American Idol Live Blogging – January 29, 2008

I’ll be live blogging, recapping and putting up video from tonight’s American Idol auditions.  Hope to see you guys around here later!

I saw tonight’s auditions from Omaha but my TV tuner failed.  Hoping to have goodies up for you soon.  In the meantime, here’s a recap.

Paula Abdul was notably absent from the first part of Omaha’s auditions.  The first contestant was Chris Bernheisel (below) who gave presents to Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell (and left a stuffed cat for Paula).  He also displayed some pics of himself with Idol winner, Kelly Clarkson.  He sang “Since U Been Gone” and it was pretty bad but he had a great personality and Simon and Randy liked him.  He then did a “red carpet audition” and the lucky guy ended up having Simon promise him a spot covering the Idol finale for his local Fox network affiliate.  So awesome!!!

More after the jump!

Jason Rich  sang “When You Say Nothing At All” and it was rough.  You could tell he had a good voice but his nerves ate him alive!  He restarted the song several times but, finally, did enough to get voted through to the next round.  Simon warned him to not expect to ever get a shot like that again. 

Paula Abdul arrived and then a montage of “forgotten lyrics” auditions was shown.

Rachael Wicker was up next and was arm wrestling anyone who would agree to it.  Apparently, she’s won some competitions.  I thought she kind of looked like one of the Dixie Chicks (face-wise, you know?).  Anyway, she sang (I’ll put the name of the song here soon) and it was good enough to get a golden ticket.

Sarah Whitaker definitely brought uniqueness to tonight’s competition!  She even slightly beat up Ryan Seacrest in the holding area.  The judges passed on putting Sarah through to Hollywood but when it was Paula’s turn to give her verdict, Simon put on a woman’s voice and said “yes” for her.  It was pretty funny.

Ryan Seacrest came in after Sarah was rejected and asked why she had been turned down.  Insulted by having their judging questioned, Simon asked Ryan if he wanted to judge some contestants and Ryan accepted.  Paula took his place out in the holding area.  It was pretty funny, actually.  This is when Samantha Sidley came in to audition.  She sang “Don’t Know Why” and Ryan said he didn’t like her body movements but that he would vote her through to the next round.  After some hijinks, Paula and Ryan switched back to their normal roles and Samantha, ultimately, received four “yes” votes (one from each judge and Ryan).

Elizabeth Erkert sang “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,” Denise Jackson sang ” ” and Michael Sanfilippo sang ” ” and they were all voted through to the next round.

Going to the commercial break, one golden ticket holder accidentally said that she was going to “America’s Next Top Model.”  I really cracked up – it was hilarious!

Angelica Puente left home at just 17 because she could not get along with her strict father.  Finally, she got his blessing to try out for Idol and she sang “Power of Love.”  She did a reasonably good job but needs to work a bit on originality and control.  She was put through to the next round!

David Cook watched Chris Daughtry‘s audition to get inspiration and it seemed to pay off.  He sang “Living on a Prayer” and I thought it was pretty good.  Randy told him to work on his showmanship but he was put through to the next round.

Johnny Escamilla thinks he might be one of the weirdest people and, while I don’t think I can agree with that, I will say that the audition itself was strange.  He sang “Shout” and it was pretty bad.  No ticket for Johnny…

There was a montage of people singing “Stuck in the Middle” and they were all pretty bad.

Leo Marlowe was the last audition of the day and he sang “A Song For You.”  Simon really, really liked him (all of them did, actually) and he was put through to the next round.

In all 19 Golden Tickets were handed out.  Tomorrow’s auditions will be in Miami!

images courtesy of FOX