Steven TylerWith ratings sagging, it looks like American Idol is pulling out all the stops to try and entice people to watch this season. Today there was a buzz that there would be a big apology on tonight's episode for Steven Tyler's behavior. Speculation soared as to what it could be about, but it turns out it was nothing but a joke -- and a lame joke at that.

The show opened with a black card emblazoned with the following words: "American Idol would like to apologize for last week's outrageous behavior by Steven Tyler. Mr. Tyler has been warned and assures us it will never happen again."

Then out came a contestant who said his last name was "Muck."

"Do you know what that rhymes with?” Tyler asked him. The contestant guessed, “Duck?”

“Read my lips ...” Tyler said, right before Ryan Seacrest jumped in and saved the day with, "THIS is American Idol."

Like I said, lame.

While I'm actually really enjoying Tyler and J.Lo as judges, I hope this season brings more than silly antics like that, or it may be the show's last. Nigel Lythgoe, executive producer of the show, promises it will.

"You haven't really seen how strong the talent is yet," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "We can afford to lose 10 great ones this year because they're that good!"

He also said he's not worried about the ratings and that he's actually pleased with the reaction to this season so far.

"You forget that we've had this trainwreck that was following Simon, and then Simon disassociated himself from the show over the last few years, turned his back on the strange people they brought in to judge," Lythgoe said. "So I knew it was going to be better than people expected. To have lost our star and to be in our tenth season is remarkable. It's broken more records than any other program, including MASH. It's stunning, but at the end of the day, it comes down to talent."

We'll see. But even if American Idol's ratings don't improve, at least it looks like the show is doing wonders for Aerosmith as digital sales of their music have been soaring.

What did you think of the American Idol "apology" tonight? What do you think of this season so far?


Image via SongLyrics/Flickr