America's Finest City

Tonight we come from one of my hometowns, San Diego, California. 12,000 folks showed up to audition. Being a former San Diego resident I noticed something peculiar about the auditions. The contestants were all gathered at Qualcomm Stadium (where the Chargers play) but Simon, Paula, and Randy were at the Rancho Bernardo Inn, about a 30 minute drive from Qualcomm. The judges not only were in a different building as the contestants, but they were in fact several miles away. One wonders why. One also wonders how they got the contestants from the Murph (I'm too old school to call it the "Q") to Rancho Bernardo. The freeway between the two spots is the busiest in the city. Local knowledge that you can only get here.

The buzz/controversy of this season is the "ringers" that the producers have inserted into the competition, and the San Diego audition featured the most prominent of them. More on that later.

First we have Tatiana Ostapowych, a cute little blonde who sang "Someone to Watch Over Me." She's a little pitchy but she has a nice voice. Simon rolled out the "you're not as good as you think" line again (again, pot-kettle) and claimed that she was "obnoxious" after Tatiana leaves the room, but votes yes for her anyway. I must have missed something because I didn't see it, and I rewinded the DVR just to be sure. Randy and Paula must have missed it to because they both say yes as well, so she's off to Hollywood.

Next comes single father Perrie Cataldo from Arizona. His son's mother died two years ago. Cataldo doesn't exactly say why but suggested that she was with the "wrong crowd." Interesting. His son is pretty cute. He's got a big ponytail like his dad and he can read too, not bad for a boy who just turned 4. Cataldo does an admirable take of Boyz 2 Men's "I'll Make Love to You" with his son listening with Ryan through the crack in the door. He too is a little pitchy but has a nice voice. No snide comments from Simon this time, though. 3 yeses and a golden ticket.

We then meet the first of the "ringers", Michael Johns. He's originally from Australia and still has a bit of the Oz accent. His background includes being a lead singer of a band that was signed by Maverick Records (Madonna's label) but never released an album because Johns quit before they recorded any songs. For this audition he sang Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You A Little Too Long", a song that I know well but I must admit I could hardly recognize it when he sang it. I thought he overdid it a bit but all three judges loved it and sent him to Hollywood. One wonders if his background had anything to do with the judges' decision. As Arsenio Hall was once famous for asking, this is one of things that make you go "hmmm?"

After a parade of losers (no Medley of Losers tonight so all we get are parades) the next contestant is 20 year old Valerie Reyes from Riverside, CA. She tells Ryan how she thinks the bad auditions are "hilarious", so you know what that means. She's a big fan of Mariah Carey, so naturally she sings a Phil Collins song, though towards the end she tries to sing the Collins song as if she was Mariah Carey. Randy The Big Dawg howls along with any of the four legged ones within 2 miles of the audition room. Simon's reaction of "Oh....my....God" actually causes Reyes to screech in delight. She actually thinks Cowell likes it, and then gets the hard truth as only Simon Cowell can deliver it. Randy claims to have heard a tone but still thinks it was horrible. 3 nos. She walks out thinking that she was good, but afterward in the interview closet someone must have hit her on the head with a shovel because Reyes suddenly realized that she's one of the rejects that she was making fun of earlier. She also realizes how much she will be made fun of by her friends now. "That's not so cool," she mumbles.

We come back after the break with a guy singing while wearing a pancho and a sombrero while his wife is doing pantomime. Then we meet Christopher Baker and Monique Gibson, two nurses and friends who think they have what it takes to be the next American Idol. Monique is first and tries to sing Whitney Houston's "I Believe in Miracles." Randy laughs at the first note and it's all downhill from there. Gibson refuses to stop despite Simon's constant pleas to do so, then claims that "I know I can sing" and that she just picked the wrong song. She only tried about 4 of them. It's much the same scenario with Mr. Baker. He attempts "I Believe The Children", and while Randy doesn't bust out laughing Baker too refuses to listen to Simon's cries to stop the bleeding. He finally stops when the bouncers mosey across the stage to escort them out. Then both Baker and Gibson go off on the type of rant that the Idol auditions are famous for, earning them the award for Psychos of the Night.

The final contestant from Day 1 is 20 year old Samantha Muse from Baldwin Park, CA. She and her sister are both obsessed with the "hot" Simon. The sister sends a note to Simon via paper airplane as Muse enters the audition room, which prompts Cowell to invite the sister in and judge the audition while sitting on Simon's lap. Yes, Simon's lap. Muse sings "Until You Come Back To Me" by Aretha Franklin, which I think was the Hollywood tryout song either last year or the year before. Maybe not the best song choice for her but she makes it work. She's got a little bit of soul in her voice. 3 yeses from the judges plus 1 from the sister, then a group hug for Simon as the ladies leave. Cowell declares "I love this country." Yes indeed, that's what makes America great.

