Do you want to be in the same house Sanjaya lived in Federal Way, Wash.? He and his family are moving to Hollywood.

Here’s more info

Carrie Underwood was nominated for three CMAs awards for female vocalist of the year and single of the year and music video of the year for “Before He Cheats.” Miranda Lambert from “Nashville Star” is also nominated for female vocalist of the year.

Kellie Pickler is up for the Horizon Award, which is for a new artist.

Kelly Clarkson was nominated for Musical Event of the Year for her duet with Reba McEntire with “Because of You.”

Atlanta’s Sugarland announced the nominations Thursday with Sara Evans.

A judge rescheduled ex-American Idol finalist Jessica Sierra’s trial on battery and drug charges after her lawyer said the singer is in a California rehabilitation facility, according to Associated Press.

And how about this for random? “Idol” judge Randy Jackson produced local boy Travis Tritt’s latest CD, which debuted this week at No. 28 and sold 23,000 copies on an indie label. Jackson brought out Tritt’s soulful side.

Fan Web sites for Bo Bice say his management has announced a pushed-back release date of October 23 for his sophomore CD, the same day as Carrie Underwood’s! I can’t find any direct info about it and I’m not sure what record label is putting it out or if this is even true. It would be an amusing re-match, if true. Here are references on Bonafide Bice and Bo Bice Underground..

I spoke with the flaks handling “Idols Live” and will do the same thing I did last year: go to Gwinnett Arena at 3 p.m. Sept. 12 for the media meet and greet with four or so of the “Idol” finalists, then blog from the actual concert. (Last year, we got Lisa, Bucky, Taylor and Paris.) I won’t know which four, but I’ll take pictures. I am also going to talk to Chris Sligh on Tuesday, Sept. 4. If you have any questions you want me to ask any of the contestants, email them to me at rho@ajc.com. I can’t guarantee who will show up but I will ask a question to the pertinent person.

And here are the results from Idol Chatter’s season four revisionist idol vote.. Bo fans came in and helped edge out Carrie for the top slot. Constantine fans also pushed him up from 6th place to 3rd. My favorite Nadia Turner moved up to 4th from 8th, which I’m very happy about. Vonzell lost some steam, falling from her actual finish of 3rd to 5th. Anthony Fedorov also slipped, from 4th to 6th. Jessica Sierra surprisingly did well. landing 7th, up from her actual 10th place finish. Anwar slipped from 7th to 8th. Nikko landed in 9th, which is where he finished in 2005, too. I gave him a 6th place slot in my personal ballot. Surprisingly, Lindsey Cardinale, who I thought was a yawner, moved up to 10th from 12th. Not surprisingly, Scott Savol dropped from 5th to 11th with virtually no support. And Mikalah Gordon landed in last, compared to 11th in the real competition.

Season five voting is in full force. Vote away here. It should be an interesting vote. Will Daughtry fans help him win it all this time. Or will the Soul Patrol keep Taylor on top? I bet Mandisa will do better. It’ll be interesting to see if Paris remains in the top 5. I doubt it.

Fox knows about synergy. It’s bringing back two favorite “Idol” alums and placing them on charity versions of “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” set to air this November on Thursdays at 8.

Alpharetta’s Jeff Foxworthy will quiz Clay Aiken and Kellie Pickler on their knowledge of basic geography, history, science, math and English. This should be a hoot. Billy Bush, Regis Philbin and Tony Hawk are others who will take part.

The name might have already fuzzed out in your brain, but Jared Cotter made the final 24 this year. Jared has gotten a hosting gig on the Fuse’s live daily entertainment show “The Sauce.”

He’s the R&B dude with the thick eyebrows and dedicated Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” to his parents, which befuddled many viewers, including me. He also did that funny hand thing in front of his face that Ryan Seacrest mocked. From my memory, he wasn’t a bad singer but I think that performance hurt him. In the end, it was replayed on places like “The Soup.”

