Hollywood Week Begins Tonight!

It’s already Hollywood Week (to be followed next week by the Tuesday show weeding us down to the Top 50, and the Wednesday show weeding us down to the Top 24). It’s also the Idol debut of Ellen, as she was on hand to judge starting with Hollywood week. I’ve still not sold on Ellen, but she will probably be better than the mixed bag of judges we have had so far. And Neil Patrick Harris played it for laughs at times, serious at other times and it worked (although his taste as to who was good or not was bizarre). So maybe Ellen will work…

(BTW…I love how Howard Stern got people talking about him replacing Simon – why would the media portray that as even possible?)

Auditions were a mixed bag for me this year, I really felt like we got shown more of individual contestants, but less contestants. I will not be surprised if half of the Top 24 is made up of people I either don’t remember well, or we didn’t see. We also didn’t have a lot of home run auditions, but a lot of “good but not great” auditions, which leads me to think that Idol based who they showed on their Hollywood week performance. (Basically I’d expect a lot of so-so auditions to be very good contestants.) A couple of contestants already have a nice buzz (on the internet), Ashley Rodriquez, Katelyn Epperly, Todrick Hall, Didi Benami, among others.

I’ll send the pool rules, etc. at the beginning of the Top 24. Feel free to invite others into the pool, we have a bunch of new people entering this year. It should be a good turnout.

THE TOP 24
http://www.joesplaceblog.com/american-idol-9-contestant-listing/
Clearly don't click on this if you don't want spoilers...