Last night began the real auditions for “American Idol” and while most of the decisions of who to keep and who to send home were good, there was definitely some drama. Here is a quick recap….

STAYING IN HOLLYWOOD
Brett Lowenstern, the 16 year old who got picked on most of his life, delivered again….so did Rachel Zevita, Thia Meghia (thought I didn’t think she was that great last night), and Casey Abrams, the Seth Rogan clone….James Durbin, the dude who auditioned in San Fran and is trying desperately to make a better life for his family…Paris Tassin, also trying to make a better life as she has a daughter with special needs. But she sang Celine Dion, to which I say, “BLAH!”….Loren Alaina, the 15 year old from Georgia who I have said has a shot to go very far…..Chris Medina, the dude with a fiancee that had the horrible car accident and is severely disabled, also made it to the next round…Jacee Badeux, the dorky 15 year old kid that Simon would no doubt have sent home in this round….Robbie Rosen, the Andy Pettitte look-alike, also moved on….so did Hollie Cavanaugh, but I really don’t see the talent in here. To me she is all technique, no substance. Mrs. Mike disagreed with me, and so did the judges….the exes of Chelsee and Rob made it through. Both could go far, but especially Rob…..the other couple, the happy happy one of Nick and Jacqueline–well, she made it through but Nick didn’t. Uh-oh. More on him in a bit….Scott McCreedy, the 16 year old kid with the deep country voice, also made it….so did Jackie Wilson and Jerome Bell, who both sang the same song they did in their initial audition. Risky but worked this time….Tiffany Rios, who wanted to show off her “assets” in the first audition, made it through, but not before dissing every other contestant by saying something like, “I am better than everyone else here.” J-Lo made note of that, but they still let her through, maybe to avoid the drama of eliminating her this week….then they showed a whole bunch of others who made it through in quick fire fashion, including Stefano from the San Francisco auditions who we really liked.

PUNCHING THEIR YELLOW TICKET HOME
Victoria Huggins, the 17 year old Miley Cyrus wannabe, wasn’t quite good enough this time, and I would like to thank the judges profusely for that. I don’t know about you guys, but I could not bear seeing her face on the screen anymore. If you’re not sure what I mean, go watch your DVR again…..Stormi, who I don’t remember much about other than the fact that she was terrible last night…..Steve, the accountant dude from Milwaukee who still looks like an accountant….Heidi Kazam, the belly dancer who made it to this round solely on her belly-dancing skills that wowed Randy and Steven, was not good enough this time….then they showed a medley of bad performances including many who could not remember lyrics…..then there was Nick. You may remember how happy he and Jacqueline were when they first auditioned, and how they were a happy couple to the point where they just annoyed everyone with their happiness (we all know people like this, don’t we?). Anyway, when the judges told Nick he was going home while Jacqueline was staying, he was so distraught, he begged the judges to let him sing one more song. Thankfully, Randy put his foot down, saying, “You get one shot, and you blew it.” Then he said, “But I want to be with my baby…” and started singing on his way out. Meanwhile, Jacqueline was flustered that she couldn’t enjoy her own moment, and embarrassed about Nick’s behavior at the same time. Nick even asked Ryan Seacrest sarcastically if he was happy about the fact that Nick was going home, as if Ryan was a rag journalist or something. Anyway, Mrs. Mike said she thinks those two will break up. We’ll see. But for now, they are not together in Hollywood.

So that’s it….next week there is the dreaded group competition. I’m not sure why they still do this, other than to just created good TV with all of the built-in drama. See you all next week!