American Idol premieres tonight, to go head-to-head with The Voice starting February 5

Fox’s standard bearer for competition reality shows, American Idol, kicks off its 11th season tonight at 8/7c and will air on Wednesday and Thursday nights for the next few months. But, starting February 5, it won’t be alone as NBC’s The Voice will begin its second season right after the Super Bowl. (After the premiere, The Voice will begin airing every Monday night.)

Although American Idol is still by the far the biggest fish in the ever-growing reality music competition show pond (The Season 10 finale was watched by more than 29 million viewers), as it gets older so does its audience. Since the first season of American Idol, the median age of its viewers has risen from 31.9 to 47.4. And that’s what The Voice is hoping to take advantage of by appealing to a younger audience.

The American Idol format “is a very tired format in a lot of ways,” says The Voice judge Adam Levine. “But this is a completely fresh, new way of doing it. I think people respond because of that.”

But the cast and producers of AI seem unconcerned. “Listen, Idol is still the best TV show of its kind anywhere,” says judge Randy Jackson. “We are the original. We invented this whole game that everybody is now copying.”

“Everybody chases this show,” said American Idol producer Mike Darnell. “This is the gold standard. We don’t concern ourselves with [others].”

One thing the two shows do seem to agree on is that the catty style of former Idol judge Simon Cowell is out, and blanketing contestants in kindness is in. “We try to give them advice as we would want it to be given to us,” Idol judge Jennifer Lopez says. “That’s how I always deliver what I’m saying. I want to say it in a way where they hear me. We don’t tell them to come back next year if we don’t think they should come back next year.”

The Voice‘s Adam Levine seems to concur. “There’s a difference between being critical and willfully just mean,” he says. “There’s a constructive way to tell someone they aren’t as good as they could have been. Using the tactic of ‘Oh, you were terrible’ doesn’t really get us anywhere.”

So now the cattiness is left for the other fish in the pond, Fox’s Cowell-hosted X-Factor, which airs all by its lonesome in the fall.

So what will you be tuning into over the next few months? American Idol? The Voice? Neither? Both? Let us know!

Personally, I’m a fan of “tell-it-like-it-is” reality show judges when they are knowledgeable and honest and not just being mean for meanness’s sake. (Michael Kors from Project Runway and Tom Colicchio from Top Chef for example) It was tough watching an Idol almost completely devoid of any real criticism (Telling someone they’re a “bit pitchy” is hardly criticism), but I stuck it out until Pia Toscano was prematurely voted off. Although I didn’t make it to the final on The Voice either, I did enjoy the show, if only because I loved seeing Cee Lo and Christina Aguilera spinning around in those big red chairs! But, that’s just me.