Imagine the pressure of everyday being in the immense shadow of your highly successful father. Julian Lennon performed under a pseudonym so people wouldn’t judge him. Jeffrey Jordan, son of Michael Jordan, ultimately ended up leaving his college basketball team. On Sunday’s American Idol, Jane Carrey, the daughter of Jim, attempted to lift the shadow in her own way by auditioning for the singing competition.

The singing of The Star Spangled Banner at sporting events has long been fodder for viral video moments, and Sunday’s NFL Conference Championships were no exception. While Aerosmith‘s Steven Tyler did his very best impression of a Wookie being castrated, San Francisco 49ers fans showed their true colors by booing New York Giants players as they appeared on the stadium Jumbotron…while Kristin Chenoweth sang the National Anthem.

At this point, it doesn’t look like American Idol will ever die. Even if we come to a point where Fox needs to develop cloning techniques just so there will still be new, innoffensive singers to compete, as long as people keep watching, then Randy Jackson will continue telling those clones that they are, in fact, da bomb, dawg. That’s just the way capitalism works. Success and money means immortality. However, over in Red China, they have a different system and their American Idol counterpart has just been canceled despite once garnering 400 million viewers. The reason? The audience voting style is to “western.”

Thanks to our friends at BuzzFeed, here’s a run down of all the funniest, weirdest, most disturbing, and all around best viral stories of the past week!

The Los Angeles Times‘ Company Town blog has, as it does at the start of every new year, turned to its various sources to come up with a few predictions about what the near future might have in store for several big names in media. Let’s take a look at a few of their predictions before weighing in with our own thoughts, shall we?

Well finally we know the answer that’s on everyone’s mind: who will replace Simon Cowell, Ellen DeGeneres and Kara DioGuardi as judges on American Idol? Rumors that Jennifer Lopez had already inked a deal to join the only returning judge Randy Jackson appear to be true. The two of them will be joined by Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler.

Earlier this week, three alleged terrorists were arrested in Canada. As investigators looked into their history, a truly bizarre piece of information surfaced. One of them, Khurram Sher, had appeared on Canadian Idol, a show which is exactly like American Idol except for having super polite judges. We’ve got the clip of his appearance in which he sings a song by fellow public menace Avril Lavigne and (SPOILER AND HORRIBLE PUN WARNING) bombs horribly.

Rumors have been swirling for weeks as to who will be announced as the celebrity judge(s) for next season’s American Idol. Most insiders feel that Ellen Degeneres is definitely out next season, and now Gossip Cop is reporting that offers have been made to Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler.

It was Friday morning, so let’s cut the boys of Fox & Friends some slack for being awkward. They must have known that getting fellow guests American Idol alum Kellie Picker and Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace to talk about anything would be difficult, but it doesn’t seem any of them could have predicted the level of confusion and creepiness that would come of this duo, the segment concluding with Wallace predicting a “big price” to pay from his wife for the segment.

Poison frontman and Celebrity Apprentice champion Bret Michaels disobeyed the doctor’s orders last week to put on an energetic performance on American Idol. For the anchors of Fox 5’s Good Day New York, his recovery from a brain hemorrhage and stroke and his not-yet-fixed heart condition was more than miraculous– it was too good to be true.

American Idol embraced the weirdest (and least talented side) of their show last night with a surprise performance of the strange cultural phenomenon from early in the season “Pants on the Ground.” But they didn’t stop there – they took it to “eleven” by also bringing in one-time white hot viral star William Hung, who joined Larry Platt, the original performer of “Pants on the Ground” in what can only be described as the single weirdest moment in the history of American television.

If the ‘Lee Wins Idol’ headline Drudge was running an hour before the winner was announced was anything to go by the results of tonight’s American Idol was not a total shock. Unless, of course, you watched last night’s show during which Crystal Bowersox was clearly far and away the better performer. Regardless! America has spoken and Lee DeWyze, the former paint-seller, is America’s new idol.

