Friction starts among 'Idol' judges

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An apparent dearth of talent in Houston caused on-screen friction between the American Idol judges in the third instalment of the series.

The premiere episode and the follow-up on Tuesday showed very few disagreements between Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell.

However, Wednesday night saw the judges highly frustrated with contestant after contestant who failed to make the grade. The crunch point came around half-way through the episode, when Paula and Randy duked it out over a "yodelling" contestant. Simon, who initially offered comment, walked off the set saying he was "going off for a cigarette." Paula swiftly followed, muttering that Randy was "so annoying," with Randy being the only judge left on set.

The second part of the episode focused on Idol's second day in Houston, with Paula down with the flu. Therefore, Randy and Simon were the only judges to examine the remaining contestants. Without Paula's calming influence, the criticism flew unabated - making very interesting viewing, particularly when one contestant took umbrage in a rather moist fashion at one of Simon's comments.

The new season of American Idol will begin airing in the UK on ITV2 this Friday.