Hooray for Hollywood: ‘Idol’ starts cutting

Her misgivings proved to be justified. Zieger wasn't great, mangled her first vocal, and had to try again in a lower key in order to keep her voice from breaking.  She knew it still wasn’t good enough, and pleaded with the judges for another chance.

“Look at me — I’m sick as a dog, and I’m up here singing and trying my best… You have a team player here. You have a winner,” she begged. And whether the judges liked the speech or really liked her first audition, they bought the sob story, and Zieger lived to fight another day.

Amazingly, so did Garet Layne Johnson. The Wyoming teen cowboy seemed like the proverbial fish out of water in this competition. The trip to California marked his first time on a plane, and while there, he saw the ocean for the first time, and in general walked around more like a guy willing to buy fake Rolexes for five bucks than a serious “Idol” contender.

But when Johnson sang to musical accompaniment with background singers (first time for that too), he sounded much better than he had at his first audition. He also clearly made a lot of friends in his couple of days in Hollywood, as the rest of the contestants gave him a rousing ovation.

“Butcher me now,” he joked after he finished, but the judges didn’t. Improbably, the singing cowboy advanced to the next stage.

Others took advantage of the new stage with some strong performances. Chris Daughtry sang much better than he had in Denver and sailed through. Brett “Ace” Young had the voice, the face and the gestures down pat, and also had Paula melting in his hand. He got the easy ticket onward.

California, here we ... go
Of the rest of the familiar names from the auditions, many sailed through, but not everyone. Steven David Jr., who flirted his way to Paula’s good graces and a golden ticket out of Greensboro, didn’t make it to the second round in Hollywood. Neither did Ronnie Norman, who, at his audition, displayed an impressive ability to talk to women but showed less star quality onstage.  

Then there was David Hoover. Hoover was the auditioner who looked like he was on some form of mind-altering drugs, but somehow convinced Randy and Paula to send him to Hollywood despite Simon’s strenuous objections. He was no less crazy in California, leaping onto the podium to shock the judges.

He got sent home, but seemed to be the calmest of the 66 losing contestants. “I came, I saw, I flew across the stage … I’m out of here,” he said.

Craig Berman is a writer in Washington, D.C.

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