Heat

It's that time again... 8pm EST is the first episode of the new season with a two hour Boston audition show.

And of course, Simon Cowell is leaving the show after this year but will be back with a variety show (the X Factor). And Jason Castro got married a week or so ago. To a girl.

Anyway, the known schedule to date is as follows - there will be four weeks of auditions, two weeks of Hollywood (wasn't it one week last year?), then the Top 12 guys / girls perform.


Tuesday, Jan. 12 (8:00-10:00 PM) Season Premiere, Part 1/Boston Auditons
Wednesday, Jan. 13 (8:00-9:15 PM) Season Premiere, Part 2/Atlanta Auditions

Tuesday, Jan. 19 (8:00-9:00 PM) Chicago Auditions Episode
Wednesday, Jan. 20 (8:00-9:00 PM) Orlando Auditions Episode

Tuesday, Jan. 26 (8:00-9:00 PM) Dallas Auditions Episode
Wednesday, Jan. 27 (9:00-10:00 PM) Los Angeles Auditions Episode

Tuesday, Feb. 2 (8:00-9:00 PM) Denver Auditions Episode
Wednesday, Feb. 3 (9:00-10:00 PM) ”The Road to Hollywood” Auditions Episode

Tuesday, Feb. 9 (8:00-9:00 PM) Hollywood Round, Part 1

The rest of the known schedule is in spoilers due to the length:

davidh777

I was cleaning off the DVR and found one of last year's audition rounds--only a couple seconds of Kris Allen's audition, then him dancing around with his ticket. You never know, I guess.

Heat

I've heard a few good singers tonight but unfortunately don't have a DVR anymore. The ones I liked were the big Italian guy, the Jim Morrison lookalike, the 16 year old girl who has a bunch of brothers with Down's Syndrome, and the 16 year old Portuguese girl (Katey?).

Daytripper

Who's the blonde dude in the picture above?

I've never seen Victoria Beckham so thin. Eat woman EAT!

FantasticVSDoom

Man i told myself I wasnt going to watch this year, and here I am back for more... And damn Posh, you used to be so hot

B.A.

The Puerto Rican girl w/ the giant mouth was hot - and she could sing.

Victoria Beckham has been nasty looking for a long, long time.

Charlie Goose

Ya, Posh looks like shit.

The first girl - The one jumping up & down telling herself that she's awesome. Terrible, but I'm glad the camera caught her pooch flapping.

The teenager who was 9th of 12 was excellent.

Amadeo the Italian guy was pretty good, and I liked him instantly. Very positive attitude. Guys like him often come across as obnoxious or douchey, but I didn't get that from him at all.

The creepy guy with the glasses was rude, but Kara definitely overreacted.

Loved the ASS on that waitress. Hated to see her go, but loved to watch her leave.

Cancer guy was okay, but I think he relies too much on his blue eyes and his smile.

Heat

That was a little too over the top, I think it was an act. He was playing the rebel role, and he did have a decent voice. Oh well.

mwbmis

The entire time she was on all I could think about was last fall's episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm featuring Larry's new assistant.

shanester

Loved the slow-mo exit of that blonde waitress. Randy and Simon drooling over her ass was pretty funny.

She didn't have the nicest face but her body was very sexy

Any pics would be nice!

shanester

I really liked Katey too that 16 year old Portuguese girl. Great voice!!

Non of the guys really stood out for me for some reason

PS I'm surprised they didn't say anthing about that crazy chick from a few years ago who got hit by a car last year. I can't remeber her name but I do remember her wacky audition.

Duh Vuh Duh

And with the American Idol thing not working out, he can always audition for the new Superman movie if it gets re-cast. Almost like evil superman, looked like Brandon Routh's evil twin.

Gizmo

As did I

Heat

Here are the names / descriptions of the Boston contestants shown during the audition who made it through, courtesy of the huffingtonpost.com. The descriptions are from the website, not mine.

MADDY CURTIS -- the teen from a giant family with brothers who have Downs Syndrome, Maddy sang Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." She was fine and it's certainly a challenging song to sing and anyone singing it knows that Cohen and Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright have sung the heck out of it. Maddy was fine and has a nice voice, though it's hard to tell how much vocal character she has. Kara annoyingly said Maddy has an old soul, when that's the song, not her. Simon amusingly heard everyone else say yes and then said "Now the one that counts...four yeses." Maddy paused before walking out and said, "I really enjoyed singing for you" so at least we know she's been raised right. And Simon's compliment du jour quickly became "You're not annoying."

JENNIFER -- Sang a jazzy version of "Ding, Dong, The Witch Is Dead." Brief, but really caught my ear. Fun! And an offbeat choice that paid off. (And obviously, I didn't catch her last name.)

