While they make it seem like the 10,000 all get to the final panel that day they show up it really doesn't work that way.

The cull the 10,000 down to maybe a hundred (each person usually gets several questions and a couple of songs that get edited down to the TV audition so when you look at 6 hours a day and 10 minutes each that isn't that many people) on the cattle call days and then those with the call back (told to wear the same clothes) go to a hotel for the final judging. So that waited outside in the rain all day before they saw Simon et al. is a fiction.

For me that makes it worse. It isn't that the bad ones get seen by the for TV panel because they were just the next number in the line. I think that is why you see some of the "but I'm great" meltdowns. I don't think they tell the really lousy ones they are being selected because they are lousy and will be made fun of at the call backs. Now there are some that are that deluded, but I do think we see some who believed the call back was a real shot at making it to Hollywood. Some people will go just to get the shot at being a fool on TV, but some of the worst of the worst are, IMO, lead to believe by the producers they are good enough to make the show because if they knew the truth they wouldn't come to the call back a couple of weeks later.

Well, there's only 86,400 seconds in a 24-hour day, so that'd be 8.64 seconds per contestant around the clock! Yeah, I figured out pretty quickly only a relative few (say, about 1%) of all those people actually make it in the door.

>Mary had a really hard time
>keeping a straight face with
>the silly contestants. Kudos
>to Kara for bailing her
>out when "death guy" started
>singing and MJB just couldn't
>stop laughing.

I don't know. I hate to be the "sensitive one," but I was offended by Mary's reaction to a few contestants. Granted, the "death guy" certainly did not escape death the way one may normally think of it, but he seemed serious about his feelings about his luck and she was laughing well before he sang. To me, it seemed like a lack in his mental understanding, and it made me pretty sad when she just laughed, and laughed, and laughed... If it was his singing that she was laughing at, okay, it is a singing competition; but to laugh at his personality and what he holds to be true (mentally), is really rude. I just really felt bad for this kid even though he did not seem crushed or deeply bothered by the dismissal he earned. I also know that the producers choose who will make it to the judge's panel in these early days, but there is some level of maturity and tact that is necessary, and I don't feel like Mary had it. I know this may come back and bite me but I am a "feeler," and I am laying them out for you .

Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica
I've been 'patched

You're not alone.
My feelings exactly.

Into the magna tribe by phyl

Glad you feel me, Pro .

Courtesy of Capn's 2010 siggie spree

quote
I remember, it was Victoria Beckham and the reason that I remember her is because she had a nice "energy." I liked the way she dressed and the way she looked...
unquote

JessicaRN -

Not for nothing, but you liked the way she looked? Is this because you're an RN and have the IV drip going for her just in case she keels over?

Posh Spice has turned into Scary Anorexic Spice. What is going on with her? I say somebody give her a saltine. Is she allowed a saltine? It is carbs, but one a week can't hurt, can it?

I was so focused on how horrible she looked that I barely heard the contestants. I mean did she want to have her face go all haggard from lack of nutrition? Then wearing the Martha Washington lace thing in her hair only it was black and not white ... is she trying to tell us something? Maybe it was support so she could keep her head propped up since her neck is about to snap in two

At least give her a drop or two of that hummingbird solution that they put in feeders. It's liquid so maybe she'll ingest it.

Sadly I missed Mary J so I can't comment, but just love her!

LAST EDITED ON 01-17-10 AT 12:20 PM (EST)

That's pretty funny and all true, Dr. I found myself distracted by her "bone structure" and said to my husband that it must not have been her day to have her celery stick.

I was really quoting the things she kept saying to the contestants about their "energy". Maybe she noticed it because she doesn't have any.

I'm an RN also, but I don't think it takes a degree to figure out that V. B is starving herself to death! If THAT is fashion, God help us!

She seems to be a really sweet lady, with so much going for her, but God forbid she weigh over 80 pounds?? Her husband's soccer ball has to weigh more than she...

I hope the little girls in the world do NOT think she is the icon for how we should look. I see Karen Carpenter, the sequel..

Totally agree with what you've both said. I'm not trying to be unkind here. I agree that she seems very nice, maybe too nice!

She needs to get rid of the handlers and stick her fingers in her ears when people tell her she needs to starve to look good. She was always a beautiful girl. And she was thin! Now ... I don't know what word to use to describe her, but it's not thin. She's skeletal. And I'm all for husbands keeping their traps shut about their wife's weight, but her husband really should be telling her that she's dangerously thin and helping her get out of this mindset.

And it is so detrimental for young girls to see her and think that this is fashion! I think that's why the modeling industry is policing itself and stick thin girls that are obviously in trouble are not given work. Well, in some countries anyway!

It's uncomfortable for me to see someone doing that to themselves. I think it's because I have seen it in the dance world. And they're almost all so nice and polite. It must be the good girl disease.

Let's hope she comes to her senses and gets a new group of people around her.

Avril: a little too colorless, kept herself in the weeds most of the time. May have been stressed out/scared by the inevitable Parade Of Delusion. (But it was a truly great hoodie.)

Katy: went out of her way to be honest/keep-it-real to the point of offense: tried to out-Simon the panel a few times. Was as sick of the sob stories as we are. Walked the border and fell off to either side more than once. There's a chance she wasn't honestly judging so much as undercutting Kara, which is hard to completely blame her for -- but if that meant someone's career got derailed, issue. (It's hard for a guest judge to knock someone out in this format, though: Simon's Final Word has the typical override.) Could come back, but might need to be the only female behind the desk.

Katy is the only guest judge who I thought could actually have a full time seat on the panel. I think they ought to replace Simon with her next season.

http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/katy-perry-id-quit-singing-be-permanent-american-idol-judge-10311.php

Neil Patrick Harris: Vocal and strong-willed. Felt like a fresh voice on the panel. Was going to make his presence felt despite his show-mandated lack of ability to really affect the process. Should have punched someone in the face for all those Doogie jokes at his attempted expense and possibly did.

Joe Jonas: A paint-with-water book.

i thought it was funny when after a few minutes of bickering about a contestant, NPH spoke up and said, "Let's vote". LOL
I expected to hear Simon say "That's my line!"

Elvis in In The House - Capt'n 2010