American Idol: Hollywood Week Round 1

7 cities
181 potential contestants
The tears
The sob stories
The drama
The screaming
This is American Idol

Finally the auditions are over. Is it just me or do they get longer each year? Ellen Degeneres joins the judging panel and we bid a not-so-fond fairwell to the mediocre guest judges. The first round is Sudden Death and the contestants are allowed to accompany themselves with instruments.

Up first is Katie who has the grandmother with Alzeheimers. She is good and easily moves on. Not moving on, thank goodness is Skiiboski. My love for Ellen notches up considerable when she informs him that he crossed the sexy line into scary territory. Did anyone else think of Barney's crazy/hot scale?

Andrew Garcia tackles "Straight Up" with his own version accompanied by guitar. He does a great job and the judges love good interpretations. He doesn't have one of the stronger voices but he is smart and will go far.

In his group is Vanessa Wolfe who has the thickest twang I've heard in a long time and I live in the South. She gets a lot of airtime but not enough confidence. But hey, at least she got to go on the aero-plane.

Montage of crying people who thought they had the ticket to fame and fortune.

Three mediocre contestants are featured but they all sucked and are cut so I won't waste your time.

Janell Wheeler is one of the few contestants with a real job (lots of food service, unemployed and students this season). She does a nice job and I applaud the judges sending her through.

Montage of people making poor choices in accompanying themselves on instruments

Haeley Vaughn wants to be the first black country singer (doesn't Hootie count?). Unfortunately she is very pitchy although Randy likes her because she is 16. Apparently I know nothing because she is passed on to Round 2.

Mary Powers is a 28 year old rocker mom who's child loves Simon (good choice). She picks a Pink song which is excellent for her range and style. She easily moves on. Mary thinks her life is going to change now...um, you have to make it all the way first, honey.

Ellen fucks with the contestants by making them move forward and back before telling them they are all in. Love it!

Montage of people I don't remember or never saw from auditions.

Of the 50% seen so far, 46 make it to round 2

Lilly Scott shows us the view from her hotel room. A parking lot isn't exactly a good view....She picks an Ella Fitzgerald song that suits her voice amazingly and the judges love her. I predict she will go far.

Big Mike Lynche gets a phone call that his wife's water has broken. As a fairly new mom myself let me be upfront that I would have killed DH if he wasn't there for Cameron's birth. Taking my judgemental hat off, Mike sings well and can play the guitar and isn't too tacky in pandering to the judges with his baby news.

The next group features Tim Urban and Justin Williams. Tim Urban decides to tackle a David Cook song and his voice dropped an octave since the auditions. Cancer survivor and hottie Justin Williams is kind of boring and gives weird looks while singing. Randy calls it interesting which is never good. Predictable he is out. He is also the only one not moving on from his whole group which has to suck even more.

Montage of people getting cut that I don't really remember. The Jersey girls were cut, thank goodness. They were uber annoying for me in the auditions.

Maddy Curtis is 16 (so Randy loves her) and has 4 brothers with Down's Syndrome. She hits a high note that makes me wince but recovers. Her song selection was poor and Simon backs me up. Unfortunately it is her undoing and she cries her way out of Hollywood.

Casey James is the guy who took off his shirt to make it to Hollywood. I hated that but he's actually much better than his audition and I think having the guitar helps. He easily makes it through.

Wow, a lot quicker hour than the city auditions! The last group lines up to go onstage and we get a flashback to a weepy waitress named Didi Benami. She sucks up to Kara by picking one of her songs. She has a Joss Stone vibe about her and easily makes it through.

Crystal Bowersox is a single mom who decides to get a tattoo for luck. I hope she didn't get it in a place where the guitar strap will rub it. She does a nice job with "Natural Woman" but needs some serious dental work if she makes it to the Top 24. Like Didi she moves right along.

Ryan closes out the episode with another montage, this time of happy, screaming people. 95 people out of 181 are moving to Round 2. Dare I hope that the level of drama in group auditions will surpass last season? I'm sure the producers are planning on it!

SJ out.