St. Louis: A Star Named Walter

Tonight’s trip to St. Louis opened with a reminder that Carrie Underwood auditioned there eight years ago.

Wait a minute. Eight years?! Holy crap…

Tonight another star was born. But he didn’t sing a note. His name was Walter and he just drove a cab, but I’m pretty sure he won the hearts of a lot of Americans tonight with insightful “Idol” commentary like this:

“God bless ’em. I hope they all have great success…Ain’t gonna happen.”

No, Walter. God bless you…

Here are my thoughts on tonight’s auditioners…

Johnny Keyser (“Change Is Gonna Come”) is the good-looking guy I promised you in my post before the season started. If he can survive Hollywood, I think he could go far…

JLo continued her veiled comments about her marital situation when she told Rachelle Lamb (“Find Somebody New”) that we do things for love sometimes. Later she said she didn’t need to hear Adele’s “One and Only” right now. Does anyone else really want to know what happened there?...

And what was the thing that JLo and Steven were arguing about whether the show would use or not in the tease before the commercial break. We never saw it, so I guess they didn’t use it…

#Randyism Alert: [After Steven asks a contestant about music being his wife] Your wife’s going to be wanting a divorce if you keep singing like that.”

I fear that Reis Kloeckner (“Lean On Me”) will totally get chewed up and spit out in Hollywood…

I really liked the sound of Ethan Jones’ (“I’ll Be”) voice. And I’d love to see his dad and Steven actually be able to meet. But somebody couldn’t have gotten him a Band-Aid? The guy was bleeding on national TV!...

Only Madonna would integrate her new music video with her Super Bowl performance. That’s why she’s Madonna. Loved the video, but when did she go all Gwen Stefani with her music?...

And yes, I’m aware that wasn’t even enough of the video to call a preview…

Why did they let the hotel staff come in to hear Mark Ingram (“Overjoyed”) when they knew he wasn’t good? That was cruel. And then they made fun of him? That was just wrong…

Lauren Gray (“One and Only”) is definitely one to watch for in Hollywood. I think she can handle it…

In total, 46 received golden tickets…

Next week, it’s my favorite part of the season—HOLLYWOOD WEEK! WOO-HOO!!! And as you saw from the previews, it is going to be wild this year.

Plus, if you were watching the previews closely, you caught a glimpse of Point Pleasant’s own Chase Lykins performing. So maybe we’ll actually get to see him this year.

Over the weekend, I’ll post the other contestants I’ll be looking for next week. And if you haven’t seen it, be sure to scroll down and read the comments from Randy Jackson about next week’s shows…