Abdul used to be a pop star back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, and it's true she’s a big part of the success “American Idol,” the most popular show on television.

Yet there's something passive about her, as a passive participant in her own success. Her comments on “Idol” run from safe to downright boring. Unlike fellow judge Simon Cowell, one doesn’t get the sense that time spent in her presence would be particularly rich in entertainment value.

If “Hey Paula,” Bravo’s new series about the popstress/singing judge/jewelry designer, is an accurate peek into her life, then that suspicion is well founded.

“Paula,” premiering tonight at 10, is not truly awful, but it's not particularly compelling either. It simply ambles along, and while there are occasional moments of semi-celebrity intrigue, it's mostly long stretches of an uninteresting woman doing unexciting things.

With such a bland character to work with, and the debut episode taking place when “Idol” is on hiatus, the show's producers faced a struggle stitching together enough material to fill a half hour. Struggle they did.

They reveal Abdul’s helplessness at accomplishing tasks the rest of take for granted, like packing. For long sequences, we see Abdul fussing over her dogs or complaining about her outfits. This is not appointment television. This is more akin to watching paint dry.

The series opens on what should be an exciting day. Abdul is getting ready to attend the Grammys, after which she’ll immediately catch a flight to Philadelphia to hawk her jewelry on QVC.

We see her choosing what to wear as her harried staff gets her ready for the show while preparing for the late-night flight. We meet her best friend and hairstylist, Daniel, her wardrobe assistant, Kylie, her personal assistant, Courtney, and her publicist, Jeff. None of them has any more spark than their boss.

The clock is ticking off the minutes before Abdul has to leave for the awards show, and the aim here is to evoke in viewers some of the anxiety her staff is feeling. But it feels forced. In fact, there's nothing really at stake if she shows up late, since she's not been nominated for anything.

We are supposed to feel anxiety as well during her post-Grammy limo trip to the airport. Might she actually miss her flight? That's the worry. But do we really care? No.

There is one entertaining scene. Paula has a mini-meltdown because her assistant gave her jeans instead of sweatpants to wear on the cross-country flight. Oh dear, a borderline diva moment. But Abdul’s tantrum isn’t particularly volatile and the assistant doesn’t seem especially cowed.

It quickly becomes apparently that "Paula" is less a show about a present-day star than a real-life version of HBO’s “The Comeback,” the short-lived but underappreciated Lisa Kudrow comedy about a self-involved, has-been TV star who becomes the subject of a new reality show.

Like Kudrow’s Valerie character, Abdul is surrounded by a small coterie of sycophants, all of whom exist in her bubble of delusional self-importance. But Valerie was fictional, which made her narcissism both funny and painfully awkward.

Abdul is a real-life has-been, and that makes her vanity kind of sad. It’s hard to imagine that many people will line up for that viewing experience, or would want to.