More Worship Leaders Get Through.

Like audition week 1 we get straight in with an audition as a sort of intro and then it broadens out and we see a selection of names and people and a rather over-prepared thing where everyone has a placard and when turned they show the Idol logo. A ot of effort went into that but I'm not entirely sure it was worth it.

First up properly is Jesse. She's got a guitar like so many others. She is very good. Rough and ready looking, Too many tattoos but she has some talent alright. It seems some woman heard her in the garage and paid for everything for the first audition for her.

Stephen and Ryan and a blonde singing Wrecking Ball get through. We get about one bar from each.

Jamiah is a cute boy who sings some track he wrote himself. Looks about 12. Quiandra is photogenic too and cute. I could see both making it a long way but it's the girl who gets the ticket.

Megan comes from a town called Ethel. A town called Ethel? I know Ethel says Harry. Love this chap. Back to Megan - she doesn't look that impressive on TV but she can sing OK. I can't see her getting far but she makes it to Hollywood.

Grace Ann Field has all sorts of qualifications in music and plays piano in bars. Over-confident and she uses her phone to get a pitch. All a bit embarrassing as she can't sing very well at all.

Austin and Eric get through, as does the good-looking Spencer Lloyd who seems to have it all going for him. His family even have expensive banners. He gets billed as a Worship Leader. That sounds worrying. Other than that he was OK. Harry says yes for the 'image thing'. I'm not sure the family will celebrate quite so loudly when they get home and see the programme.

Marlon seems to have been made to sing A Change Is Going To Come. He's safely through and we'll see more of him for sure.

TK Hash (don't ask - that's what they show on the screen) does great Obama impressions. Not so sure about the singing, though. Keith loved it and he gets through but goodness knows why. Just 'cos he's likeable, by the seems of it.

Tristan's mum comes with him and we learn that she came 3rd in the very first season of American Idol! Amazing that there's a second generation coming through in a sense. He's OK and, at 15, has a way to go. He gets a chance, possibly as much for the TV as anything.

Taylor is good. Yet another girl with a guitar through!

LJ comes from Goliad, Texas. Cue shot of him driving an absolutely huge tractor. He's got a big black hat. His ex-fiancee says he hasn't got any talent. She was right.

John Fox is from Magnolia, Texas, population 1,111. Another Worship Leader. Just what is a Worship leader? He has Chris Evans glasses and hair. He can sing well. One of the better ones. Odd redneck look but the makeover guys will fix that. I can see him making the Live Shows.

Next we get to San Francisco. People really do look different there - and definitely sound different. It's still very overcast, though. Now that's not what I expect in San Francisco. there should be sunshine, people with flowers in their hair.

Rachel is 17. She looks exactly like American Idol material. Big Keith Urban fan but, unlike some others, she holds that back and just gets on with it. Nice.

Athena also looks like someone we could see on TV. She could go far. Very good indeed. One of the better ones there even though we only see a fraction.

MK Nobliette could be - he's good but the name?? Edit: Er, he's a she, apparently! Sorry to MK and readers. Looks like she gets further than Hollywood too so I need to get this right!

All though quite easily.

Emmanuel is a bit full of himself and comes on singing before he even introduces himself. I don't see him getting far but they seem to think he has something.

Caitlin does not look just 15, Harry is quite right. She lives on a 46 acre ranch and rides horses and it's all great stuff. I am surprised that Harry says 'No'. Keith is a definite 'Yes' and eventually Jennifer gives her the chance. She could be very good indeed. We'll see who's right - Harry or Keith in a few weeks' time I guess.

Ronald Reed sings For You. Well, he doesn't sing and it's all a bit worrying as he looks for a moment as if he might attack someone. Ryan looks quite relieved when he goes. There's something slightly mad about that fellow.

David Luning sings his own track. Nearly everyone has guitars! This is a good, well-constructed track. Nice job. He looks a bit like Keith Urban at times. Sounds like he could do good CCR stuff. Nothing like him on Idol so far. that might go against him. They put him through. That'll be worth watching how he gets on. I'd like to see him survive. Very very genuine.

Selina sings Try. Now that's one great audition song. She just doesn't look ugly enough for the song. Sierra next. Her twin sister. Selina makes it through. Sierra doesn't. That was quite emotional to watch.

Brianna auditioned last week and made it to Hollywood week. Keith asks her what she learned from last year's experience. Only that I want it more, I she replies. That's lost it for her this year. Something to do with understanding why she didn't get further, recognising that some other people sang better and all that kind of stuff might have gone down better. Anyway, she is a reasonably good singer. Not a winner. She'll go to Hollywood again but after that? She'll need to have learned something by then or we'll not remember her again.

Now we have some people with really cool names. Rico Perkins. Aranesa Turner. Gary Guns. Gary Guns? OK, well the first two were very good and straight through. Look out for the thin chap with red hair. And the girl is bound to be noticed - very sweet, very sincere. Gary you can forget. Just some huge muscle chap with a very strange shirt and an even stranger voice that had Jennifer giggling.

