How long until Hollywood week?

We've now gotten to that point we come to every year during American Idol. Around the fifth audition show, I--and I'm sure I'm not the only one--start to get restless ready to move on to Hollywood week. Of course, I don't get restless enough to keep watching. It's still enjoyable, and what else is there to do on a cold Tuesday night in January?

First of all, I never wrote anything about that New York freak show of an audition last week, and by now it would all be old. So I'll just say that I've coined the lovely Jory Steinberg the "Great Jewish Hope" of this year's competition and leave it at that.

Second, I hope people saw last weekend's edition of Best Week Ever on VH1, because they did the funniest takedown I've seen of the whole controversy involving "Bush baby" and his friend Jonathan (the two auditioners who were allegedly humiliated by Simon in the Seattle auditions). They played an interview of those two on the Today show, where the hosts just smiled and nodded as the two guys talked about how they were going to get into acting, and the comedians on Best Week Ever basically asked what was more humiliating: being told honestly that you don't have a future in show business, or being patronized when you say something ridiculous on national TV because someone doesn't want to hurt your feelings?

Anyway, just a few observations from tonight. First of all, Erica Skye, singing anyone's favorite song, especially Simon's, means they're probably going to be much more upset if you mess it up than they would be if it was a song that they didn't particularly care about. (I know if someone massacred "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" by The Smiths on American Idol, I'd probably devote a whole blog posting to it.). For some reason, Erica had it backwards and thought Simon would go easier on her if she sang his favorite song. Well, I guess she learned her lesson. And do you think Erica knows that the Righteous Brothers sang "Unchained Melody" before Leann Rimes?

Wow, we actually had a contestant which got a yes from Simon and a no from Paula. Unfortunately, I can't tell from my notes who that contestant was, and I already deleted the show from my DVR.

It's only been about 2 and a half hours since the show ended, but I'm pretty sure I'm far from the first person to call Jamie Lynn Ward "Kellie Pickler '07." Pickler and the "Blue-Eyed Bombshell" are both from small towns in North Carolina, both have decent voices but oversang a little in their auditions and both have sad backstories. Unfortunately, Jamie's backstory is more than just sad; it's kind of creepy with the dad shooting himself, etc. I'm not sure what to make of her.

Then there's Chris Sligh, who I really liked. He's funny, but funny within the context of the show (unlike, say, a John Peter Lewis, who was funny but making fun of the show. Does that make sense?) And he can sing. Let's hope he sticks around.

Finally, other than Chris Sligh, the funniest moment of the night was Simon choosing the wrong door to go back in the audition room and that nutty final contestant of the night making fun of him for it. Considering all the times we've had to sit through that "wrong door" bit, it was a nice turnaround.

Oh, and I'm in a much better mood after this audition episode than usual because they didn't waste our time with one of those medleys of bad singers messing up some random song. Now if only they'd show a few more of the good auditions, I'd be the happiest American Idol viewer ever.