After Alejandro, "Everyone else is a no!"

It's Audition Week 2 and sunny kids are jumping in the back of pick-up trucks and cruising cheerfully around Idaho with no politically correct parents shouting that they should have seat belts and no cops in sight. This is America.

We learn that there's a lot of love for Ryan Seacrest. I can understand that. The judges are not really making much of a mark and only Ryan is really maintaining the Idol status of the show at the moment. No-one on this side of the pond knows who Luke is. Everyone knows who Lionel Ritchie is but most think he retired sometime in the 70s and now just play his discs at weddings. Quite a few people do know who Katy Perry is but none of us realised just how religious she was or how little she would actually contribute to judging as opposed to swooning at the good looking guys and generally being fun and entertaining but not much more.

Courtney starts us off and she's an enthusiastic girl. She's returning some years after not getting too far on an earlier Idol. Pleasant personality. Singing is OK but I wouldn't expect her to make the Live Shows this time either.

Logan Johnson is a good-looking youngster. Well, 20 may turn out to be pretty ancient by the seems of it as later we get hundreds of 15 and 16-year olds! He surprises us with some pretty bad history with drugs which was not what anyone might have expected from the appearance of his All American family but maybe these issues give him a bit of real soul. A very good version of the entirely appropriate Sober that Demi Lovato wrote. He's a genuine item and could well be a Live Show candidate.

We then get a totally unnecessary and boring waste of time as his family come on stage and after 15 minutes we have seen just two performances.

Eddie Island is really ancient at 25! He's from Nashville. Katy Perry likes his eyes on the guitar and they match her finger nails. He looks uncomfortable and it's like he almost tells her to go away so he can do his own song. You have to admire people doing their own numbers which didn't used to happen much if at all in the previous shows. He's pretty good but he hasn't got the best of looks and comes across as a bit weird in parts but he is interesting. Worth another chance for sure. I can't remember where it came from but Lionel comes out with That little turd!! I don't think he meant Eddie but I'm surprised that made the edit!

Kason Lester is even more ancient at 28. He's a good-looking guy who farms strawberries in a place called Lebanon which is not the war-ravaged place but a town in the States somewhere miles away from anywhere else where they probably believe that God made the world which is flat. We see some very good photography from his farm so you realise that he must have been good for the few to be sent out there to do all the shots afterwards. It's a fairly average performance after all, though.

We then see a pile of people go through looking and sounding OK and then meet Carly Ryan. I can't recall how old she is but she is most definitely a good All American girl. her mum auditioned 15 years ago. She's not great but I'd give her another chance. Luke is very enthusiastic about her but, for the first time, Katy and Lionel don't agree with him and say 'No.' I guess there's enough All American girls singing like that already.

She;s followed by a series of other failures but mercifully brief ones. I do like the way they don't go on an d on like X Factor can do in this respect, almost making entertainment out of the failures.

Next up is Juan Pablo, 26, from Los Angeles but with a Mexican heritage. He sounds promising and has bags of energy. He holds back well, though, and comes out with a good song in Spanish. Quite emotional. Very good. Luke says he wants a cigarette! Katy goes a bit OTT again and seems to have forgotten all about Kason now.

Shayy is just 17 and nearly lost her sight completely a while ago. She now carries a white stick and has very poor vision from what I can tell and, whilst the surgeons have removed some of the tumor which had caused her problem in the first place, it seems that no-one is too sure whether what remains will cut her life short. The judges say they'll pray for her. I get that this time. It really is very emotional and she is one very good singer too. She gets the first standing ovation from the three that I remember seeing this Season. a big hug too from Lionel which wouldn't have been allowed in PC-land. We see her school going crazy with delight when she returns with the news.

That should be a candidate for the Live Shows, for sure.

Then there's a dreadful anthem rendition by some 7 year old. No idea where that came from. OK, actually she sang some parts very well but it just is a bit much.

On to Lander Knowlton who is a sergeant in the army. Good Country style singer with a bit of an interesting edge to his voice. He knows what he's doing, solid and confident but I don't see him going much further than Hollywood.

Ethan Clay is just 15. He met Luke Bryan a couple of years ago and got to perform with him on stage then. Luke had been so impressed with the young lad that he'd given him his guitar. He is very good and did a duet with Luke which was mostly unrehearsed from what I can gather. Impressive. The young lad seems nice and very talented. Another good contestant for the Country spot in the Live Shows perhaps.

Now we get more of the American Joke. Kimberley and Bernie appear in Disney T shirts, one with the word 'Bride' and the other, of course, says 'Groom'. They got married recently at Disneyworld  in some sort of embarrassingly expensive and childlike Cinderella picture book affair. They sing some track from what, I guess, is a recent re-working of Cinderella. This is not good TV. They get politely turned down which they do seem very surprised at. On the way out the girl says the music was wrong and they also blamed the pianist.

Some more good talent is seen going through so we can get the image of the last couple out of our heads pretty quickly.

Finally, ending this week, is Alejandro Aranda. This guy has been busking around and has no idea how good he is. He does his own song which is very good and then Lionel gets him to do another number at the piano. This chap is an excellent musician and a super singer too. He gets a standing ovation. That went down very well. Katy even says that she thinks he's the winner! Unlike nearly everyone else who has a massive family or friends to meet them afterwards and jump up and down like crazy, Alejandro has just Ryan outside. Nice.

After that, says, Katy, everyone else is a 'No.!

Yes, we'll see him almost certainly in the Live Shows unless he cocks up big time between now and then. He was good but signs of nerves and he really is not prepared for all that may follow.