Lastly we get a real San Francisco weirdo. At last. White suit. Tick. Long blond hair. Tick. Uncertain age. Tick. Tanned. Tick. Occupation sound healer. Big, massive tick! Now we 're all expecting this guy to be useless but, in fact, he performs Hallelujah excellently and genuinely has a good voice and can sing. Hilarious moments again with Harry playing the Devil to the kaftan man's everything is groovy.

That's another 33 through. 79 in total.

Hollywood: Tough decisions but some clear leaders emerge as the Top 40 is decided. I think.

Angela Miller
With an original song this girl sets the standard for the others to meet. A brilliant original song sung marvellously well. Randy rabbited on all the way through.

Candice Gover
Good strong and she's confident performer but is she anything we haven't seen before? I don't know. Clearly a favourite with Randy but she was pitchy in places but no-one said anything.

Janelle Arthur
Very safe and traditional but lovely and she comes across with such a nice personaility that the voters ought to love.

Zoanette Johnson
Oh boy. She's on the drums. 20 years old? Good grief? This woman is bizarre, with some strange number she comes up with an invents as she goes. What an extraordinary performance! No way do I want to see her in the Live Shows but something tells me she'll keep going for the silly entertainment factor. Mad.

Jett Hermano (did we see her?)

They're all through.

Shubha Vedula
Experience shows. She knows what she's doing and does it well. Just not sure how the voters will take her.

Juliana Chahayed
Lovely tone and nature. We've hardly seen this girl at all so far and don't get much of a shot this time either.

Kez Ban
Her original song is not a good one, nor is the guitar work. Very short, a bit indulgent. Nicki is clearly not impressed and just delivers the end of journey line there and then. Kez exits nicely, though, appealing for a job on the show so all's well with the world.

Shubha and Juliana go through, although I didn't see it happen but presume it did. Strange editing in this programme.

Ashlee Feliciano
Not making a good impression and seems to annoy Randy. Even her remarkable final high notes were off.

Melinda Ademi
Straight on without any nonsense and delivers Price Tag excellently which made the judges happier which won't do her any harm at all.

Kree Harrison
She has managed to survive against all the odds as she hasn't exactly shone in the rounds so far, Randy even rejecting her at her first audition. This time she excelled and was in exactly her element, coming across really well, if not absolutely spot on the high notes. Serious but attractive girl. Nice job may have justified her being there. We gather that it has been Keith and Mariah that have recognised her talents and this time Nicki spoke up well for her so that should be good news for her and will have made her day.

Sure enough, Kree and Melinda are through with Lauren who we didn't see perform. Breanna and Serena join Ashlee in being cut. Cue a while wathcing Serena cry.

So it's down to 24 girls with another 4 more to go. Lauren, Holly, Arial get sent home at this really upsetting point. There's one more to go. Stephanie is the lovely girl with the big Dolly-blonde hair and big smile. She comes across brilliantly and sounds different to so many others that I'd love to see her survive. Shie is up against Rachel Hale, the very accomplished Country singer and she has Nicki backing her. Such a shame, as on that comparison I would have chosen Stephanie but she's sent home.

We could do with an official list as I have serious doubts about one or two, including Aubrey Cleland and Kamaria.

Now, back to the boys. they have several to get rid of. Adam Sanders is a cool, fun guy but he does wail. He acts very professionally, getting the band on key but the wailing is disappointing. I guess he was trying to impress.

Josh Holiday. First time I've seen him, I think. He's a good singer. Pity about the white jeans - wearing them, I mean, not splitting them as he did! Very professional-looking guy with one great voice.

Called out are Peter Garret, Marvyn, Devon Jones, Kenny Harrison, Will white, Tony Foster, David Leathers and Adam Sanders. That's it for those guys. Some pretty disappointed and David Leathers is cut at the same point as last time.

They're all off to Las Vegas with a live audience and the judges choosing, presumably, just 5 out of twenty. Boy, now that's going to be tricky!!

Hollywood: The Girls Pt 1

Everyone's been saying that the girls are much stronger this year so this should be interesting. The fact that few of the boys have made a big impact may be witness to that but who knows what will really happen once they get down to the best 5 in each category? For now we're deciding the Top 40 - and 20 of tonight's girls will move forward.

This is another of the dreaded 'group' days. Well, it will after the acapella bit when there's a need to get rid of a few.

Angela Miller introduces herself as The Next American Idol. That put me off a bit but she is good and I hope she gets through and settles down so that she doesn't need to do the intro bit again. We also see Mariah and Victoria but neither were that impressive. Luckily we don't get too much coverage of those not making it. I guess there are so many that we also won't even get that good a look at those that do either.

Two Country girls. Rachel Hale has an accent you'll remember and either love or hate. Definitely talented but I wouldn't want to listen to her for long the way she was singing in the acapella round. In contrast, Janelle was much more pleasant. They should both go through a bit further and they do. Glimpses only of loads more. A lot of talk in the background about Candice Glover. She does the usual stuff that girls like Candice Glover do. Megan Miller is far more interesting but it's Candice that gets through. So far there has, thankfully, not been many of the big gospel crowd on screen. I feel that genre's time has been and gone now. The girl's solid and clearly experienced but I want something just a little different. Not that 'different' wins, though. Remember the big Country vote, folks - they'll be voting Rachel.

