AI Season 8 Auditions: San Francisco

There was a reason Ryan Seacrest could only come up with Katherine McPhee and William Hung as standouts from past San Francisco auditions. The talent? It does suck. But despite that, 12 forged on to Hollywood to join the 54 already through (27 for each other city). That brings us to 66 total. Considering I didn't see a single person who should make it past Hollywood, we can cross these 12 off our top 36 list now.

So William Hung represented the freaks who are only interested in air time. At least he was sweet. Some of these freaks were terrible. Katherine McPhee represents the "almost" quotient. Does that mean one of the Top 10 this year will also start in a Playboy bunny movie as a pregnant sorority girl? You decide.

A couple of standouts:

• Girl who was trying out for Miss America. She was just weird which was a shame because if she wasn't she would be pretty and have a real voice. I don't disagree with the judges decision to let her through, she can sing. But that laugh. God, it's terrible! And she is very American (accent-wise) but when she says her full name she's all about the trills and rolling r's. Needless to say, that's how she sings too. If she is a representative of Puerto Rico then I am not surprised that they had terrible auditions there (so I heard).
• Guy with the two cute kids. His name is Jesus, of course. There is something entirely right about that. And the guy is 29. How is that possible? Isn't 28 the cut off? Whatever. Jesus was not very good at singing (will God smite me for saying that?). Simon was dead on when he said he won't make it in Hollywood. But of course, he played the "look at my cute kids" card and got Paula, Kara and Randy to cave. Suckers. I don't plan on seeing anything of him during the clips from Hollywood week except for maybe a crying shot. Why do the judges give people like this hope? It's just cruel. I told DH that it would have been even cooler if he hadn't made it through and then had to explain to his kids that sometimes you don't get everything you want in life just because you want it. Life lesson, kids.
• Guy who takes care of his mother who has a "seizure disorder". He can't ever leave her? What kind of disorder is that? Don't they have medicare people who can come by and help him out so he can get out of the house sometime? Regardless, this guy is angling for a sob story and there is no way he is going to beat the blind guy. All the rest of the contestants should just pack up their sob stories and shove them. He wins.
• Adam from Wicked. I'm sure Natalie love him just for his association with that musical. He definitely has a stellar voice. But you know he is taking his last shot at American Idol (age is 26) because he never got a real recording contract while working in musical theatre over the past 8 years. I am holding out some hope he's not gay but kissing Paula's hand destroyed it.
• Crazy: everyone else. In particular is Akilah who got 10 minutes of screen time for her crazy. Why did Paula and Kara coddle her? Was it her strong grasp of anatomy that intimidated them? Oddly I had hope she could sing but the Internet can't teach you how to pronounce words or be a better singer. That takes talent and true learning.

So ultimately this was a terrible audition day. It was kind of a waste of an hour. How about showing us some real talent for a change? I also didn't really like seeing Kara and Simon sniping at each other. I do like that she has an opinion. But she is new and needs to settle down. I'm kind of liking her but will hold my breath for true love until Top 10. Regardless I assume she has to offer better comments than Paula's inane mutterings. DH is not liking Kara because, "Simon is the man". Yup, that's my husband!