That's fine. He could have rectified that situation by saying, "I'm not sure if your look is right for this competition." The audience would have been fully aware of what he was implying and chuckled just as much without intentionally hurting the guy's feelings. There was no need for his comments intended to embarrass the guy.

I agree that last night was the first night I felt really uncomfortable with watching the show for a few minutes, particularly with those couple of people aforementioned. Not much talent last night. I think Jordin Sparks was the best of the group, but that wasn't saying much. I think the 19 year old sister and 17 year old brother were interesting as well, but she is going to have to work on confidence a great deal if she is going to succeed.

I agree with the sentiments that the show bordered (or was over the line) on cruel last night. The worst was the larger guy after the guy with the big eyes. I'm sorry I don't remember his name. I didn't get the feeling he knew what he was getting in to. I also would not be surprised if there was a group of people that talked them into trying out, knowing what would probably happen. For the show to capitalize on that nonsense is pretty low. I have enjoyed the bad singers in the past, but I think they should do fewer of those and more of the borderline ones and the ones that make it. When 90% of the show is the failed auditions and the other 10% is one or two that made it, followed by a brief glimpse of some others that made it walking out of the room with their yellow tickets, I think we need to rethink things.

Not to mention that it gives an unfair advantage to some of the Golden Ticket winners whose stories are played up early on, while others are anonymous, 2-second glimpses. In a competition where the TV audience chooses who moves on, it is incumbent on the producers to give us as much information about the contestants as possible and have as level a playing field as possible. In 2 weeks, we'll be seeing all of these people again, but some of them will have a distinct advantage if they make it to the top 24.

Uh, I would submit that is on purpose. It's a show and not designed to be "fair" to the voting public. I'm sure the business of American Idol feels no obligation to provide a level playing field to the voting public who will vote regardless and would prefer to highlight what it feels ultimately is a marketing success.

I'm well aware of that, I just think from our perspective, fairness is a consideration. But I recognize that the show ultimately succeeds because of storylines and them pushing the contestants they feel make the show more compelling.

I wonder, if you go back and look at the auditions/Hollywood Week shows that aired for the previous seasons, what the correlation between early recognition and, say, top 6 status is. Clearly, Taylor Hicks was one of the Golden Ticket awardees from last season who was highlighted because of how different he was and how old he looked. I wonder if there's a similar correlation from previous seasons.

that would be interesting

get jbmagic on this

No, get that chick from Tuesday's show in Minneapolis who was the huge AI fan. I'm sure she could tell us off the top of her head.

I bet he already has the answer, but just can't tell us. :(

Definitely yes for Reuben (and Clay who came in #2 that year). They were both heavily highlighted from the beginning.

Going by who they've shown so far, I think a female winner is by far the favourite at this point.

But that ain't why people watch Simon. Sure some people may have thought he went too far on some of those. But I'm sure a lot of others enjoyed it.

And, as the last guy who went through said, Simon is done. He was in a horrible mood from all the crap singers. And the show realized a golden oppertunity for more controversy and possibly some more ratings.

Usually those that are headed towards the top 24 the last few seasons are heavily highlighted. They visited Carrie Underwood's home, had Constantine tell his band he was leaving, went on Vonzell's postal route. Last year I know they went to Daughtry's hometown and Pickler's home and I believed they went to McPhees home and watched her do voice lessons if I remember right... For the most part, those in the top 24 do get alot of face time in the early stages.

I like how one of the guys last night threw Taylor Hicks back in his face. "You didn't believe in Taylor Hicks, Simon, and he won!" At the time of the taping, that was pretty harsh, and Simon looked a little (*very* little) taken by the comment.

Now, of course, a comment like that would elicit a giant belly laugh from Simon and a big ol' "Ifuckingtoldyouso"

Ain't no "possibly" about it.

More people watched last night's episode than all the other English-language broadcast networks combined.

These first two episodes drew more viewers than any other AI airings except for the Season 2 finale. More than 1 out of every 7 Americans watched last night (a 15.4 rating), nearly 1 out of ever 5 people ages 18-49 were watching at 9pm.

So what you are saying is that Bush Baby Boy is famous.

As easy as it is to be critical of where they've gone with these first two episodes...I'm still watching. I'd like to see some things changed, but it's not enough to justify turning it off.

I just wish that Hicks imposter had actually gotten that goop in Simon's hair and received the beat-down he was seconds away from getting...now THAT would have been must-see TV!