Isabelle has been one of my favourites and did a beautiful version of Summertime. Not sure what her surname is but I guess we'll find out eventually. She is perhaps the first real stand-out for me. Kez Ban is getting plenty of screen time - she's the masculine one who has a natural carefree talent - and moves forward with what we're told are another 72! It is so difficult to judge anyone really from just a line or two and with so many just shown as through there's little to compare each of them with.

OK. It's group time now. If I were them the one bit I would ditch the choreography and just get the tune and words right. Who cares whether they can dance? It seems to cause a lot of stress for no good reason. Anyway, there are plenty of problems with Kez Ban who really is a pain for the others to deal with and it's a credit to them that they stayed cool. The odd Zoanette Johnson seems to be having trouble with the group choice of Knock On Wood but I have a suspicion that she'll pull something out of the hat later.

Melinda, Ameni, Candice and a couple of others put on a good show to start off with.

Brandy Hotard led and stood out in the second group we see who also all get through.

The third lot were not too bright, with just someone called Dayja getting through. Savannah had worked pretty hard to get them organised but gets cut and isn't so happy. Yes, she seemed the more confident on stage but she looked a bit harsh and older than an Idol might be expected to which may not be a good reason for cutting her but she wasn't that brilliant anyway. I don't see the one that did go through getting much further.

Next Kriss, Janel Stanley, Cristabel Clack and a fourth whose name I missed surprisingly get through. Nicki describes them as the best audition by a group who forgot their words and rescues Janel from what seemed certain cutting to the surprise of virtually everyone, especially Keith and Mariah.

Next Sumedha, Sarina, Aubrey Cleland and Shubha.  Sumedha and Sarina are pretty useless. The other two clearly lead the way. Now this is odd as I thought Aubrey was easily the one who sang well and looked good with a certain something that is needed in this competition. But it looked as though only Shubha gets through, however, which doesn't tie with the rumours I've heard either. Maybe there will be some second chances?

Jett, Seretha, Tenna and Kiara. Seretha doesn't make it but the other three do. Kiara must be relieved as that was pretty bad and Nicky makes her view clear that she would have not have given her another chance.

Now it's the Zoanette Johnson group. She's with Erin and Lauren who were a bit weak and another Country girl (who?) They had finally managed to work out something for Knock On Wood which wasn't exactly inspiring but enough to get the big Z and Erin through. Z had a terrible hairstyle and I am beginning to think that she's going to be there just for the tv ratings, I would have dropped her by now as, whilst she's reasonable, she is way over the top,

Courtney, Alicia Dixon, Liz Shira Courtney and Liz were OK. Alicia, despite being Colton Dixon's sister, is cut and that song didn't suit her anyway. Shira comes back for some feedback. She doesn't look attractive and can hardly question all four judges who quite politely said she was useless. That was a bad audition and the only one getting through was Liz Bills, a music teacher, who seems to have done her own thing which may have been just as well with the three she was accompanying. Courtney may have been worth another try but no great loss.

Last minute morning change by some nice mannered girls Stephanie, Alex, Kalli and Holly Miller. I liked Stephanie and Kalli but it was Holly who joined Stephanie to go through.

Haley, Kree, Brittnee and Brandy did a pretty good job despite not sleeping or rehearsing much. Haley, Kree and Britnee get through. Haley was quite a surprise after getting a big telling off from Nicky who clearly was not impressed that she had gone to bed at 2:30am while the others stayed up all night. Personally, I would prefer to get some sleep and perform reasonably awake than attempt to impress without any sleep but the hand writing thing was silly. Either learn the words or make something up. Brandy Neale was the one sent home and she took that in really good humour - an attitude that many others might learn from.

Kez Ban has been quite annoying. Breanna Steer Angela Miller Janelle Arthur were all fabulous, Janelle particularly - now beginning to be my favourite. Kez Ban did behave in the end and they all get through more easily than any others so far. With the possible exception of Candice I suppose. Angela Miller is another contender that's emerging too and I think we see her doing something exceptional in the next section to be screened tomorrow.

I think the awkward stages for commentary are over now. The next show should resolve all the Top 20 Boys and Girls. I would like to know what happens to Aubrey Cleland and I really don't recall seeing Adriano Latonio and Amber Holcomb who are supposed to be doing well but why aren't we seeing them? Odd. Unless they were two of the ones I missed tonight. Watch carefully tomorrow. All should be revealed.

Hollywood Week: The Boys

It's always been difficult commentating on this round. Huge numbers get whittled down and in the past they had to form groups which was pretty mad. Memories of Scotty wandering around and no-one wanting to have in.

This time it looks a little better with a line-up of six or seven by the look of it on stage going one or two lines at a time. We see one or two for the first time too but really just a line isn't enough. Cortez Shaw we see doing three lines and sounding pretty damn impressive. This part, though, is more of a way to find a quick exit to avoid time wasters who probably shouldn't really have been there and in that respect, if they can get ri of a pile of useless acts now, so much the better.

