Oh Boy. The end is near. At least all of the signs are pointing that way.

First, American Idol negligently messed with a proven formula and hired ice-cold Kara DioGuardi as a fourth judge for a seat on the much sought-after judge’s panel. Kara was never able to gain fan approval and the situation became even worse when Idol let Paula Abdul walk by refusing to meet her contract demands, but curiously kept Kara for a second season.

If all of that wasn’t bad enough, the judges assembled the least-talented bunch of Idol hopefuls for Season 9. Before the ratings even started to slip as a result of mediocre talent and lack of chemistry between the judges, the ever-astute Simon Cowell saw the writing on the wall and announced at the start of Season 9 that he was abandoning ship, leaving the future of American Idol in a state of disarray.

As if all that isn’t enough bad news for American Idol, there was even more bad news released about the Idol camp today. What do Portland (OR), Omaha, Kansas City, Winnipeg, Toronto, Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Portland (ME) have in common? Well, until today, these were all cities on the American Idol Tour which now have been quietly nixed off of the slated tour schedule.

And other cities’ dates have been rescheduled so the run period of the tour is shortened even more.  Although no reason has been given for why the Idol Tour has been truncated, CelebMagnet saw the writing on the wall back in June when Ryan Seacrest announced a temporary drop in price of Tour tickets to $20. We could tell then that the reason for a drop in ticket prices was not a mere special promotion as Ryan mentioned, but more likely an attempt to boost lackluster ticket sales. I guess that price drop did not help as hoped.

For the sake of American Idol, I hope they make the right changes for season 10, or else, my and possibly your favorite show may very well be facing TV extinction land after next season.