I wonder if they search people. The way it's going someone could very well kill simon right on camera. Or at the very least give him a mace facial.

Is that the one who sorta looked like a tall version of the caveman from the Geico commericals?

With all the hand-wringing today about how "cruel" last night's episode was, I think it's interesting to note how successful it was. And it's not like there wasn't some pretty serious promotion of what it was going to be like. I don't believe I've watched five minutes of all the AI episodes from every season combined, at least not unless you count the clips that make the news shows & such. It's just not the least bit interesting to me outside of the pop culture phenomenon aspect of it, and I can follow that just fine without enduring all the crappy pop music.

And yet I knew what last night's show was going to be about, Fox did a fantastic job of promoting the freak show aspect of it well in advance. The only people who should have been surprised by any of it were those who had been in comas or otherwise incommunicado for at least a couple of weeks.
And yet more people, far more people (5 million more than last year, +18%) tuned in. It speaks volumes about what the strongest aspect of the show is, and why Simon might just be one of the strongest characters ever in TV.

No. I think you're referring to Red.

The freak show aspect is not necessarily new, but they've ratcheted it up this season. Plus, I don't think they're differentiating between the people who have what appear to be social/intellectual issues and those who are just plain nuts - in a non-clinical way, of course. I knew how they were promoting last night, but they still went farther than usual and I was caught a bit off-guard by it.

Case in point being William Hung. If you put him side-by-side with the Zitsman Serial Killer dude, they kinda acted the same way - socially inept, clueless, etc. But Hung's issue was almost entirely culturally based, which is why he became such a phenomenon - he had an endearing innocent-yet-clueless quality to him (well, that's the best explanation I can come up with). Serial Killer dude and a few of the others have serious issues, the least of which is being embarrassed on national TV.

That's not to say it won't continue to be popular...but many will continue to be a bit uncomfortable with certain segments. Again, though, it's not enough to kill my interest in the show completely.

Part of the problem thus far is the fact that Minneapolis and Seattle have had the most dysfunctional miserable pathetic collection of misfits they've ever drawn.

That, and the producers seem to enjoy letting some of these people through to the auditions. I mean, there is no way 10,000 people get through to sing in front of the cameras, right? There has got to be some initial screening - like where they have everyone holed up like Katrina-victims in an arena somewhere.

Yes and the judges are fully briefed as to who they are seeing. I'd guess in a given day maybe they see 100? Say 5 minutes a person is 120 people in 10 hours.

It looks like everything is pretty well scripted out, including who gets through to the judges. In fact, you can tell when the judges know they're getting a legit contestant by the way they act when the person immediately walks in the door. They've got the person's story in front of them and they seem to know beforehand that the person isn't a loon, as if they've been told "X person is coming in - you know, the one we told you about who is in the Navy." That kind of thing. I'm sure they do the same, to a degree, with some of the freaks they know they are going to highlight.

I believe they have tables in middle where they do a 10 second audition. If you are picked to go through to the judges, at that point, you better realize that you are one of 2 types of people - Either you can sing or you are a freakshow.

One thing I noticed last night was that segment they showed of a bunch of the misfits awkwardly singing the same song (I think the first one was "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me..."). They clearly asked them to sing those lines as either a 2nd song, or brought them back in later on to do it, since we saw each of them walk in, sing their own song, get crushed by the feedback, and walk out.

Someone mentioned how those are poorly edited and you never see the judges in the same shot in those clips. I'm wondering if those are actually clips from contestants singing to the producers before they even get to see the judges?

Has this been posted? Paula in an interview.

I couldn't finish... how embarrassing.

hxxp://kingnutter.com/articles/view/248/

There were several contestants that had complaints aired about this. I think it was Season 3. They complained they were voted off people of lack of air time. I'm not sure if that's any relation, though.

I learned about this last year. Either before or after these idiots audition (not sure which), they ask them to perform a particular song in front of producers or other off-air people. These clips of the episode's idiots singing the same song are never performed in front of the judges, which is why you see cut-away clips to the judges' expressions or generic remarks, but never an actual exchange between the two, because as someone said, we see these idiots go in front of the judges and get sent off.

It has to be before. No way you get some of those people back in there.

Probably. It's most likely billed as their "pre-audition" before the producers to make sure they're talented enough to go before the judges.