At the end of the week there'll be just 20 guys left and next week they'll choose the 20 girls. That should make life a bit easier. How they'll cut them further remains to be seen. I'm surprised there hasn't been any good leaks yet.

We get a long intro for Lazaro Arbos, the guy with the stutter and the heavy Spanish or Portugese accent. I do hope they don't put him through just because he makes good TV as his singing of Angels wasn't that brilliant. Bryant Tadeo and Charles Allen we hadn't seen before that I remember.

I don't know if it's my monitor's resolution but Mariah looks huge. Some shots taken from behind on the stage weren't so complimentary, nor were some of her behind the desk. For someone with so much money, you'd think she'd be able to choose colours and clothes that disguise bulges rather than emphasise them. I suppose it's possible that no-one dares advise her. Occasionally she's got it right but the sky blue number does not work.

So, Group Night is still there. The producers fix the groups and that's probably not such a bad idea and certainly an improvement on people trying to sort themselves out. Looks like they get some support from vocal aides too which is another good thing. Still some problems but I guess it's a way to see who can cope with getting some tune and lyrics together. I've always wondered why on Earth they need to learn dance moves as well and don't recall many of the previous winners doing anything particularly impressive or more than a shuffle at best! Philip? Scotty? David? Hardly!

Anyway we get to see some cool performances and some disastrous ones and plenty seem to get through this section too so presumably there's still some decisions to be made to get the numbers down. Not having names appear on screen very often makes it tricky but I spotted Gupreet Singh Sarin and Elifah Liu going through which should help to tick some diversity boxes. Johnny Keyser is still hanging in there despite losing the words to Reach Out I'll Be There. 

We get a look at someone billed as JDA who I think is Joshua jada Davila and he sounds cool. Still haven't seen another Joshua - Halliday - who is supposed to be pretty good. I may have missed him I suppose.

The kids at the end made us all go Aww as my tennage daughter would say. They tried pretty hard and David Leathers was a stand out with Kevin Quinn. Not sure how much further even they'll get, though.

One thing strikes me, though, and that's how average they all seem at the moment. This round really doesn't give anyone a chance to do themselves much good - it's more a case of ensuring they don't give the judges a reason to send them home.

A lot of time spent on one final group in the evening with Frankie Ford getting upset and telling the cameras he'd be back next year quite a lot.

To be honest, after two hours, I'm not a great deal wiser about anyone. This is a round for the judges more than viewers. Let's see what they decide tomorrow.

Louie, Louie, Baby Now, We've Gotta Go

The last of the initial audition screenings starts with a 2004 shot of a girl on a tractor. Carrie Underwood before, with more than a little help from Simon Cowell, becoming American Idol's biggest success by far. She auditioned at St Louis. That's where we see the last of the oddballs and the few real contenders we're allowed to preview before Hollywood.

Great to hear Louie Louie although only the chorus. I mean, this is American TV and those lyrics are probably still banned. Some weird guy in a car (ostensibly Ryan's cab driver but I don't buy that) is moaning about the crowds and jams that the huge turnout in the town create. Not quite sure why this is thrown in. I reckon there's a new producer who likes this sort of wacky stuff.

Johnnie Keyser is a good-looking guy to start. Jennifer gets seriously carried away and you have to wonder what Coca Cola had put in the red plastic cups this week. Randy and Steven seem to have been infected too. The guy sings A Change Is Gonna Come pretty well but is he really potential live show talent? Only on looks.

Another producer special as we get a bonkers black and white interlude. Are they short of decent audition tapes or something? Surely there were some entertaining or interesting candidates for these several minutes' worth of prime time TV? If I were an advertiser, I'd be asking for rate reduction.

Almost 20 minutes in - that's over 33% of the programme gone already and we've seen one act. Finally we see Rachelle Lamb. Says she's divorced and her ex held her back. Haven't we heard that before somewhere? She does a Faith Heeeeel song Find Someone New. That was nothing amazing. She'd have to do a great deal more to move on from Hollywood where, yes, you guessed, our Cola-injected judges duly sent her.

Old bloke in a car again. Some idot who says music is his wife. Several people on the stage at once. None any good. Stupid girl in a pink hat. Odd boy. Really ugly bloke. This is rubbish.

Cue decent audition after a break. Rees has a back story - he must be reasonable, at least, to get that on air. He does Lean On Me. OK. That's all. Again, the judges go 'Definitely yes!' and all that. I must be missing something. Or maybe I should try some Coke.

As if this show hasn't been amateur enough, the Mentos intros and outros for this series are dreadful. I do hope you guys across the pond have something better, especially as you get far more interruptions than we do.

Ethan Jones is up next. Another back story. Is anyone normal in St Louis? This is the first good singer for a long time. He's got a good chance of going further. Interesting.

