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American Idol Season 8 – Hollywood Day 1, February 3 2009
By PopSavant | February 3, 2009 | 
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Hi everyone, and welcome to the live blog of the first Hollywood night of American Idol Season 8. The preliminary shows this season were pretty weak coming into tonight… hopefully the producers were holding something back. Perhaps we might even find out what point there is in having Kara on the show. We’ll see.
Ryan tell us that of 100,000 auditions, the best 140 are here at the Kodak theater for five days of eliminations. The lead-in clips show us the usual assortment of cursing, crying, and judge comments. From Simon: “I am confident that we’re going to find someone great.”
The show opens with Ryan’s usual “THIS is AMERICAN IDOL.” He sells it a bit too hard tonight. Paula follows up a weird hand-over-hand rolling gesture, promising us Paula-lunacy to come sometime this season. She was bottled up for the early shows… perhaps because she couldn’t find a drink in Salt Lake City. Maybe back in L.A., she’ll finally cut loose.
We see a twist right off the bat, as the contestants get mini makeovers before the show, or as one contestant explains it, “I feel like my manhood is being taken from me!” Keeping with the manhood theme, Barry Manilow comes in to give the potential Idols some tips: “Make the song your own,” is apparently the best insight he’s gleaned in forty years of show business.
Lil Rounds is the first singer up, to glowing comments from Kara despite delivering a rendition of I Will Always Love You that sent America searching for an ice pick to apply to their eardrums. That eventually leads to the first round of cuts, which Kara gets to do… the new hire always gets the crappy job, right?
Dennis provides the first real entertainment of the night as he’s cut, whining his way out the door with a clever “thas’ y’all’s decision, y’all suck as judges” and criticizes Simon’s shirt on the way out. Sorry, Dennis, he can’t go wrong with a basic black number. Dennis offers the parting thought that America will be outraged that he’s been cut. Well, America, let’s hear it… sound of crickets… sorry, D.
We see a short clip of Simon telling Frankie that she “way overcooked” a song. I’d have gone with “baked,” given her Amy Winehouse impression, but you get the point.
Facial piercing Nathaniel either has music in his blood or the DTs, telling the judges that every time he gets on stage, he gets the sensation of things crawling all over his skin. His audition wasn’t good but he gets through, for now.
Anoop gets his turn and kills again, just like he did in the audition. The kid is money.
Kara says Jasmine Murray has a lot of raw natural talent. I still think she’s overrated.
We get a clip of Rose Flack rehearsing where she loses it and seems like she’s headed for a nervous breakdown… she gets through, but any bets on whether we see this again? Yep, you guessed it. Figure on some version of this story every week Rose is here. Obviously, she’s been through more than she deserves, but she doesn’t give off what you might call the mental stability vibe. Other Idols, be warned, lest she end up locked tearfully in your bathroom when you need your hair brush.
Looks like the Michael Castro kid gets through too… that ought to be good for a few cringes down the line.
Stephen Fowler does a Stevie Wonder song, and Randy thinks “That’s one of the hardest ever! Dog! …. You slayed it, dude!” Meanwhile, Von Smith clearly thinks highly of himself, but nobody else does. Simon says it was “indulgent nonsense” and he’s right. Could’ve seen that coming. Jorge Nunez also auditions and all three get through, despite the harsh words for Von.
Nick “Norman Gentle” Mitchell comes out to give us “a little honesty,” but it’s just a big stupid trick; he’s looking for exposure, and unfortunately, he’s got it now. Simon tells him that without the silly outfit he’s just a “boring person,” but with it he’s “a joke.” Never the less, the judges like him enough to bring him back for another week. Winehouse-Frankie also makes the cut.
The mid-hour break, and we get the second half of the auditions, as well as the first gratuitous Ford logo of the season.
Rocker chick Jackie Tohn gravel-voices her way through her audition and does well enough to stick around, along with some other people that the show doesn’t bother to name.
Jamar Rogers sings California Dreamin’ … nothing special, and he kind of bottoms out on the low notes, but Randy likes him. Meanwhile Danny Gokey serves up Kiss From A Rose and does a rather better job, showing a few pacing and over enunciation problems, but we can forgive him for that since he’s probably pretty damn nervous. Paula says Danny is “ready to record records,” and sure enough, he makes it through. Jamar hangs around, too.
Katrina “Bikini Girl” Darrell offers the insight that “I am the next American Idol… because I am.” She sings Faith Hill’s Breathe and nobody cares. Kara calls Katrina a “beautiful girl” … must be the glare of the lights. Simon makes cat claws as Kara criticizes Katrina… its easy to roll your eyes at the gesture, but he’s right, Kara clearly dislikes Katrina for reasons that go far beyond her lack of talent.
Katrina’s the sort of girl I could have fantasies about… they’d probably involve closing her face in a waffle iron, but they ARE fantasies, none the less.
Jessica Furney gets kicked out… I’m sorry about that, I was looking forward to developing a crush on her later in the season.
Next up, Randy thinks Jeremy Michael Sarver is “one of the best” he’s heard so far. He advances, but Jesus Valenzuela isn’t so lucky… he leaves looking for an early flight to Sacramento.
Emily Wynne-Hughes abandons her practiced song (I Put A Spell On You) at the last minute, instead going with No Doubt’s Excuse Me, Mister, and she pretty much sucks… but she gets to continue on in the competition anyway. David Osmond also gets the nod.
Erika Wesley doesn’t impress the judges and is asked to leave. She tries a bit of begging, but to no avail. She’s history.
And that’s it for the first Hollywood night. Ryan tells us that there are 104 people left… down from 140. Really? All that, and they only eliminated 36? Seems like light work.
Tomorrow is group audition night, which is always fun. Ryan promises that while we’ve “seen drama before” it was “never like this.” I hope he’s right, because this show was, to use a favorite phrase of Simon’s, entirely forgettable.
See you tomorrow night.
Topics: American Idol, TV | 1 Comment »
February 4th, 2009 at 5:59 am
it was in the middle of hollywood week the stalker killed herself outside paulas house