Great. Just saw an article where Rosie O'Donnell opened her yap about the cruelty of the judges. I certainly think that the judges didn't need to attack some of the people about their physical appearance, but isn't it about time that someone put a muzzle on this woman to save her from herself? A job on The View doesn't mean that she suddenly is promoted to 'the conscience of America'.

monkey girl

I have hated Rosie since before she was popular. They used to air her stand-up comedy routines on VH1 and she was terribly unfunny. America got it right with its rejection of Margaret Cho, but somehow this fat, unfunny, annoying bitch not only made it through, but is thriving. It's sickening.

Didn't I just see Margaret Cho in a preview for some new sitcom the other day? Guh.

Yeah, that Brad Garrett vehicle. Man I hate commercials.

Yeah, the irony that she's involved in a spat where Trump called her fat several times over without ever actually saying the word 'fat' is not lost on me.

Trump's comments regarding Rosie's Idol comments: "Rosie shoudn't be critical of Simon. She shouldn't be critical of anyone. Rosie is a comeplete mess."

From MJ's AI blog:

Reality TV Magazine has started playing the Domain name game. Last year, the producers registered all 44 or so semi-finalists on the same day, December 9, after Hollywood Week. All it took was a Whois search to figure out the identities of all the finalists.

This year the producers got smart. It appears that they registered the Top 40 through private domain registrations. Reality TV Magazine has performed whois searches on all the contestants featured so far on Idol. They found that Anna Kearns, Sanjaya Malakar, and Shyamali Malakar all had their names registered as domain names on November 18, 2006, the day after the Hollywood rounds ended. All were registered by Domains by Proxy–a service that hides the identity of the entity registering the domain names.

There are rumors that Anna and Sanjaya have made the Top 40. I expect that, since this can of worms has been opened, there will be more to come…

BTW, there are rumors that the Top 24 have not been chosen yet as I previously reported. I can’t substantiate that rumor at this time.

More good stuff:


Meanwhile, Steven “Red” Thoen and his Mom are also angry over Steven’s portrayal:

Steven Thoen, 28, said the Fox television show’s producers were disrespectful and unfair to him. His mother, June Lorimor of Superior, said that the show took advantage of Thoen’s mild mental retardation and made him a laughingstock.

First Idol Scandal of the Season
And, that didn’t take long, did it peeps? TMZ.com has dug up the arrest record of Seattle auditioner Thomas Daniels. According to TMZ, in in 2004, Thomas was convicted of DUI in Clackamas, OR, pled guilty and was sentenced to a one-year alcohol diversion program and a $680 fine. After the completing his DUI sentence, the incident was wiped from his record.

In December 2005, Thomas was arrested again–for hit and run. He failed to appear in court for the arraignment and was subsequently rearrested. Thomas says both incidents are the result of being “young and dumb”. It’s not clear whether Thomas disclosed his arrest record to Idol producers.

If he didn’t disclose his record to the producers, and managed to advance to the Top 24 on Monday (it’s possible, Thomas is a very good singer) I would say his Idol career is now toast.

This probably goes without saying, but...

Don't let him go audition then... It's very, very simple...

Dola - too bad about Thomas... I felt like he would have been a solid contestant.

I'm not sure whether the subtitle for this should be "It's the End of the World As We Know It" or "They Got the Last Laugh"...


In a sign of Idol’s pop-cultural influence, auditioners Kenneth Briggs, 23, of Bothell, Wash. — whom Cowell derided as looking like a “bush baby,” an African primate — and friend Jonathan Jayne, 21, of Renton, Wash., appeared Friday on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live. “They’ve become celebrities. They wouldn’t have changed anything,” Cowell said.

Meanwhile, both Jonathan and his friend Kenneth “Bush Baby” Briggs were on the Today Show this morning. Apparently, they both have secured agents…

Interesting article at votefortheworst.com about the audition process, including those end-of-episode montages and the cut-and-splice way they manipulate the auditions for TV:

hxxp://www.votefortheworst.com/node/33

Holy Crap. The guy from georgia whose wife just left him is Izulde

I vote for the former.

Since you are in the know, how many months did the producers have to put last week's show together? After seeing all of the clips on YouTube, most of it was purposely planned - allowing the gong show contestants to go forward. I wonder if they are calling this the Hung Factor?

I agree with many of the comments here and on the idol board regarding the cluelessness and lack of reality checks. But they know that it sells and that they can get hundreds more just like them, hoping to cash in on the Hung Factor.

The two things I've enjoyed the most so far tonight have been:

1: the girl who was an opera singer.
2: the guy in the Alvin the chipmunk shirt and hat (I have GOT to get that outfit).

I am, however, about 20 minutes behind the real broadcast on my DVR.