During a performance by the comedian Dane Cook mocking the various offensive things Simon Cowell has said to audtionees over the years one of the people on the stage playing a misfit who didn’t make the cut — or perhaps it was an actual person Simon had offended! — grabbed the microphone and began to yell at Cowell. It was a minute before the producers appeared to realize this wasn’t part of the show and zoomed away to break.

Is America tired of “Idol”? There’s no single factor. It’s not that this season’s contestants are lacking in the talent department. It’s just that it all seems so … boring.

Tonight Show bandleader Kevin Eubanks confirmed Monday in an interview with Jay Leno that he’d be leaving the show at the end of May after 18 years with the show – a move first reported in February.

And now we have Eubanks’ replacement, from another network’s popular show – American Idol bandleader Rickey Minor.

Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn, Shani Davis…your new American Idols!

For the first time in six years, American Idol did not finish #1 in the ratings – losing last night to NBC’s Olympics coverage that featured some big name Americans winning gold. The win had NBCU President Jeff Zucker bragging early this morning.

NBC News White House Correspondent Savannah Guthrie is on the way up. She was recently named one of 2010′s Faces to Watch in TV by the LA Times, and has just launched a new show, “The Daily Rundown,” on MSNBC (9am EDT), with fellow White House correspondent Chuck Todd.

Savannah gets real with “The Daily Rundown,” on MSNBC (9am EDT), with fellow White House correspondent Chuck Todd.

Savannah gets real with Inside the White House Press Corps, with some surprising observations about Twitter, media bias, and the role of pudits in shaping the news.

Since joining the White House beat on the eve of Barack Obama‘s inauguration, CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Chip Reid has distinguished himself as one of the toughest questioners in the Brady Briefing Room.

In this edition of Inside the White House Press Corps, Chip speaks frankly about the role of the Press Secretary, compares the Obama White House to the Bush administration, and much more.

On Sunday, we summarized Scott Brown‘s high-profile sit down on This Week with Barbara Walters, but never addressed what is perhaps Brown’s biggest legacy so far. That’s right: his daughters are “available!” When Barbara brought it up, Brown motioned with a gun to his head, and then made an offer, on behalf of Ayla, to Simon Cowell of American Idol.

After all of the headlines about contracts for Ryan Seacrest, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell, it was nice to just have American Idol back on TV last night. But I worry that I just witnessed the beginning of the end. I won’t go so far as to say American Idol is over with Simon Cowell’s [...]

This year, it was Paula Abdul. Next year it will be Simon Cowell.

FOX and Cowell announced today this season would be his last with mega-hit American Idol, and beginning in 2011 he would be bringing his very American Idol-like X Factor across the pond and host the show for FOX as well.

Is Simon Cowell, seen by many knowledgeable observers as “the only reason to watch American Idol,” about to depart from said American Idol at the end of this season? Simon Cowell’s brother Tony (Cowell) said as much on his podcast, “The Cowell Factor.” After a bit of hesitation on the media’s part, the story has traversed the gossip blogs and been picked up by the Associated Press, ABC News, and other outlets. So: is Simon Cowell actually leaving American Idol? And if so, does the show have a chance?

Who knew that the cover of a gay magazine could put everyone in such a bad mood. Adam Lambert used an interview with Entertainment Weekly to respond to allegations made earlier in the week by Out magazine editor Aaron Hicklin that Lambert didn’t want to be seen as “too gay” in the magazine devoted to being, well, openly gay.

How much do I love American Idol‘s Adam Lambert? So much — he’s fearless, unapologetic about who he is and enormously freaking talented. And he also has a giant set of cojones, based on the album cover for his first-ever album. Could he have chosen a neutrally smiling shot, eased up on the eyeliner, Clay [...]

On today’s (long) opener Glenn Beck (doing his best Clark Kent impression) rendered his own particular version of the age-old “kids these days” tirade. Kids these days are pro-Obama health care: “Like, dude, why would you be against free health care…it’s, like, free pot and stuff.” Kids these days are a generation of “would-be killers” in the making.