With all the conversations American Idol’s changes for its 10 seasons, the big one seems to be that season 10 will focus on developing contestants as artists, not just as karaoke singers who are part of a money-making machine. Discussion of helping them grow as artists was the refrain repeated by many of the panel of nine people—including and producers Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick, and new judges Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler, along with Randy Jackson and mentor Jimmy Iovine—who faced TV critics yesterday. First, there was some news: There will be a semi-final round, with 10 men and 10 women (they will be split by sex after all), and a group of 40 is being narrowed to that 20 yesterday and today. The Las Vegas round is being held there simply because of the Cirque show Love—so it’s for product placement. Nigel said, “If the Beatles show had been in Wisconsin, we’d be in Wisconsin doing it. The idea was that they had to learn a Beatles song overnight and then perform it for the judg...