Odd spot time again. This time it's a guy who works in the auditions hotel. He totally wrecks some Stevie Wonder track I couldn't even recognise. Presumably someone will suggest he keeps his day job. Maybe all his friends on the staff put him up for this just so that he'd be able to see hinself later and consequently shut up for good.

So, as the minutes tick by, have they kept the best bits til the end as they are prone to do? Someone they want us to remember? Maybe someone we can get enthusiastic about and worth putting through to Hollywood and maybe lock us in for some future stages?

Lauren Gray is that hope in the producers' minds. She was in a Southern Rock band with her father and does a good job of an Adele number. Her voice isn't that great though and, after a while, starts to get boring. She's certainly talented and worth putting through to Hollywood but after that - not so sure. She does seem to have captured the judges' votes, though, somehow. jennifer seems to have forgotten how passionate she'd been earlier about the good-looking guy and now says she can sum up the talent in St Louis in two words. Lauren. Gray.

That's it. there's a long, long re-run of all those we've seen but none of the hundreds that got through but we haven't seen. we're told 46 get through at St Louis. That's 42 we didn't see so, to be honest, you begin to wonder what is the point of trying to review any of these early stages?

Next is Hollywood. I don't usually like to give anything away but I am seriously tempted to tell you that none of the bunch we actually heard tonight get very far. If the producers can promise me that there'll be no more old blokes in cars or dodgy Cola quotes then I may just hold back from announcing the names of those who do make it through to the live shows several stages down the line.

This ... ISS rubbish. Take it away, Ryan.

Texas. Houston. Cue man in the International Space Station. I should have guessed, although the poor folk in Aspen must have wondered why they didn't get some cool link-up. "Take It Away, Ryan" says the ISS man which Ryan duly does. However, he might have been better taking the whole show away as this was, with just a couple of exceptions, a terrible bunch of audition screenings.

The start was nonsense from Phong Vu. A load of production going on for no purpose whatsoever. If viewing numbers have dropped for this Season 11 then this would explain why and many will have switched channels in the first 4 minutes.

This was followed by four more complete horrors.

Then we have the I Kill Deer girl, doing an impressive bit of driving on a king-sized Quad. Skylar Laine isn't going to get much support for the deer comment. Oh, it's America. Maybe she will then. Hell On Heels was well sung and she gets through without kissing Steven. But she brings on an enormously tall friend who does.

Five years ago, a 16 year old Baylie Brown made Hollywood in season 6 and I remember being disappointed that she didn't make it through further. She returns now and, at last, someone good. Nice job of Bon Jovi's Bed Of Roses and we will definitely be seeing a lot more of her in weeks to come.

Kristine Osorio also gets through with Adele's One And Only but I don't see her going much further. She's OK but nothing memorable.

We then have an extraordinary batch of strange decisions, with Steven and Randy either rejecting or accepting people and Jennifer taking the opposite view in each case. And, in each case, she does seem to be right. You can only feel a bit sorry for the ones who have missed a chance to do well in Hollywood, especially when they see the recordings of who did get through in the previous show.

Ryan looks around for someone who might reunite the judges. He needs a complete prat and finds one called Alejandro. Cue Lady Gaga track. Prat talks about revolution. Total bollocks. Now, if he'd had a go at the Beatles' Revolution it might have been worth showing the clip but those who switched 4 minutes in really haven't missed anything other than Baylie who'll they see soon enough again anyway. Big Bouncer Guy comes and shoos him off the stage. 

Cortez Shaw comes to the rescue of this dire night with a decent version of Adele's Someone Like You. Although that was only thanks to Jennifer holding Randy's arm down when he was trying to stop the guy after a few bars.

Oh dear, back to rubbish with two idiot girls, Julie and Vanessa and Ramiro, who was probably a man but equally dreadful. This is painful stuff.

Ramiro Garcia is up last and you're praying that he's good. Amazing Grace. Not that good on the high notes but he gets put through. That's as far as he'll get and if that's the best they had from the rest to close this round with then they may be well advised to skip Houston next year. 

This is ... The Tyler More Show?

A 47 year old aircraft carrier was the venue for the San Diego round of auditions. Cue Top Gun tracks. I'm not too sure why this was chosen but, as rumour has it that the new Dear Leader of North Korea follows the programme, lots of aircraft zooming around and defence kit in evidence may have been intended to persuade him not to nuke the States just yet.

The new logo is slowly being introduced too, this week much more in evidence and the old one's transparency settings increased so that it looks like a ghost plate next to the new one.

Ryan Seacrest announces that 'the judges feel the need for speed' which meant either that thought they were in for a tough set of auditions or they thought the proximity of all that zooming stuff would boost their talent-spotting skills somehow.

In all honesty, the way this first day of Week 2 went, one only had to turn up looking cute and be female and willing to flirt with Steven Tyler and you got the yellow Hollywood ticket. There were few exceptions tonight so, just to start off safely, they started off by rejecting an extremely attractive bikini-clad girl called Jennifer. You had to smile at Steven's first question to her: "What are you wearing exactly?". It was the exactly that stayed in my mind, as no doubt it would have done Steven's had it not been for the next 30 pretty girls that came along, albeit not in bikinis.