I missed the first hour last night, because I went by the TV listings that showed it as an hour episode starting at 9. But I did see Beauty and the Geek at 8 anyway, and it looked like last night was more of the same formula, so I probably didn't miss much.

And yeah, on the opera singer...holy crap. I can only recall 2 moments where I've been excited about a contestant's choice of song - when Bo Bice broke out Badlands, and the chick last night auditioning with a Jeff Buckley song. I don't know how long she'll last, but an opera singer with a unique look who appreciates (and knows!) Buckley gets a standing O from me.

If you are talking about the young girl with braces, what a spoiled little bitch.

My favorite parts of last night's show:

1. "Simon, you don't understand! I HAVE FOUGHT FOR THIS!"
2. "I am not a singer! I could be the first American Idol who is not a singer!"
3. Julie. I mean Isadora. Doesn't look good, can't sing, but hell, I was entertained.

I thought the Simon saying to the asian girl with the name Fong "Wong, Bong, Fong whatever your name is" what an asshole. I hope this all blows up on the network. Asshats.

Yeah, that has the potential to blow up more than the "bush baby" comment. Imagine if that Kenneth "bush baby" kid had been black - I think the reaction would have gone in a different direction than it did. Here, the Asian community could attempt to make an issue of this based on a perceived racial "slight".

what's wrong with ping pong? everyone likes ping pong.

i missed the first 10 minutes last night from new york...who in the blue hell was the guest judge, Carol ?

I wondered the same thing. Her name is Carole Bayer Sager, a songwriter who was once married to Burt Bacharach. She wrote That's What Friends Are For, in case her Joan Collins-circa-1985 looks and botox-wrecked face weren't sickening enough for you.

thats who i thougt it was at first...i looked at my wife and said "wtf is Joan Collins doing on AI".

we googled her (carole bayer sager that is) and she actually has an oscar, emmy, golden globe, and tony award to her resume, along with about 2 dozen nominations spread across the 4 awards...she primarily writes Broadway stuff, bue she also did Groovy Kinda Love for phil collins.

Yep, my wife was trying to make that connection too when I finished her sentence. Pretty scary.

Here are a couple of backstories about a few of the contestants we've seen so far. I'll leave a few lines in case you don't want to read spoilers, although I wouldn't necessarily call these spoilers since this information may never come to light on the show. As always, this info comes courtest of MJ's Blog...















Here’s an interesting story on the “Amish” guy Troy Benaham who auditioned in Minneapolis. According to this story, Troy is actually Mennonite. There is a big difference between the Amish and the Mennonites. Mennonites have electricity, watch TV and drive cars. Ok? In fact, Troy has a cell phone. So, there you go.

When I reviewed Sean Michel’s audition in my Memphis recap, I said there was probably a backstory we haven’t heard yet. Sean is the contestant with the long beard and even longer hair who sang Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down.” Sean does have a story, and you can read it on his MySpace. He’s a devout Christian singer/songwriter who has already released an indie album. You can also listen to snippets of his music there.

Ottawa, Canada native Jory Steinberg lives in Santa Monica now, where she’s been pursing a musical career. Jory sang “Chains” at her New York audition with incredible range and pitch. You can read about her here. In Canada, she was considered the “Next Alanis” and had a 7 record deal with Canadian producer and Idol regular, David Foster. Her deal fell through before her first record was released.


Finally, Kia Thorton wowed the judges in New York with her rendition of Aretha Franklin’s “Ain’t No Way”. Like Jory Steinberg and Tom Lowe, she is no newcomer to showbuisiness:

She was still in her teens when “Lately,” a single she cut while a member of the R&B trio Divine, peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1998. A second single, a cover of George Michael’s “One More Try” made it to No. 29 a year later. The group toured internationally, supporting ‘N Sync and Britney Spears, Thornton said.

It seems to me Idol is going by the way of survivor. What I mean by that is the first few seasons of survivor had "everyday" people. There were no ex-nfl players and such. Now it seems like the people on the show are more accomplished in life. It seems Idol is heading the same way.

I'd much rather see people with SOME experience rather than a bunch of noobs who sing in the shower. It's fun to laugh at the losers in the beginning, but when you get to the top 5 and nobody of any quality is left, it makes for some sad watching. That's why I prefer Rockstar who pretty much bypass the 16 year olds and go for people that actually planned on singing for a living before they came out to audition.

I thought AI wasn't opened for professionals or those that had signed professional contracts?

