I told you last week that HCD Research was going to be conducting research during the live performances of American Idol, but instead of rating the singers, they were rating the judges.
Well, 1,522 viewers watched clips of each performance from last night along with the judges’ critiques, and then were asked to evaluate the judges based on scales of likeability, believability, sincerity and fairness. Coming out on top: Randy Jackson.
On the likeability factor, Simon Cowell scored the lowest (which surprises me, because I quite like Simon Cowell), but he was the highest rated judge last night for believability, and second highest for sincerity.

Conversely, Paula Abdul scored second highest, behind Jackson, on the likeability scale but lowest on the believability and fairness scales. Kara DioGuardi was mediocre on all scales.
Randy Jackson scored highest on every scale except believability, where he fell just one point behind Cowell.
Study participants were also asked which three contestants they think should move through to the next round. Their response? Danny Gokey 50.3%; Alexis Grace 40/4%; Anoop Desai 34.9% and Ricky Braddy 24.9%. Can I call it or what? I picked those three even before the live performances.
You can see the results of the Judging the American Idol Judges study at MediaCurve.com. HCD is conducting their study every week, so check back next week to see how the judges score!
Would you like to be part of the study and help judge the judges? The MediaCurves website has a link where you can sign up to participate in studies like this.