American Idol Auditions Continued...

Well, I guess it's about time I posted about what happened at the auditions last week.

We were told to show up at 5am on Tuesday. We got there just before that and literally stood in line without moving until about 7:30am. Then they put us on the stairs of the Energy Solutions Arena and waited there for a bit. Then we spent about 45 minutes filming the opening of the Salt Lake Show. A lot of screaming, waving people. Then they finally let us go inside and find our seats. Where we did some more filming and screaming. They finally started to set up the audition tables, explained the process and actually got us started. This was after 9am. Just after we barely got started, they stopped everything and Ryan Seacrest showed up and we did some more filming. We did all the "see you after the break" kind of shots. We were so done with clapping and waving at the camera. Then he left and we resumed auditions.

They had to have a seat ticket, arm band, and release papers to get on the floor. Then they lined them up in rows of 4. Each row of 4 stood in line in front of the judges. Each stepped forward and got their 10 seconds of singing then stepped back. The judges deliberated and then all 4 step forward and you are either dismissed or given a golden ticket to move onto the next round.

Jon noticed that one of the judges were eyeing him a couple of rows before he got to the front. Right before it was his turn to sing, she called a 3rd judfge over. They had him sing his 10 seconds, another judge (making 4) came over to listen. Then asked him to sing another song, they wanted to hear him project. They asked him to step back. They had one guy step back from the line before Jon, step forward again. They asked him what he was doing there, he said he wanted to sing, so they sent him through. Jon said he was horrible, he's sure they sent him through to make fun of him. (I guess we'll see, won't we?) They had the rest of the line sing, including Shawn. (I couldn't hear them, but Shawn felt he did well, too. The judge was bobbing her head while he was singing) Then they did their deliberations and dismissed all 4. We were in shock! We thought for sure they were going to send Jon through because they didn't usually ask them to sing more. Needless to say he was confused and very disappointed. He was wondering if he wasn't as good as the other guy was bad. A lot of people that have heard Jon sing were surprised to hear he didn't make it. We have to remember that it's really not a singing competition, but a show for entertainment. We figured probably 2/3 of the people that got tickets that day were not because they were good singers, but because they were bad singers and they plan to make fun of them on TV. It's still disappointing for these singers who are really good. We knew that the first auditions were not with Randy, Paula and Simon, but we thought it would be later that week. We found out that it would be sometime in September. Those that got tickets have to come back to Salt Lake a second time.

It was a good learning experience. When we were finally finished it was about 1pm. We were the lucky ones, we were in the top half of people waiting to audition. It really paid off to go early to register.

Life goes on, back to the daily grind!!