Next came Ashley Robins. Yes. Sang I Will Always Love You and sang it well. A smart-looking girl but someone needs to advise her to avoid overdoing the rouge next time as the bright red mark on the cheek looked like a rash. Straight through and deserved that.

JayRay Gibson was a bloke, for a change. a cheerful chap. Not "mad mad good" as Randy said. OK. That's all. He and a pile more we only get glimpses of fly through to the next round. So too does Aubrey Deckmeyer who seemed to more interested in being American Top Model than Idol but at least she got the first few and last syllables right. She had a light singing tone and was, again, OK and probably wouldn't have made it on a normal day but this was no ordinary day. Planes were flying past and ships horns blowing so matbe the judges couldn't hear much anyway and that may explain it.

Alexis Shields comes in and looks like a cheerleader with a pink cardigan. She tried rapping something which was terrible. As she's very pretty she gets another chance and tries singing. "She clearly can't sing either", I think to myself. "You can sing!" announces Randy. "Amazing!" He continues. Hollywood?? Good grief, what has come over them? She was a nice girl but... And even her family seem surprised afterwards.

Kyle Crews - now there's a name - was a clean, well-scrubbed well-fed-looking student. The type that often turns out bad in movies but gets all the girls at the start. He is boring. But gets through. Good grief.

As we watch a few of the failures come and go one clip stands out. Steven announcing: "I didn't spend four hours in make-up to listen to this bullshit!" This really is turning into the Tyler More Show.

Now we get the long back story, old photos of a little girl and you kinda guess that someone good is coming up. So, ah... it's Jim Carrey's daughter, Jane Carrey. That's why we get the intro and build up. However, she's not that good after all but better than a lot that they've alreday put through so off she goes too. I expect Hollywood will be pretty familiar to her anyway and I doubt whether it'll cost the producers much at all and she'll add some interest to the next round.

More girls are shown getting through. All pretty.

Jason Hamlin appears. Seems he's also called Wolf. He kicks off with a decent version of Creedence's Midnight Special but as he's not a good-looking girl he needs to do another track. He comes out with a nice version of Fulsom Prison Blues which doesn't give him bundles of modern appeal but they are looking pretty shoprt of blokes so it's his lucky day.

Good old Wolf closed the weird military-based part of the show and we fly up to Aspen. Aspen didn't appear to have a handy aircraft carrier or girls in bikinis. They did find a pretty girl for Steven to start with though in the shape of Jenny Schick. "I'll take this one" announces Steven as the first contender bounces on excitedly. She sings Pat Benatar's Heartbreaker in an average way but she has lots of energy and did I mention that she was pretty? So, er, yes, she gets through. After kissing Steven and going off jumping up and down with even more excitement. Ryan says "Things are getting wet here in Aspen."

Curtis Gray's was a very boring audition. He could certainly sing well but whether we see much more of him after Hollywood depends on what choices he comes up with next. We seem to be rushing through the boys - I guess Steven doesn't make as good TV when they're on and we get Richie Law, a little guy with a big voice and Devan Jones, possibly one of the best so far. Both through.

Someone called Matthew gets them all joining in with Hey Jude for a minute and gets through. Finally someone doesn't get a yellow ticket. Talena Hedgespen wasn't too bothered and was awful. Haley Smith, on the other hand, nearly lost her job by telling the world what goes into the sausages she helps make in her day job up the road. However, she may not need to worry too much as she has a good, natural approach and deserved to get through to the next round. Not amazing, and her choice of track was poor but not at all bad.

Alanna Snare attempted Jolene and may as well not have bothered. Steven liked her name, though, and the fact that she served various animal's testicles in a bar but that wasn't quite enough to get her through.

Shelby Tweren is a bi-polar girl. We get told that for some reason I'm not sure of, as they'll make sure she takes her medicine in future shows. Excuse for a back story, I suppose. She's actually a good singer and interesting too - without all that. She seemed one of the few who could match the emotions to the words and performed well. We'll see more of her, I'm sure. Something tells me, though, that we're not actually seeing the real Shelby here. maybe a sanitised version for TV. As I said, could be interesting.

Jayron Jackson gives us a great original song. Nice voice and another worthy initial contender. Well, up to a point. I'm almost getting carried away too now.

Angie Zeidermann gave us a combination of rubbish and a good show tune. She's an odd girl but, again, interesting. her Blue Bayou was excellent. She's good, and different, but I don't think she's Idol TV material long-term. I think the rolling around on the floor didn't help.

Magic Cyclops was funny although Randy didn't seem to get the joke and Steven just sat there. Crazy guy had a decent voice but probably didn't do himself any favours with his act and not sure I saw any point of an exploding butt. Oddly, and rather obviously showing some production planning for something to end the show with, Randy gets up without giving any verdict and says he needs to go to the loo. They all wander off and no-one actually judges the guy at all.

That was a strange show. Unless there was someone in the fly-through bits that was stand-out, I suspect that we won't be seeing any of these people in the Live Shows. But perhaps some will amuse us in the meantime for a while.