Oh, and the Philadelphia “Idol” auditions Monday drew a whopping 17,000 registrants, far greater than Atlanta. It was the largest audition ever for “Idol,” according to publicists. It was a combination of geography (the only Northeast stop) and the fact it was the final audition of the year.

The “Idols Live” tour slogs on. I need to check with Pollstar to see how the show is doing attendance wise. It hit my home market of Long Island over the weekend and that means we get to hear how those New York critics took it.

The New York Times could have been a lot meaner but did opt for that over-arching cliche: “a show that amounted to high-energy karaoke.”

Glenn Gamboa in Newsday notes that this year it’s more about “musicianship” because the “Idols” play more instruments. He was actually very kind, though he said Blake had trouble hitting his high notes. It sounds like they’ve added and changed some songs from earlier in the tour. Gina Glocksen is singing a current Pink song “Who Knew” and Chris Sligh is now trying out Fall Out Boy’s “Thanks fr th Mmrs.”

On Sunday night at the Teen Choice Awards on Fox, Sanjaya won “choice” reality show entertainer and of course, “Idol” won best reality show.

And the “Next Great American Band” (on Fox debuting Oct. 19) will feature Sheila E. (“The Glamorous Life”) and the Goo Goo Dolls’ Johnny Rzeznik as judges. Australian Idol’s Ian “Dicko” Dickson will be the third judge, possibly filling in the Simon role. And New Zealand Idol host Dominic Bowden is hosting. More details in this USA Today story.

Down in Philly, the final auditions are up and running. And it looks like the biggest, probably because it’s really the only audition for the entire Northeast. The Inqirurer said a whopping 13,000 people registered in the first eight hours.

It’s about time but 19 Recordings/Arista Records has finally signed season six runner up Blake Lewis to a record contract.

The album is slated for late 2007 but no title has been announced. Blake has been already working on the CD.

Here are more details.

Have a good weekend!

This is Jordin Sparks’ now.

Her single “Tattoo” is coming out on AOL’s Popeater music blog today. Here’s the link

“Right after I heard the first chorus, I was like, ‘I wanna sing that song. I have to have it. I wanna sing it,’” she told the Associated Press..

I just listened to “Tattoo” and I have to say, it’s catchy and Jordin pulls it off with aplomb. I hope top 40 radio at least gives it a chance.

Her album is set to come out November 20 with a mix of pop-rock and ballads. Oh, and a wee bit of country, too. Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, anybody?

Critics are moaning about Ryan Seacrest hosting the Emmys since he’s not really a comedian..

Check out Elliott Yamin on this Friday’s “Bold and the Beatiful” on CBS at 1:30 p.m. Elliott will perform “Wait For You” while Constantine sings “Fading Into You.”

Constantine has been on the show the past couple of months playing a record executive named Constantine.

If you wanted an extended take on Ryan’s Emmy gig, the Washington Post obliges..

Fantasia is exhausted but rockin’ Broadway.. Oprah apparently convinced her to extend her stay through January despite the grueling schedule and emotional toll it takes to play Miss Celie in “The Color Purple.”

Oh, and I’m watching “America’s Got Talent” and those annoying one-trick ponies from last year called the “Quick Change Artists” (the woman’s dresses seem to change in a heartbeat multiple times) came back. But the woman slipped and fell at the beginning and it sure didn’t look like part of the act! Piers looks annoyed because yes, it’s the same act again! Then again, he might just be in massive pain over that Segway accident he got in when he broke a few ribs.

I really enjoyed the final four picks this year: the adorable 14 year old Julienne Irwin, the dignified beat-boxer/piano player Butterscotch, the engaging singer Cas Haley and my pick to win, the incredible singing ventroliquist Terry Fater. And he did. Watch him here.

The only unfortunate part about Fater winning is he will inspire a raft of really bad ventriloquists.

Mandisa came to the Georgia World Congress Center last month for the Christian retail trade show and told me she would be back soon to Atlanta to tour. Well, she didn’t wait long. She’ll be at the Love Transforms Concert at the 700-seat North Star Church at 3413 Blue Spring Rd., Kennesaw.