What the fuck is Paula on

Yeah, I've been a bit confused about that. But previous years' contestants had some professional background, too. I wonder if it's more about name recognition than having signed a contract. I'm not sure what the eligibility requirements are, quite frankly. Perhaps the hype about finding a nobody has superceded the reality of what the show has been all along.

Last night was OK. The last guy was not as good as I thought he was going to be. Personality-wise, he was great. But his voice needs a lot of work. Paula pushed him through simply because she liked him.

And what was with the Kellie Pickler-look alike with the cringeworthy family story? Holy crap I was praying she couldn't sing because that's just not something I want to hear more about - or at least, I feel bad for her that she's going to be bringing that baggage to the show. For those that missed it, this chick - who could have pulled the 'calamari' thing off if Pickles hadn't done it first - is from North Carolina (check), lives with a grandparent (check), and has a father with some 'issues' (check). In this case, instead of a father in jail like Pickles had, this chick's dad is paralyzed and lives at home with her and her grandmother. So Randy had to ask what the story was, and it turns out that he's paralyzed because he shot himself in the throat in an attempted murder-suicide in which he shot his wife (the contestant's step-mom) when he found her in bed with another man. Heartwarming, ain't it?

But as she said, "It's OK." :o

I nearly shot myself in the throat after that segment. I don't even have a gun. I was going to go out and buy a gun and three bullets, just in case my wife and the cat wanted in on the action, too. THEN I was going to shoot myself in the throat.

Bah, she didn't look like Kelly Pickler in the least. She was much cuter, even if she did remind me a little of one of the Chipettes.

I remember reading an article a few years ago. It was either after the 2nd year or 3rd year that they greatly softened the eligibility criteria and allowed people with a degree of professional experience to also apply. I forget the exact criteria, but it changed significantly from the first two seasons.

She seemed denser, though, if that's at all possible. The "he shot hisself right here" thing was Pickleresque. She looked a little less, um, inexperienced than Pickles. She looks like she can play the "dumb Southern girl" role, but I'm not sure she has the "innocent dumb Southern girl" role down as well as Pickles did.

On pure looks, I'm not really impressed with either of them, to be honest.

I believe they can't have a current contract, but I'm not sure.

I was going to say the same thing - this was my impression as well.

Um.....



Us Weekly reports that Paula Abdul is being replaced with Courtney Love on American Idol. Courtney says that American Idol's executive producer Nigel Lythgoe called her office last week inquiring if she'd be interested in sitting in as a judge.

"He called," Love tells Usmagazine.com. "He was wondering if I was interested. I thought it was kind of weird but brilliant." But a source tells Usmagazine.com that Lythgoe was considering having Love "replace Paula."

Now that would be funny.

I liked how Paula was "away on family business" for day 2 on last night's show. And there was no guest judge ready to go.

If this happens, Jeffrey Ross MUST be part of the package. In fact, dump Simon and Paula - I want me some Ross/Love!

Hell, dump Randy, too, and add Little Richard. They could air the show for 3 hours 3 nights a week to allow the judges ample time to speak, and I'd watch every second of it.

I don't think I could stand watching Courtney Love for an hour.

I've heard several things on the radio where the AI people have outright denied any chance of this happening.

As much as Paula has her issues, with her contract being extended after last season and Courtney Love being about the last person you could see coming on this show, I just think this is cooked up by Love's people.

I would hold more interest in the rumor if it was say Jewel - she is doing the Nashville show and did the guest spot on Idol, so they could see something they like... But Love just makes no sense.

yes Little Richard is a hidden gem of talent. maybe he can host a game show.

Paula isn't going to be replaced. She's the "nice judge" and does very well at that shtick... especially the conflict with Cowell.

I could see Paula being replaced as she appears to be intoxicated at times on the air, but I couldn't see them choosing Love to replace her - Jewel I could see (and enjoy.)


Also, Paula is clearly attempting to be much less of a nice judge this year.

I want Charles Barkley to be a judge. I don't know or care if he has any musical knowledge. He should be a judge for every competition ever.

I think Paula is just fed up... though hilarious how that dude that was horrible was using Paula and Randy's tape :D

Mashed potatoes, gr-a-vy, and cranberry sauce!

Woooooooo-hooo-ooo-ooooooo!!!!!

The old guy singing for his wife or whatever made my wife cry.

But she's on her period, so I'm not sure what that means.

He was actually pretty decent. My wife got a bit teary-eyed, too, so I lightened the mood by lamenting the fact that he failed to try out for American Idol 1953.

