle to come back to the show. As for the other judges, the end of the journey may be near.

Drumroll, please...the new Nova 969 breakfast team in Sydney has been announced. Singer and TV host Ricki-Lee Coulter and former Triple J presenter Scott Dooley will join Merrick Watts. Friday marked the last day for Tim “Rosso” Ross and Kate Ritchie. Scott has hosted Triple J’s Drive show for the past two years, while Ricki-Lee is known for appearing on Australian Idol in 2004. The trio will start their new gig at the beginning of next year and will be in the 6am to 9am morning show slot.

Australian Idol runner-up Hayley Warner has scored a recording contract with Sony Music. The 17-year-old announced the news at the ARIA Awards last week. Winner Stan Walker was automatically signed with Sony and the two will go head-to-head on the charts. We knew the runner-up would be just fine no matter who won. Hayley’s first single will be Good Day and Stan’s first single is Black Box. Guy Sebastian is also giving Stan a hand – he’s working in a recording studio in Sydney and will produce a track for his fellow Aussie Idol winner.

MOVIES

Um, hello? New Moon, New Moon and then more New Moon.

CONCERT

Pearl Jam
Eddie Vedder and crew perform at Sydney Football Stadium with support acts Liam Finn, Ben Harper and Restless7.

DVD

Fight Club 10th Anniversary Edition
This movie never gets old. It’s Brad Pitt at his sexiest. Remember those abs? It’s now a cult classic. We love us a little Tyler Durden!

TV

Australian Idol

THE FINAL! Stan and Hayley face-off at the Sydney Opera House. Guest appearances from Michael Buble and Mika.

Samson & Delilah

Check out the film that cleaned up at the Inside Film Awards this week. The teenage love story is set in a remote indigenous community near Alice Springs. (ABC)

We love a little Michael Buble and are tracking his every move like a spy satellite. But not in a creepy, stalkerish way, thank you very much. He is currently in Oz promoting his new No. 1 album Crazy Love and hanging out with the Australian Idol kids. But Michael was a little miffed last week when a British writer dared to describe him as a “cheesy crooner.” Puh-leeze. When asked about the remark, Michael said, “Let me tell you, I am not a little bitch. For me, there’s this prejudice, people feel the need to categorise me as a crooner. Is it because I sing romantic songs with sensuality and wear a suit on stage? Is that why he perceived me as cheesy or soft? I’ll put him on his arse.” We think he just got even sexier, if that’s possible.

Michael Buble is in Australia and it’s his turn to weigh in on the Britney LipsynchGate controversy that has ridiculously turned into an international media incident. He says, “You'd think she killed someone. As an artist, and a human being, some of what has been written about her is so nasty. OK, she lip-synchs her show, people know that, they make the decision if they want to go and see her do that. Does she deserve the way she's been completely bashed by the media here? No. Mind you, I lip-synch all my concerts, I'm the Milli Vanilli of jazz.” You hear that, people? Leave Britney aloooone! Michael is in town to promote his new album Crazy Love (which we do love) and he’ll be back on Australian Idol Sunday for the final at the Sydney Opera House where he’ll sing with the contestants.

Thank God last night was the final regular episode of Australian Idol because we’re seriously bored already. Last night was basically a repeat of last week – Stan Walker and Hayley Warner were selected as the final two contestants and they each sang THREE songs. James Johnson was predictably sent packing. Two things were confirmed last night – we have serious crushes on schoolteacher/former contestant Toby (who was in the audience) and Michael Buble.

Stan and Hayley each came out and sang a song, then the judges gushed about how amazing they both are. Yawn. It doesn’t even matter who wins next week, they’re both going to have recording careers and probably do quite well. The new single that each Idol will record was revealed and we liked Hayley’s song better. Stan’s single about a mystery box (oops, wrong show) or little black box was a bit naff. They could have easily done this in a one hour show, complete with a little Michael Buble number. And the poster in the audience that said “We love the Boob” was priceless. Idol producers – if you do come back next year, trim it down to an hour. We can only watch Ricki-Lee’s Rexona commercial about 50 times before we want to throw something at the TV screen. Next week – on to the Sydney Opera House for the grand final!