Tickets are $25 a piece and you can buy them here.. Or you can call the church from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 770-420-9808. You can also buy tickets at the door. Doors open at 6; concert starts at 7:30.

Love Transforms is sponsored by LifeWay and the Women’s League ministries of Cobb Vineyard, NorthStar Church, and Piedmont Church.

Her CD has sold more than 25,000 copies in its first two weeks and her single “Only the World” hit the top 10 on the Christian adult contemporary charts.

It’s way early but Simon Cowell has told the Daily Mirror in the U.K. that he plans to quit “American Idol” when his contract is up in 2010. At this early point, this is probably just posturing but you never know.

He said he plans to move 100% behind the camera and concentrate on his booming music and TV companies.

“I have three more seasons under contract with American Idol and that will be it. And it will probably come at the same time in the UK. I am contracted for another two or three seasons in Britain and I think by that point the public will be sick to death of me anyway and it will be time to go.”

If this blog is still around in 2010, too, well, I too will move on and focus on my booming music and TV companies, too. Ahh.. just kidding.

Ryan Seacrest, just a week after I talked to him, not only has gotten that Super Bowl gig but today, Fox announced that he is also hosting the Sept. 16 Emmy Awards.

The tryouts in Charleston, S.C. have passed, with Miami the next target. Pretty boring coverage from the State in Columbia, S.C..

And please go to USA Today’s Idol Chatter and vote for season four revisionist Idol. Pick your top 6 from that season. I gave Nikko and Nadia higher rankings than they got on the show.I suspect Scott Savol will fall off big time. Carrie will probably win again but how the rankings play out in retrospect should be interesting. A glance at the votes so far shows broad support for a wide array of the top 12. I think my favorite Nadia, who made poor song choices and was ousted relatively early, will do much better this time around.

Now let’s look at the radio airplay charts to make this a wonderful Monday morning:

Elliott Yamin’s “Wait For You” remains at No. 4 on the Mediabase 24/7 top 40 charts, a bonafide hit for a truly good song. He was supposed to open his tour in Atlanta back in May but “Idol’ called him in for a TV appearance. He has yet to reschedule. “We are still in a holding pattern,” said Josh Anthony, the promoter for Center Stage and the Loft in Midtown. “We’re still not sure if he’ll play with us or do a radio show for Christmas.” It seems very likely then that Elliott might opt to play either Star 94 or Q100’s Christmas concerts.

Daughtry’s third hit “Over You” is leaping up the top 40 charts, now at 25.

Fantasia’s “When I See U” has fallen to No. 12.

On Mediabase 24/7, Kelly & Reba’s “Because of You” is up to No. 3, ahead of Bucky’s “A Different World,” which appears to have peaked at about No. 5. Carrie Underwood’s “So Small,” her new single,” is up to 15. Kellie Pickler’s “I Wonder” peaked in the mid-teens and is now down to 24.

On Christian A/C, Mandisa appears to have peaked at No. 9 with “Only the World” and Daughtry is stuck at 12 with “Home.” “Home” remains No. 1 on the mainstream soft rock charts, with Carrie’s “Before He Cheats” at No. 6, Kimberley Locke’s “Change” at No. 11, Elliott Yamin’s “Wait For You” at No. 15 and Taylor Hicks’ “Heaven Knows” at No. 19 (but that is only 175 spins nationwide.) On the more active “Hot AC” charts, “Home” is at No. 2 with Elliott Yamin at No. 19.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Here are some random bits:

It took seemingly forever for this to happen but 19Recordings/Jive Records has finally signed Jordin Sparks to a record contract. Here’s the press release. Last year at this point, at least four people (Taylor, Kat, Chris, Kellie) had contracts from season five. Jordin is the first from this season with an announced deal though Billboard.com says Blake Lewis is signed to BMG, too. The final 12 will be freed from 19 Entertainment obligations at the end of the month, Brandon Rogers told me Tuesday.