AMADEO DIRICCO -- Boisterous Italian guy who LOVES his family. Sang the Muddy Waters tune "Hoochie Coochie Man." Very limited voice, just a guy who can belt it out in a bar, though maybe just karaoke and not a bar band. Seemed quite limited but the judges liked his personality and gave him four yeses.

LUKE SHAFFER and BENJAMIN BRIGHT -- two guys seen harmonizing in the waiting room (with a third guy who obviously didn't make it). Luke is handsome and had a lovely sounding voice, great tone. A studio voice, as they might have said in seasons past. Benjamin sang "All My Loving," and was pleasant though he seemed to keep running out of breath. Both were so brief it's hard to tell. Still, thank goodness Idol broke down the Beatles' resistance and we can hear people audition from their catalog.

ASHLEY RODRIGUEZ -- The producers are probably bummed she doesn't have some heart-tugging back story because Ashley has everything else. She was attractive, charming, at ease and while she showed a lack of imagination by choosing Alicia Keys' "If I Ain't Got You," she sang it very very well. Easily the ringer of the day and one to watch.

TYLER GRADY -- Drummer who broke both arms when falling out of a tree. Cool jeans and mellow, early Seventies vibe without looking like he was playing dress up. Charming and sort of sexy though not traditionally handsome, mostly because he had self-confidence. Sang "Let's Get It On" decently, but he seemed more of a showman than a singer to me. But definitely a winning personality.

MIKE DAVIS -- Nice guy who thinks working on a speedboat that takes tourists out for a spin in the harbor is "the best job in the world." Other than being an American Idol, I assume. Sang "Yesterday," in a dutiful, slow and deliberate manner that was even off-key at the start. Simon, seemingly bored, threw out a yes while he walked away for a break, Randy said no and the gals fell for Mike. Didn't they already put through their token nice guy with the Italian? Very hard to justify.

KATIE STEVENS -- A 16 year old girl whose grandmother has Alzheimers. Sang a fine version of "At Last," though the trills she threw in seemed more Mariah Carey than jazzy. But appealing and sweet.

JOSHUA BLAYLOCK -- This is the cute guy with mannered hair (too much gel) who was deemed too nice by Simon and the rest, so they encouraged him to get a little more defiant and confident and strident. Typically for this first night, they were joking with the contestant rather than making a joke of a contestant. Joshua was funny and indeed very nice and had a decent voice. Plus, in a later shot his hair seemed devoid of the gel and he looked much better already. Could be a comer.

JUSTIN WILLIAMS -- This is the guy who fought off cancer. Good-looking in a basic way, he sang "Feeling Good" in a style that was pretty mannered to me and rough when he transitioned from his normal range to the falsetto and back again. It's not that clear to me that he can sing particularly well, but he looked like another Michael Buble and they put him through.

BOSA MORA -- Fine looking young guy with parents from Nigeria who are living the American dream. (More inspiration from Idol!) I thought he was solid, though Simon's "boring" did strike a chord with me. Nonetheless the other three put him through. Besides, the voice was good.

LEAH LAURENTI -- A young woman who apparently did almost nothing growing up but go to church. Feels guilty about singing secular music and it wasn't even clear to me at first if her family approved of her auditioning. She sang "Blue Skies" in tune (a weak compliment, of course) and got better as she went along but seemed basically a Broadway belter more than a pop singer. But not bad and she went through. Later we heard her calling her dad, saying she got through and asking, "Are you proud of me?" He said, "Of course I'm proud of you!" But what a shame she had to ask.

zuffy

Victoria is a better audition judge than Paula.

Patman

If tonight wasn't the Atlanta auditions, I'd probably tune out until we get to Hollywood, these audition episodes are getting monotonous.

firteen88

Anyone else wanna punch Mary J. Blige square in the face?

astrochimp

Its all about Skiibowski!

astrochimp

Pants on the ground,pants on the ground,your lookin' like a fool with your pants on the ground

bigjim25

If he'd been on America's Got Talent, he would have made it. I liked it.

dip1

What was the name of that song again?

Charlie Goose

She looks like someone already did.

Best of tonight was definitely Jermaine the church singer who did "What if God was One of Us"

The ultra-hick Vanessa from Venore TN was better than I thought she would be. She may be good for some laughs in upcoming rounds. She's going on a air-o-plane!

Cannot believe that Skiboski got through. His voice wasn't nearly good enough, and that ridiculous shtick was just awful.

Simon was right about one thing, we have NOT seen the last of the Pants on the Ground Guy.

GuessWho

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GuessWho

The group PANTS ON THE GROUND got 42,000+ fans on Facebook in just over 2 hours

scoot95

Have we seen Guitar dress girl before? She just looked so damn familiar? Was she on last year?