The miserable audition shows are finally over...Thank God! I skipped the last 3 because I was absolutely bored to tears with them.

Yeah, the auditions this year didn't really wow me. It probably didn't help that they seemed to focus more attention on the guest judges and "Pants on the Ground" than the good singers. And -- even more than usual -- I felt they were pushing the contestants' back stories over their singing ability. If you showed me pictures of some of the standouts I could probably recount their sob story but couldn't recall what they sang or how they sounded.

Andrew's acoustic Straight Up cover was excellent.

Sad to see Vanessa go.I think her nerves were just too much.

A lot of great talent tonight. My favorites were Janell Wheeler and Didi. The Abdul cover was amazing, would buy it right now if available. Thought Ellen did a great job and I am looking forward to having her on the show.

Is there a site that lists all the music that plays during each episode? I was directed to one for So You Think You Can Dance before and was wondering about this show.

Looks like the frontrunner to replace Simon Cowell is Guy Oseary, the manager of pop star Madonna and the chairman of Maverick Records.

Anyway, Andrew's cover of Straight Up was very good, reminded me of Matt Giraud with "Georgia" last year. I can see Andrew Garcia making the top handful this season. Here is a link to his performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5V0iKkfuuA

They're making too big a deal over who will replace Simon. It really doesn't matter, because without him this show will only last one or two more seasons.

I stand by my early pick of Garcia and tonight's performance only solidified him in my eyes. I'll throw Didi in there as the frontrunner for the females.

The country girl's version of Blind Melon's No Rain was awful, no surprise that she was cut.

Barney girl is out too.

Next is the always dramatic group audition. In fact, rehearsing as a group has no other purpose but to create friction between contestants.

Once you have something on Youtube, you can always "Free" it for later listening.

You may also want to check out http://www.rickey.org


And given that we'll all likely switch over to X Factor.

I like the Garcia kid.

Yeah, there will be a few distinct groups (among people who currently watch Idol):

1. Those who switch to X Factor, stop watching Idol.
2. Those who watch both shows.
3. Those who stick with Idol but don't watch X Factor because they don't like the format or some other reason.
4. Those who lose interest altogether and watch neither.

I have a feeling most Idol fans will at least sample X Factor, especially if Abdul joins as well. The only variable in whether or not they keep the Idol fans will be if people dislike the format differences, or the other talent (host, other judges, etc.)

Gah! They teased John Park's reaction to a positive comment but didn't show him sing a note. Or did I miss it?

Don't mind staring at Didi, though her vocals aren't very strong, at least she has some musicality in her voice.

Don't really want to stare at the tattoo mom, but she's got vocal chops to spare, if she goes to the top 24, I suspect she'll get a makeover of sorts (at least some teeth whitening).

I wonder if the Garcia dude is a one-trick pony (though it got David Cook all the way through AI7).

Janelle was very lovely, very now in the musical landscape.

I found it disturbing that the mom got a tramp stamp with her sons name on it. Talk about awkward for the boyfriend/husband.

Group night is always my favorite episode of the year.

Luckily for my OTA, I was able to watch AI This damn snow storm took out my DISH.

I like that girl/mom from Chicago. I think her name is Crystal. Don't have any other favorites so far.

Re: Ellen..... I love her stand up. Can only take her talk show in small doses. But I just don't like her on this show. It just feels weird to me. And from the Hollywood episodes, it feels like it's her show. Like she's the one guiding the panel. And for Simon's last season, she's the one who clearly seems like the one who is taking over. Or trying to. Again....I don't like it.

I'm not ready to judge Ellen so fast. These shows are highly edited and they might be cutting out some good stuff from the others. We'll see what really happens on the live episodes.

It's all about the editing at this point, as GuessWho said let's wait to see what happens on the live episodes.

And the group rounds were really boring this year. No drama, little fighting, few poor singers. I know that she was obnoxious, but Tatiana Del Toro really made the Hollywood Rounds fun last year, I was hoping that the drama queen would do it this year but she was cut right off the bat.

Oh well. Next Tuesday will be some more cuts and probably the room episode, followed by the chair episode on Wednesday.

Jimmy Fallon doing a very good Neil Young impersonation, singing Pants on the Ground:

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I kinda think Ellen is going to work out. Just a hunch...

I'm kinda surprised that so few seem to truly suck this year.