I have this friend who thinks about American Idol at least once an hour. He’s constantly listening to Fantasia’s Free Yourself record, and he can’t bring himself to clear old Idol episodes off his DVR. Seriously, I think he’s got a problem.
(Crickets.)
What? No, I’m not talking about myself. Where in the world would you get that idea?
Anyhow, here’s a quintet of questions about Idol‘s first three weeks of audition episodes that have been keeping me my friend awake at night.
1. How come, on last night’s show, Ryan Seacrest referred to Paris Bennett (pictured) as one of two promising 16-year-olds who’ve made it to Hollywood, when, in fact, the powerhouse songbird (whose jazzy rendition of ”Take Five” has made her an early frontrunner) said she was 17 at her Greensboro, N.C. try-out? (We’re still waiting on a Fox spokesperson for the scoop.)
2. Do we need new glasses, or was that former Making the Band hopeful Tyra Juliette Schwartz singing ”In the Still of the Night” — and getting a thumbs up from the judges — also at the Greensboro auditions? (MTV says yep, same girl.)
3. What’s up with the rumor that Paula, Simon, and Randy never actually went to Austin? Apparently, it’s true: ”The judges never came to Austin because of our influx of Katrina and Rita evacuees. Instead, the Austin auditioners were flown to San Francisco, where they sang for the star judges,” writes Diane Holloway of the Austin American-Statesman. The show was then edited to make it look like it was filmed in the Lone Star State.
4. Is 16-year-old William Makar, whose ”Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” won kudos from Simon and Randy (but not Paula) the younger brother of The O.C.‘s Adam Brody? Probably not, but he could be!
5. And finally, will Paula ever release another album? Sorry, Vibeology fans, but according to Billboard.com, the singer-choreographer’s Idol schedule, along with her jewelry, fitness DVD, and cheerleading apparel businesses are making her return to the charts something of a long shot. (Insert your own joke about Paula’s chart-worthiness below. I’m not going there.)
During the terrific Australian Idol finale 2 years ago (terrific as in much better than any finale American Idol has done), Marcia Hines, one of the Ausie judges (the former singer in the middle judge) performed with a few of the Idol finalists on stage before the finale. How about that for an idea with Paula, if she still has any performing ya-yas left.
Oh…and does anyone else feel this is going to be the most talentless year ever? Or are they not showing most of the real good singers?
I’m not surprised a drop out from Making the Band tried out for AI. One of the girls who actually made it into the Making the Band 3 group (Shannon) was the runner up in the Fame TV show they did a few years ago. And even Nikki McKibbin tried out for the original Popstars group (Eden’s Crush). So, I think there are some people who try out for all these shows.
Is that thing about the Austin auditions happening in SF really true? What about the shots of people waiting outside “in the Texas heat”?
And I read recently in some magazine where Paula was talking about this season and they asked her when her new album would be out and she said she was working on it. I won’t hold my breath though since she’s been saying that for four seasons now.
K, what I want to know is why did they let that guy with the gray hair at the ned of tuesday’s night episode through? the thing with his name said he was 29, when the max age limit is 28. I understand that as long as you’re 28 when you audition, you’re still allowed to go through to the next round, but the ages they display always seem to be the ages at the time of audition, so I’m a little confused….
How about how they have contestants sing…and then when they do the “ONE SONG” montage of people singing off key, they have the same contestants in different outfits and sometimes different hair styles (blonde tan chick) singing too…HOW MANY TIMES DID THEY SING IN FRONT OF THE CAMERAS???? something’s off…
The burning question I have is where are all these great guys the judges have been promising us because after 6 shows its been all about the girls.
Perhaps Paris was 16 when she auditioned, but turned 17 before the show had captions added and was aired? Or maybe Ryan just got confused. Heaven forbid that after seeing tens of thousands of people audition, he might forget the exact age of one! SHOCK!
Yup, Tyra Juliette is the same wannabe that begged Diddy and Co to let her move on the the next round at the NJ auditions of Making the Band. In fact, IIRC, she got down on her knees and pleaded. Pathetic! They then let her go to another audition site and her dancing *miraculously* improved and she moved on. Long story short, Tyra was a drama magnet, her dancing sucked, and she was kicked out in one of the first eliminations… Wonder if history will repeat itself (did you see the previews of the fight she gets into next week?) ;P
cj, excellent question! That has been bothering me ALOT. It seems so staged, and they could have made it less obvious by not including people we’d already seen audition.
My question is regarding the “Austin” auditions. You’re telling me they flew all those horrible singers from Austin to SF? It’s one thing if they treat it as an actual audition, and let the promising singers go up to SF to audition for the judges. But this means they FLEW Tessie Mae up to SF just to get humiliated. Isn’t that just plain wrong?
cj, i think i know the answer to your question. there are actually 3 rounds to AI. the first is a huge cattle call with thousands of people trying out in front of many producers right there in the arena. You can sing whatever you want and nobody’s filming you.
the 2nd round includes the ones who’ve made it through round 1(both bad and good)usually about 100-200 ppl, they sing in front of a camera this time in a room set up with the 2 exec producers. i believe at this round they all have to sing the same song or are given a list of songs they have to choose from, hence the 50 “lady marmalade” renditions.
round 3, is the randy, simon, paula round which actually occurs like a month or 2 later.
u see, the austin tryouts were in late august and katrina hadn’t hit yet…
So, they put these deluded ppl through 2 rounds thinking they’re good and then they get to simon and he informs them they’re terrible.
they edit things to make it look like they were in front of those 3 judges when they very well may have been just singing in round 2 in front of the exec producers.
Dude, if you want to know if Paula is going to return to singing, just ask Paula directly. She’ll tell you “straight up”.
Couldn’t stop myself on that one.
did anyone notice that paula, the paula abdul worshiper with the braces an questionable fashion choices, was also on MTV’s Next?? there’s a ton of people from other shows….lisa tucker was a finalist on star search
Hey mova- thanks for the info. I was wondering when they did those bits on people’s home lives; it wouldn’t be that nice to do them after they were already out.
Now for the real question: How long will it take people to learn that if you think you have ‘a unique voice’ and you ‘hope the judges are looking for something different’, it means that you just suck?
I think that after the people get chosen to go to Hollywood, the producers go to some hometowns of people with good or interesting stories. This is just what I think, I’m not sure, but it explains why they never (that I can remember) show hometown videos of people who didn’t make it to Hollywood. This also explains why the hometown people are always happy and hopeful in their clips.
No, there are definitely some hometown clips of people who don’t make it (remember the twins in the corn maze?). A month-long gap between the audition rounds would explain it.
Hurray for Tyra Juliette- she’s a sure winner and we all wish her the very best. We will be watching tonight.
The Lowe family.