Way too much crap last night...the Birmingham show on Tuesday was the best one so far for them actually showing more of the decent singers than the jokes. Then they went right back to the crap last night. They spent way too much time on that couple who auditioned, and earlier on the Asian chick.

I will say, I think the black dude who they focused on is a real contender. Good looking, down to earth, good personality, and a great voice. He reminds me of one of my favorite singer/songwriters, David Ryan Harris - and much likeDRH, this guy has spent his career backing more successful artists. I'll be pulling for that guy to go far.

We all know that it is because all of the talent is in the South and the crazies are out there with the Yankees and the Left Coast ;).

Actually, I made the same comment earlier in the thread. In reality, though, I think it's because there were fewer obvious jokers in Birmingham (or maybe they just weren't outrageous enough) for them to focus on than in NY/LA, etc. They took almost 40 people from LA, so it's not like the talent wasn't there. They just didn't focus on 99% of the people who made it through.

The old guy made my wife and I both a bit misty eyed. He wasn't a bad singer and it felt more real than almost all of the other "emotion" I see on the show.

Ok, so the second part is only true... There just don't seem to be as many obvious jokes in the South for whatever reason. Maybe it's cause we respect ourselves down here? ;)

I didn't get to see last night's show, but I was wondering from the previous night's preview it showed last night's episode something big and then Simon chasing down after someone. What was that about?

Absolutely nothing. A REALLY bad singer had listed Paula and Randy's singing lesson video as part of his vocal lessons, and Simon didn't catch it until the guy was leaving, so they did a bit where he was trying to track the guy down and Paula/Randy were trying to stop him.

Much ado about nothing, and very likely a scripted moment.

This is the dude I'm talking about:

Brandon Rogers 28, North Hollywood CA - Holy cow, there are good singers in LA? Who woulda thunk it? Brandon, like Melinda Doolittle before him, is a talented background singer. Unlike Melinda, he’s got the confidence. He’s also intelligent and good looking. Brandon, does an R&B twist on Willie Nelson’s country classic “Always on My Mind”. So did Fantasia, memorably, Season 3. It’s obvious that Brandon has the chops. The judges are wowed and enthusiastically advance him to Hollywood. Watch this one.

So there were 42 people who advanced to the next round from LA, and they showed 3 on the show last night. Nineteen of them were from day 2, and they showed none of them. Putting aside the old guy's story, I don't think there were enough funny/ridiculous scts to fill half a show last night, so showing that few real contestants is inexcusable, IMO.

Where can you find a list of who was put through to Hollywood? Apparently a girl from my church made it to the Hollywood round but I didn't see her on the show last night.

From the ones we've seen, he's in my top 2 to win it so far. He seems very charming, humble, and talented.

I always try to keep a seperate list - those I want to win, those i think will win...

I generally get some potentials for who I want from the early episodes (for now it's the indian guy, the brillo pad head kid, sundance head, and this kid from VA that is pretty indistinguishable to most)... but I usually don't think about the people I think will win until after hollywood - but I think that young kid that looks like he was super-jock from NY has a good shot...

But I think it's hard this early, Hollywood always changes my opinion, although I like Yamin from the get-go last year.

I only keep up with mjsbigblog.com, and she doesn't have that info yet - just a smattering of "could be" rumors (relatives telling local radio/TV stations so-and-so called to tell them they made it, etc.). I suspect that once next Tuesday's last tryout show airs, the speculation/rumors will heat up, because the top 24 have already been chosen. As I think I posted above, the easy way of getting an idea of who made it last year, checking domain registrations, is more difficult now because they've taken it private.

What happened? I mean, the first week made news everywhere and people were constantly talking about the shows and the gong show contestants. But the last two weeks seem like the show wasn't even on - almost no news and even very little discussion here. Did the producers do some last-minute surgery based on what happened the first week or something else?

was pretty boring, honestly. i barely even watched. im more interested in the good singers than the numbskulls they usually show. im all about watching some horrible auditions. but not from the mentally challenged which seems to be their MO of late.

Even though there isn't much discussion here or news, check the ratings out, Bucc. I'm sure they are still through the roof. Hell, I definately watched.

I hate this show with a passion, but saw the old guy story on the news and then a clip of Paula crying. Does anyone really take that nutjob seriously? It's beyong me why she still has a job (not really, any PR is good PR I suppose, but still...).

Yes, still dominating. Interesting to see that it was down the second week but this week appears to up from last week.