Up Town Planking In Pittsburgh

Auditions Part Two. Pittsburgh. We get told it's AI's first visit to this town where Ryan tells us they have their own language. Cue some folk going yousall. Obviously they've never been to Scotland. Or maybe they have. I'm sure the good folk of Pittsburgh must have been delighted that their next entry in the AI Charts was a complete prat called Heejan Han (name nowcorrected, sorry) who doesn't come from Pittsburgh or Scotland for that matter but Korea. With some strange arm wobbling that seemed to induce the same effect in the judges (was that North Korea?) the guy with the big face then takes us all by surprise by not being as bad as we thought he would be. Having said that Hee bo was no Subo but, inexplicably, he gets through to the Hollywood round. Why???

The next guy is Reed Grimm. He doesn't come from Pittsburgh either, but Wisconsin, and sounds like what an illustration to one of his great uncle's tales might sound like, should illustrations have audio. Oh dear, he gets through too. We might have guessed - as there was the video of him as a two year old playing.

Then two more zoom through before I get a chance to figure out who they are.

Photo from You Tube

As if the show hadn't already got slightly silly - there had also been two mentions of gazillions for a pretty average-sounding guy - we get some girl doing planking. Luckily she wasn't the one doing the singing but it was still a bizarre sight of her laying flat out in front of Samantha Novacek. Now this girl can sing well. She desperately needs some advice on what to wear but then that seems to be the case for many of the hopefuls in this town. Surely Pittsburgh isn't that far from the shops that they only shop once a decade?

Reinforcing, possibly forever, the image Pittsburgh is getting for bad clothes and strange names is Creighton Fraker (shown on TV as Fwaker, the w possibly being a subconcious thing what with all that planking and getting Samantha's dress off). Crikey looks and sounds a bit bonkers but then so have quite a few so far and it hasn't done them any harm. Eventually, after being persuaded to sing something we might vaguely recognise instead of a self-penned ditty a duck would be embarrassed to have written, he puts in a decent track and we see someone worth paying attention to. "Let's big this thing down." suggests Randy, whatever that meant. And we get another gazillion which is definitely well OTT but he's through anyway.



And now, for something completely different. Eben Frankowicz. Yes, OK, not that different as he does have a strange name and it's difficult to imagine his school chums yelling "Hey Eben!!" across the school yard but what is different is that he looks normal. A cute kid with helicopter parents. Sings Ain't No Sunshine brilliantly. If AI11 goes down the neat choirboy route then he'll be in the live shows. My first potential winner.

Next up is Travis Orlando, back from last year. "Who remembers Travis?" asks Jennifer. Silence. "I do." she continues. That says it all. Obviously a Hollywood rounder. He didn't need the big and quite sad story to get through but it might have the useful effect of the whole of Pittsburgh now out hunting down his mum. He sang OK but isn't a sure-fire guy to get that much further, for all the emotional stuff.

Another 8 or 9 fly by. No idea who they are.

Shane Bruce. A good ol' coal miner and coal miner's son. He says the sort of things that you can imagine his parents saying at the dinner table. He wants "a stable life". You might be tempted to wonder why he's auditioning for something that would give him almost precisely the opposite but there's probably a cliché his mum would come out with to explain. We see, unusually, a video of the guy performing underground - it's not the underground bit that's unusual; I don't recall seeing many videos of contestants singing recently before their audition being shown. We get plenty later but not on the auditions show. Anyway, he sounds pretty good in that so when he struggles a bit with some notes on the ill-advised choice of Hallelujah you hope they'll give him another track like they did for many others. He had started off with the odd question about whether they knew the song from a film which may not have helped his cause. And when, obviously annoyed with himself for not performing at his best, he appears to have more or less given up and comes out with another of dad's abbreviated comments along the lines of 'gave it my best shot only got one chance' which might also have been followed by 'shall I go now or wait for you to judge that?', you shout at the TV "Shut up! You were OK. Sing something else." Too late. He looks like he's given up and the judges almost don't have any choice, despite his being far better than many others they had let through. So we watch him drift off with his clichés, expecting Randy or Steve to come chasing after him like Simon would have asked someone to do had SYCO been producing the show. Sad.

Hallie Day was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar. Until she met Idol. We get a lot of this girl's back story so it looks like we're going to get something special. She's also the last on tonight so that's another hint as they like to leave us with something good to remember till next week. It seems she joined a band and went to New York a while back but didn't make a great deal. Somewhere along the line she got really low and this girl sure shouldn't need to pretend the emotions when the time comes to perform. I was pretty underwhelmed by I Will Survive but that's mainly because I hate the song after it's been done to karaoke death ever since someone brought karaoke over here and even before that, especially by annoying, usually fat and unattractive women that you might prefer that they didn't. I was totally agreeing with Steven Tyler who wanted another song. "Why?" ask the other two. "I like watching you when you sing." he announces. Classic. I would like her to have blown us away with something else but then that may have reduced her odds with the bookmakers. She is another potential winner - but still a long shot. I'm just guessing but the Debbie Harry looks and obvious talent and passion ought to mean good things for her.

