Simon Cowell hopes to raise relief money for the earthquake-ravaged people of Haiti with the release of a new single, "Everybody Hurts."

The new recording (originally by the group REM) features 21 artists, including Rod Stewart, Jon Bon Jovi, and Mariah Carey.

The single can be downloaded on iTunes and all proceeds go to Disasters Emergency Committee and The Sun's Helping Haiti Fund.

The video is pretty moving, with shots of the artists singing in the studio interspersed with images of suffering in Haiti. You can watch it below:

With all due respect to "Southpark" fans, for a minute or two on last night's "American Idol, it sounded like someone was killing Kenny.

Kenny Everett of Durham, who calls himself "the male Mary J. Blige," auditioned for "American Idol" in Denver. It wasn't pretty. After he "sang" a bit, Simon told him, "It sounded actually like you'd been punched, and you were just screaming at us, Kenny. It wasn't singing, it was literally screaming at us." Kenny wanted to sing another song but Simon told him no. "Only one song today, Kenny."

Randy was no gentler. "Terrible, no, man. It wasn't good, dawg."

Mercy (8pm, NBC) - James Van Der Beek joins the cast tonight as the arrogant new head of ICU who immediately clashes with Veronica.

Modern Family (9pm, ABC) - Minnie Driver guest stars as Claire's old friend, and Jay's racquetball game with Cameron (right) is marred by an awkward moment in the locker room. 

American Idol (9pm, Fox) - Billed as a "Road to Hollywood" installment, this episode boasts guest judges Kristen Chenoweth, Joe Jonas, Neil Patrick Harris, Victoria Beckham, Mary J. Blige, Katy Perry, and Avril Lavigne. Must be a clip show of moments from the preliminary auditions. 

Launch My Line (9pm, Bravo) - If you've been watching, tonight is the finale.  The third season of "Shear Genius" premieres right after.

Psych (10pm, USA) - Shawn is suspicious when a man dies during a river-rafting outing with Gus's adreneline-junkie girlfriend. 

Leverage (10pm, TNT) - Speaking of fake psychics, Luke Perry plays one tonight on "Leverage."

American Idol (8pm, Fox) - Neil Patrick Harris and Joe Jonas are the guest judges tonight on "American Idol." NPH could finally be the key to getting me to watch this show.

State of the Union (9pm) - The State of the Union address is airing on all major networks and all cable news networks.

Living with Ed (9pm, Planet Green) - In this episode of Ed Begley's entertaining reality show about his "super green" lifestyle, Ed visits a town in Oregon which is "off the grid" and then wants to move his family there.

Psych (10pm, USA) - "Psych" opens season four in a brand new time slot. The show has always enjoyed a Fridays at 10pm home, but with its partner "Monk" out to pasture, USA is shaking things up a bit by moving it to a presumably more ratings-friendly night of the week. The premiere episode features guest star John Cena. (First we had Stone Cold Steve Austin on "Chuck," and now Cena is on "Psych?" Well, wrestlers are by definition pretty good actors.) Tonight, Shawn thinks a soldier's suicide was really murder, and believes Juliet's mercenary brother (played by Cena) is involved. 

Also on tonight: Florida State at Duke (9pm, ESPN), Melanie Griffith guest stars on "Nip/Tuck" (10pm, FX), "Being Erica" is back (10pm, Soapnet), and "Leverage" is also on (10pm, TNT). 

American Idol (8pm, Fox) - Avril Lavigne and Katy Perry are guest judges tonight.

Better Off Ted (8:30pm, ABC) - I'm not going to shut up about this show till you watch it (or till it's canceled, whichever comes first -- and I think we all know which will come first). Tonight, Ted helps his brother get a job as a salesman at a company that supplies laboratory equipment to Veridian, and Veronica receives an award from a charity for girls. 

College Basketball: UNC at NCSU (9pm, WRAL) - The game follows a new episode of "NCIS" (8pm) and pre-empts a new episode of "NCIS: Los Angeles," which you can probably watch online after tonight. [UPDATE: WRAL will also air pre-empted episodes overnight.] The "Good Wife" episode scheduled at 10pm was a repeat. Also, go Pack.

Human Target (9pm, Fox) - We're still enjoying this DC Comics adaptation starring Mark Valley (right) as the ultimate bodyguard, Christopher Chance. In this episode, Chance looks for a friend's killer and becomes entangled at the Russian Embassy.

Lost (9pm, ABC) - It's a repeat of the two-hour season five finale in case you need to get reacquainted before next week's premiere.

White Collar (10pm, USA) - Peter and Neal find information linking agent Fowler to a judge who is commiting mortgage fraud, and they devise a plan to hopefully bring both of them down. 

So far, the most indelible moment of this season's "American Idol" tryout round has been this twisted bit o' goodness. It's fun, in a psychotic sort of way. But I much prefer the Neil Young remix.

ADDENDA: More covers; plus auditions revealed.

New Adventures of Old Christine (8pm, CBS) - Christine tells her therapist (Eric McCormack) that she loves him.

American Idol (8pm, Fox) - Auditions continue, but move on to Atlanta.

Human Spark (8pm, UNC-TV) - In the second installment of the PBS series, Alan Alda investigates the differences between humans and their fellow simians, including chimpanzees. 

Modern Family (9pm, ABC) - Phil plays dumb when Claire accuses their son of downloading smut, when really, it was Phil.  

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (9pm, NBC) - Naveen Andrews ("Lost") is a detective from the Special Frauds unit accused of stalking a woman whose parents were murdered. 

Leverage (10pm, TNT) -  I think it's a requirement that at least once per show per season, someone must "infiltrate the world of high fashion" to solve a murder or save workers from slaveshop conditions. "Leverage" opens its second season tonight with such an episode.

American Idol (8pm, Fox) - The Paula-free season 9 begins with auditions in Boston. Guest judge Victoria Beckham will be featured in the Boston episode. 

Better Off Ted (8:30pm, ABC) - But instead of "Idol," you should watch this show, which is one of the funniest on television (though ABC is trying its best to get rid of it as quickly as possible). There are two episodes tonight and in the first, the Veridian staff starts using profanity after a typo in a company memo. In the 9:30 episode, Veronica (Portia de Rossi) resorts to sabotage when she learns another team is working on the same project as Ted's team.

Southland (10pm, TNT) - Okay, so technically these are repeats, but did you watch them? I didn't think so. Here's your chance. Starting tonight, TNT is airing all 7 of the episodes that ran on NBC this past spring, and then we'll get new episodes on March 2. Plus, tonight's episode has an extra 6 minutes that the weenies at NBC originally cut out. It's a good show. Watch it.

The Good Wife (10pm, CBS) - A new episode tonight but it's airing after the basketball game on WRAL (Maryland at Wake Forest), so if you're DVRing, you might want to tape some stuff afterwards to make sure you get the whole thing. 

It's official: At today's meeting with Fox executives at the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, sharp-tongued "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell confirmed he's leaving the show after this season, according to the L.A. Times.

His departure, he said, is part of a deal to put his show "The X Factor" on Fox in fall 2011.

The show's a bit hit in England (that's where Susan Boyle made her mark), and as part of that deal he is leaving his duties on "Idol."

Happiness already told you that N.C.'s "American Idol" Fantasia Barrino was getting a reality show on VH1 in January.

We're ardently pursuing the chance to talk to her about it.

Until then, check out this trailer for "Fantasia For Real." Looks like there's enough drama to keep things interesting.