The eighth season of “American Idol” kicked off on Tuesday night, bringing back all the hijinks viewers have come to expect from the world’s most popular reality talent show.

The huddled masses of singers yearning to be the next Kelly Clarkson or Chris Daughtry came out to a sweltering Phoenix, Arizona, where the now four celebrity judges either cooed over or mocked them as only “Idol” judges can.

The new judge, Kara DioGuardi, even got into a singing faceoff with one of the contestants, a woman named Katrina Darrell who showed up in a string bikini, delighting male judges Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson and earning the scorn of DioGuardi and Paula Abdul. It’s unlikely that DioGuardi would have put her own singing pipes to work in an effort to show Darrell how it’s done, if not for the teeny weeny bikini.

“Honestly, you don’t have the chops to sing that song,” DioGuardi told the contestant, who the show dubbed “Bikini Girl.”

Bikini Girl responded by telling DioGuardi, “Your demonstration wasn’t any better.”

That set off a verbal battle between Bikini Girl and the two female judges, but in the end Darrell and her bikini made it through to the critical Hollywood round.

On a more upbeat note, 23-year-old legally blind singer Scott MacIntyre also advanced to the next round, wowing all four of the judges with his version of Billy Joel’s “And So It Goes.” MacIntyre is not only a talented singer, he told the judges that he started college at Arizona State University at age 14 and graduated at 19. Now he can add national TV exposure to his resume.

When MacIntyre walked out after his audition, show host Ryan Seacrest tried to give him a high-five, to Seacrest’s embarrassment since the contestant could not see the raised hand.

Despite the recent suicide of one spurned “Idol” contestant, the judges did not spare their criticism of the singers they deemed not yet ready for primetime. One singer named Michael had trouble raising his voice above a dull croak. In response, Cowell told him, “You could have been singing in Bulgarian, I couldn’t understand a word of that.”

Critics have said that “American Idol” too often exploits the failures of its try-out contestants. That became a major story in November when a woman named Paula Goodspeed who tried out for “American Idol” in 2005, killed herself from a drug overdose in front of Abdul’s home. Goodspeed apparently had a longstanding obsession with Abdul, and when she tried out in 2005 she brought along drawings she had made of the pop star.

On Tuesday’s premiere, none of the contestants seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with the judges, although one teen gushed that she was DioGuardi’s biggest fan. And there was plenty of naked ambition, and in the case of Bikini Girl — almost naked ambition.

Despite the hype around “Idol,” 10 percent fewer viewers tuned in for the season premiere last night. Could they have been put off by the idea of a fourth judge, or the promise of a kinder, gentler “Idol?”

 What did you think of the premiere?

(Writing and reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis)

Simon Cowell may have the casting vote in early audition rounds of “American Idol” but it sounds like new judge Kara DioGuardi and Paula Abdul bring some girl power of their own to the tart-tongued British judge they call a ‘”bully”.

“He’s the bully brother!. Sometimes we love each other, and sometimes I try to change seats. He’s annoying sometimes. I have to reel him in.  Kara finally sees what it’s like for me –  my own private hell,” Abdul told reporters of her love-hate relationship with Cowell.

“American Idol” executive producer Ken Warwick told reporters at a television conference in Los Angeles that one of the reasons producers had added a fourth judge this season was because “We thought it was high time on the panel that Simon didn’t get his own way. ”

“It’s good for us when they gang up on Simon,” he said. ” Simon —  you know what he’s like.  He can gang up on Paula at times,”

Abdul also laid to rest once and for all the notion that she was opposed to DioGuardi joining the established three-person panel. In fact,  she revealed that the two ladies have a friendship going back 10 years that started when Abdul moved DioGuardi into her home in Los Angeles when she was struggling to break into the music industry as a songwriter.

“She was the best roommate I ever had. Except that she walks in her sleep. We had the best time ever,” Abdul said.  She said the two met outside a New York diner, started talking, and then Abdul offered her a place in her Los Angeles home where she introduced DioGuardi to friends in the business.

“We instantly became thick as thieves. I believed in her,” said Abdul.

The bond between the two women on the show becomes apparent in Tuesday’s first episode.  Watch out for bikini girl!

Songwriter and producer Kara DioGuardi joins the “American Idol” judging line-up when the talent show returns for an 8th season this coming Tuesday, adding a fascinating twist to the Paula-Randy-Simon dynamic that has been as much a part of the TV’ show’s attraction as the contestants themselves.

But how will she fit in?  DioGuardi, who has worked with former Idol Kelly Clarkson and written songs for Carrie Underwood,  described her own persona on the panel as  “pretty feisty and opinionated but  also coming from a good place and who is trying to help the contestants.”

In other words, a combination of all three of the reigning judges.

“Paula has a lot of heart, Simon pretty much tells it like it is. Sometimes he can be pretty harsh but usually he’s right.  Randy’s the diplomat,” DioGuardi told reporters in a conference call this week.

“I do feel I have a heart. You want to make sure you encourage the contestants. I may say things that are negative but  I always try to say it with some heart,” she said.

DioGuardi’s arrival sets up some interesting two way ties in the early audition rounds but the acerbic Cowell gets the final casting vote.

One big question for the show this season will be whether DioGuardi’s addition be enough to keep up the slipping ratings for “Idol” after six years as America’s most-watched show. Also, we wonder whether Simon be getting the casting vote? What do you thinK?