38 get through from Pittsburgh. That's 80 so far. another 220 to go. One of whom is Hollie Cavenagh. This was her in April 2011. Wow.

Blink and you'll miss some finalists. But not Ryan's double or Brittany Kerr.

As Stargazing ends on BBC we get to gaze at people who want to be stars on ITV2. Ryan Seacrest walks around, waves an arm and announces This... is American Idol and all is well with the world. The theme tune has been tweaked a little but it's still attention-grabbing and provides that sense of excitement - Series 11 is here.

Although no money has been spared on the set or production, it is still less glitzy than X Factor and there's a nice early emphasis on Randy, Jennifer, Steven and Ryan as the team working together on this show, not against each other as in Simon's show. Ryan is good, damn good, and if anyone still had doubts about how bad the host on X Factor USA was then they should be well and truly dispelled now.

No messing around, we get more or less straight in to the auditions which is also a nice change. David Leathers, 17 going on 12, gets to kick things off. I'm not sure why they chose him other than that he seemed pretty harmless. Sang in a sort of Michael Jackson tone without the star quality. You tend to get the feeling that the first one gets to stick around for a while so expect to see him again.

Next comes Gabrielle Corrubba and, with videos of her seemingly from the age of two to whatever she is now flowing freely, including a Flashdance-like shot, then you can see they spend quite a while shuffling these audition videos around and what we see is rather different to what the judges got. For all that, she's great and, of course, another we'll see more of as the weeks progress.

There then follows a series of OK people who all seem to get through to the next round and I'm beginning to wonder where all the dodgy people have gone, or maybe they've turned politically correct and won't be making us laugh at anyone this year. Luckily, Jessica Whiteley comes along and shows us that there are some duff people out there that we'll get to see. With her intro announcing how many baseball games she'd sung the National Anthem at, you got the impression that here was Pia Toscano without make-up, another bound for Hollywood. No, how the crowd must have welcomed the game actually starting at those events. OK, she wasn't disastrously bad and not funny either but I guess her take got included as she announced that she'd be back in Texas, where auditions were presumably running next. The scary idea of someone travelling from place to place obviously worried the judges who looked as if they'd like to consult a rule book on that!

I don't think it'll be giving much away to say that she doesn't reappear.

A remarkable Ryan Seacrest double called Shaun comes along and that's fun for a while. I'm sure we'll see him again in some light-hearted moments further along the line but he wasn't Idol material in the singing department.

There's usually some confident girl with a good-looking dad and a healthy-looking family around in the early stages and this year we get Shannon. Only 15 but her dad was some baseball pitcher that Randy was impressed with so that meant the whole family got dragged in to stand there while Shannon sang an Etta James number. In the circumstances she did really well, one of the best of the evening so far so I didn't feel quite so bad about the bizarre family thing.

There's also going to be some person with a weird back story and they found a great one with Amy Brumfield. Not only did she appear to be living in a tent but she also had the tallest boyfriend I've ever seen. Both factors would have been enough for her to qualify in normal circumstances, never mind how she sang, just so that they could do more shots of Ryan being shown the portable lavatories and we could hear more about how the forest bathroom works. She was rough and ready and I thought she sang well enough. Nothing brilliant but you kind of felt good that she'd get a decent bit of accommodation at the Hollywood round before going back to the tent, as she probably will, shortly afterwards.

Stephanie Renae had a limited range but was interesting and gets through, as does a mad Ashlee Altise, who auditions well, except for some stupid dance thing. Erika Novak appeared next and declared that she was destined to be Steven Tyler's Ex (I think I heard that correctly). She wasn't that bad a singer but got far more screen time grabbing not only Steven's bum but Randy's too, presumably being told she had to feel Randy's as well to meet some Equality & Diversity regulations. You do have to wonder just how the viewers would have reacted had we had some guy grabbing the famous JLo accessory instead. Maybe that's still to come but I doubt it. And no, Erica still didn't get through.

The beautiful Brittany Kerr did.  She deserved to move on to Hollywood but I was a bit disappointed that she didn't seem to make much effort to stand out, singing-wise. Nice but that isn't going to get her much further than Hollywood so I'll put the picture in now.

We then get a frustratingly very brief glimpse of several acts - I counted at least 4 - that were really good but no names or enough time to figure out who they were. No doubt they're all through maybe several rounds and we'll have plenty of time to see more of them another time. You might want to replay that bit sometime and check.

Phillip Phillips gets more time than most, probably because someone thought his name was funny. He could be the one that we remember as the one who's a bit like Scotty but isn't. His version of Superstition was a bit odd but when he continued to sing and play his guitar he was excellent. One to watch, I'm sure.

I have doubtless missed a load of acts and the magic number of 42, we're told, got through from this first batch. With some 300 reaching the Hollywood round, there's still another 258 reasonable auditions coming up. Hopefully, the producers will retain the balance of mostly good to occasional entertainingly bad in future weeks too. Save the idiots for America's Got Talent, please. Or some programme we don't get over here.