Day 2 begins with Blake Boshnack from Long Island, New York, who is back for his 11th audition for Idol. His mother apparently keeps pushing him to tryout. He only made it to the judges room once before. In Season 5 he tried singing "My Way" while dressed as the Statue of Liberty, only for Simon to dismiss him after only 5 notes. This time he does it straight with Ben E. King's "Stand By Me." He gets to sing longer this time but the result is still the same.

Another parade of losers is highlighted by Sarah Long, who inspires Randy to evoke the name of the one and only William Hung. She's actually insulted by it, unlike Hung who actually thanked the judges for their criticism. Since we only get to see about 5 seconds of her audition I doubt she'll be able to make a career out of it as Hung has, which is disappointing for her I'm sure.

Next is 28 year old flower child Alberto Hurtado from Chula Vista, CA. He claims he's sacred to sing because it "refreshes his soul." Again, I don't make this stuff up. He walks in with a fan as big as Randy and then unfurls a smaller fan with Paula's name on it. Paula is smitten of course (yes, it took me this long to mention Paula, she seems remarkably sober this time). He sings his own composition called "Live", but perhaps a more appropriate title would be "Dead." Simon tries to rush him to the finish that Hurtado claims is not as depressing but it doesn't exactly brighten up the room. 3 nos from the judges. Hurtado then tells Ryan that he thought the judges would listen to him and claimed that it was all Simon's fault that they didn't.

We learn that the next contestant, 16 year old David Archuleta from Murray, Utah, recently suffered from vocal paralysis. He too is classified as a "ringer" since he won Star Search 4 years ago. However, to be fair that was before his paralysis, and it was obvious from the raspiness of his voice that he wasn't faking it. He sings John Mayer's "Waiting for the World to Change" and inspires Randy to sing backup. While he didn't exactly belt it out he was in tune, more so than any of the others so far, so he's off to Hollywood. Paula then reveals her motherly side by saying how she would love to "squish him." Trust me, she said this affectionately.

Our final contestant is the most famous of the "ringers", Carly Smithson. Originally from Ireland, she tried out in Season 5 and got a ticket to Hollywood, only to be disqualified because her visa expired. She's legal now and came back to try again, singing "I'm Every Woman." She strained a bit on the high notes but she's still got a good voice. It was a much slower version that the one Melinda Doolittle sang last year, and Simon felt that her audition wasn't as good as the one she did two years ago. Still, he says yes along with Randy and Paula and she's off to Hollywood again.

The Final Score: 30 tickets to Hollywood (the highest so far), 3 ringers, 8 Simon references, 4 Randy references, only 2 Paula references, and again no nods to Chris Daughtry. This show needs more rockers.

The Stars of the Night: You'd figure that the ringers would do well and all three, Michael Johns, David Archuleta, and Carly Smithson, did. Of the three Archuleta was easily the best. Among the undiscovered talent Perrie Cataldo and Samantha Muse both stood out in my mind.

Bonus Rant: Much has been made of the number of contestants on this season's show who have already recorded albums for major labels. Smithson, for example, was once signed by MCA but was dropped after sales of her first album tanked. The official rules for Idol state that the contestants are not allowed to have a current recording contract, so it's still OK if they were under contract at one time as long as they weren't at the time of their audition. The producers have been suspiciously coy whenever asked about the large number of formally contracted singers in this year's competition, but rumor has it that they are pushing these folks in order to avoid a repeat of the Sanjaya phenomenon that dominated last season's shows.

The purist argument is similar to the one made against allowing professionals to play in the Olympics. The show is supposed to feature "undiscovered" talent, they say, and to have formally "discovered" talent compete goes against the supposed nature of the show and is unfair to the "amateur" singers. The purity argument goes both ways though. Proponents have argued that by having professional singers on the show it makes Idol more of the singing competition that it was meant to be and less of a popularity contest that it has become, especially the last couple of years.

News outlets have picked up on this row and have asked various Idol bloggers for their opinion. No one, though, has asked this Idol blogger for his opinion so...oh, I'm happy you asked. Personally I don't have a problem with it as long as the ringers are singers who have been dropped by their labels. It sort of adds a Rocky flavor to the show to have singers fighting back from disappointment to regain a foothold in the industry (Taylor Hicks is ineligible to do this, BTW). What I would have a problem with is record labels, especially those already affiliated with American Idol, pushing their lessor known talent on the show in order to generate album sales. That would cheapen the show even more than Sanjaya's rise to fame threatened to do.

I do believe, though, that the producers' attempt to get more professional singers on the show is a pretty severe commentary on the judges. It appears that after letting a less than stellar group of singers into the top 24 last year (with the notable exception of Jordin Sparks and Melinda Doolittle) the producers no longer trust Randy, Paula, and Simon to be able to pick contestants who can actually sing well, so the producers have to stack the deck for them. It could be considered insulting if the big three weren't getting paid piles of money by those same producers.

These one hour shows are much nicer. I can actually go to bed at a decent hour.