After Wednesday night’s boring two hours of “American Idol,” I was rejuvenated with Thursday’s emotional and energetic Nashville auditions. It was an hour shorter but had way more heart like the first two episodes (which I really enjoyed).

The quest to find the next great 15-year-old continued with a massive overly-pimped contestant (Lauren Alaina) in grand finale style. So my eyes did a lot of rolling then. But more on that below in my rundown.

THE GOOD

*The exes. At first, when I saw the gimmicky story of exes Chelsee Oaks and Rob Bolin I was like “Come on! Why are these two auditioning together? Ridiculous.” But then their story was told and they sang together and I was amazed. I was really impressed with both of them. And Judge Steven Tyler’s most wise thought of the night was directed to them. “The deepest passion comes from friction,” he said. Very well said, Steven. I liked these two a lot.

*Adrienne Beasley. Whatever Steven felt when she auditioned, I felt it, too. And I can’t explain it either. There’s definitely 100 percent talent there but there’s some sort of deep sadness I was picking up on. She definitely left me intrigued.

*Jackie Wilson. Her audition was fantastic and one of my favorites, but what really impressed me was her coming out of the audition and making out with the guy I thought was her dad. When I found out he was her boyfriend I laughed for at least five minutes. Hilarious.

*The Judges singing along to “Papa Was a Rolling Stone.” It normally annoys me when the judges sing along. But that’s a great song and they all joined in and it was awesome.

*Lauren Alaina. Great voice. Good girl. But her sob story and the over pimping lands her also on the bad list.

THE BAD

*Lauren Alaina. Sure she’s a great singer. But she’s 15. And as I’ve said 100 times now, they’re clearly making sure our only option for 2011’s American Idol is a 15-year-old. It’s getting kind of annoying, honestly.

*Steven Tyler owning Randy Jackson. It’s great that Steven is worried about hurting feelings, but I think Randy’s a big enough boy to decide what to say to the horrible contestants. Besides, the show needs someone to be as honest as Simon Cowell was.

*Miss Teen USA 2009 Stormi Henley. Really? They let her through? I was with Jennifer Lopez on this one. If she’s not done reaching for the stars, she’s still eligible for Miss USA. Maybe she should stick to pageants.

All in all, it was a great episode and an decent “Idol” week. I’m 100 percent used to the new judges and I think Steven and JLo were great choices. What did you think?

See some of the standout auditions after the jump


Lauren Alaina

Jackie Wilson

Tagged: , , , , , ,