American Idol, Season 9, Atlanta

Strap yourselves in America, for another fun filled, talent filled, American Idol season. After visiting Boston on Tuesday night, with guest judge Victoria Beckham, Idol traveled to Atlanta, with thousands of hopefuls waiting their turn to be heard. Tonight's guest judge was the one and only Mary J. Blidge, who knows a thing or two about singing.

Two things have already become apparent on the new season of Idol. First, America is not tired of the show, based upon the estimated 30 million viewers from it's Boston debut. The second thing is that I already do not miss Paula Abdul. Despite what the pundits think, we watch American Idol for the singing, not to see celebrities. We identify with the bad singers, and pick our favorites with the good ones. Atlanta certainly had plenty of both.

The first to be awarded one of 29 Golden Tickets was a young lady, Keia Johnson, who told the judges that she competed in a Miss America Pageant, and won Miss Congeniality. After taking some ribbing form Simon, she went on to sing very well, and was on her way to Hollywood.

As we all know by now, we do not get to see all of the singers to get Golden Tickets. But we do get our fill of touching stories, including a church singer, Jermaine Selllers, who spends most of his time caring for his sick mother. He'll have to get a proxy for his trip to Hollywood. Vanessa Wolfe, who comes form a very small town, and does bridge jumping by day, (a producer's delight?), also wowed the 4 judges with her talent. After being told she was moving on to Hollywood, she told Ryan, in her words, that she has never rode on an "Air-o-plane." What's not to love about a diamond in the ruff?

Another Golden Ticket winner, Holly, showed up for her audition dressed as a guitar, yes, a guitar. Although her outfit almost cost her a chance at Hollywood, her voice won out. Another flamboyant contestant, calling himself, "Ski-bo-ski," also made it past his appearance and arrogance, much to the chagrin of Simon, to move on.

Along came two young girls, Lauren and Carmen, who proclaimed they were BFF'S and did everything together. We all knew where this was going. Lauren moved on, and her BFF Lauren did not, although it was very hard to tell that from their reactions. Mary J. Blige's favorite of the night, Mallorie Haley, also got the good news about Hollywood.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the night came late. After Simon excused himself from the auditions due to a migraine, the 3 judges were treated to a singing cop, Bryan Walker. After the producers showed him handing out traffic tickets, he floored the judges with his voice, and will need to take some vacation time from the force to travel to Hollywood.

All in all, it was another fun night for Idol. I cannot help to think that the producers may be making a big mistake bringing in Ellen D; because the guest judges have fit right in so far, and offered great advice to our future star hopefuls. We'll have to wait and see what Ellen brings. Stay tuned.