Tonight American Idol arrived in the Heartland in Omaha, Nebraska. Paula’s flight was delayed, which meant that the first several contestants had to face Randy and Simon alone. In spite of this (or maybe because of it) Simon seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood.

Chris Bernheisel was the first contestant to witness Simon’s generous mood. From the moment we saw Chris, I knew that Idol was about to mess up my theory about the first contestant making it through. I was correct, but what I didn’t expect was that Simon would encourage Chris to pursue a correspondent position to cover the finale for the local Omaha affiliate. He even seemed to promise that Idol would put in a good word if the affiliate didn’t immediately agree. How serious was he, and will Chris get a gig covering Idol? I simply don’t know (I’ll look into it tomorrow and let you know what I can find), but I do know that was the happiest contestant ever who didn’t make it through to Hollywood.

Jason Rich also benefitted from Simon’s good mood. He had to start over several times singing “When You Say Nothing At All”. Simon was actually quite patient, encouraging him to take his time and to think of the words. I’m sure the fact that he sounded good and Simon actually thought he might want to send him to Hollywood was part of the reason. When Jason finally got his nerves under control and finished singing his audition piece, he got two thumbs up from Randy and Simon, but Simon told him this was his one second chance. Still, at least for now, he’s still a contestant.

Paula arrived before we saw the third contestant, Rachael Wicker. Rachael is an arm wrestler (at least an amateur one– are there professional arm wrestlers?). She also is a singer who likes the country yodel sound. My Mom is visiting, and she said Rachael sounded like Dolly Parton. I think she’s right. No one was overly thrilled with Rachael, but they were thrilled enough to send her through to Hollywood.

After a professional wrestler’s audition, Ryan asked why they hadn’t put her through, and that’s when things got a bit punchy. Ryan ended up trading places with Paula, who went out to make small talk with the contestants. If the producers had really wanted to make this entertaining, they would have sent Simon out to make nice and speak pleasantries– THAT would have been funny! So, into this weird adventure walks Samantha Sidley, who looked thoroughly confused to see Ryan sitting in Paula’s place. It didn’t stop her from singing a very nice version of “Don’t Know Why”, but I do think it may have impeded her performance somewhat– not enough to keep her out of Hollywood, though.

After Samantha, we had a quick overview of three performers who made it through: Elizabeth Erkert, Denise Jackson ad Michael Sanfilippo. I got the distinct impression that these three were edited in later to either fill time or perhaps in response to criticism about the extremely small number of people we’ve seen who have successfully made it through to Hollywood.

Angelica Puente was the touching story of the evening. At 17, she has moved out of the house because of arguments with her Dad. In spite of this, he paid for her to come to the audition, and she really wanted to make him proud. She sang with a big voice and was pretty good, even though she did come across as a bit imitative. In spite of some reservations about her lack of originality, the judges sent her through to Hollywood.

We did have a rocker this evening: David Cook. He watched Chris Daughtry’s audition to get some pointers on making it through. He really needn’t have worried. His performance of “Living on a Prayer” was much better than anything I ever heard Chris Daughtry sing. I don’t know that the judges would agree with that statement, but they did agree he deserved to continue on in the competition.

The final singer we saw tonight was Leo Marlowe. Leo is from a tiny town in Iowa. He was really nice and funny. When asked whether he was popular, he said his mother always said she’d raised a homecoming queen– and that it was too bad it wasn’t one of her daughters. He could be fun to keep around. We’ll at least have one more chance to see him, since the judges unanimously voted him through after he sang “Song For You”. Not only was he entertaining, he could sing, as well.

In all, 19 singers made it through from the Omaha auditions. I’m curious to see how many will make it through tomorrow in Miami.

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