Last night, during “So You Think You Can Dance,” was an extended promo for “Search For the Next Great American Band,” another “Idol” spinoff, which is to air in late October/November/December. Are any of you interested/excited/indifferent to this? It looks intriguing to me as a nice fill-in before regular “Idol” shows up.

And USA Today’s Idol Chatter compiled more than 400 votes for “revisionist Idol” season three. Fascinating results. Fantasia won again, which is well deserved. Diana, with a contingent of fans coming in late to save her, kept her at second. LaToya London had impressive support and moved up to fourth while Jennifer Hudson jumped from seventh to fourth, not surprising given her post-Idol career. George Huff stayed in the same place: fifth. Amy Adams, who I really liked and came in 10th, jumped to sixth in revisionist Idol, surprising blogger Ken Barnes, who barely remembered her. Camile Velasco surprisingly landed in seventh, up from her real finish of 9th. I thought she was downright awful, far worse than Jasmine Trias, who finished a very weak eighth (compared to third in real life.). Jon Peter Lewis landed in ninth, slightly worse than his actual eighth place finish. Leah LaBelle, another forgettable presence, jumped to 10th from 12th. Matt Rogers finished 11th, same as the real result. Poor John Stevens, sixth in real life, fell to 12th here.

Constantine’s first CD sold a modest 9,000 copies, debuting at No. 75. (Thank you Idol Chatter here, too.) Eight other Idols are in the top 200 this week:

• Kelly Clarkson 21-26, 23K 585K

• Daughtry 27-30, 21K for the week, 3 million total

• Carrie 32-37, 17K, 5.85 mil

• Elliott 62-82, 9K 353K

• Mandisa 8K, 25K total

• Bucky 93-97, 8K 247K

• Kellie 108-118, 6K 606K

• Fantasia 170-184 4K 455K

Others:

Kelly’s Breakaway 6K, 5.83 mil

Kat 1,500, 351K

Taylor 500, 694K

Ruben 400, 233K

Clay 300, 516K

Kimberley L. 300, 15K

Paris, 300, 18K

And Ruben is planning a nightclub in Birmingham.. The working name is Ruben’s Club 205. Taylor Hicks is considering a club, too.

Given the dynasty factor, I thought Lacey Schwimmer would bring home the crown on “So You Think You Can Dance” and join her brother Benji from season two. But surprise! She was out first among the top four. I was rooting for Sabra Johnson and she did end up winning the third season over Neil Haskell and Danny Tidwell.

What’s amazing is Sabra has had only four years of formal dance training. She shows such natural warmth, something I thought was missing from the runner up Danny, who arguably was one of the best technical dancers I’ve ever seen. I also enjoyed watching how she would change her hair around, sometimes an afro, sometimes straight.

Interestingly, Sabra is half black, half white — just like Jordin Sparks, winner of this past season’s “American Idol.”

CREDIT: Andy Sharp/AJC

And it was great the finale highlighted Kennesaw State student Brian Gaynor, 20, doing his robot to “Ain’t No Other Man.” The man has a spinal disorder, but it hasn’t stopped him. “Just being up here and dancing for everybody. Family, friends, judges. I mean, I was just pretty nervous being up here,” Gaynor said. Choreographer Shane Sparks wants to put him in a movie. Here’s a story we wrote about him a couple weeks ago..

The always busy Ryan Seacrest is going to host the pre-game and halftime Super Bowl shows this January, according to TV week..

Meanwhile, auditions have moved to Charleston, S.C. Registration numbers at 6 a.m. were estimated by the Associated Press to be about 4,000. I didn’t bother estimating the crowd in Atlanta at registration.

And here’s a shot of me and Jill from Clay Aiken’s concert last night:

I drove straight to Chastain without a single second of traffic, which told me this wasn’t going to be a sellout. Indeed, Claymates filled up about half of Chastain Park Amphitheatre. I met up with Jill, who was kind enough to guide me through this concert from a fan’s point of view. The kind folks at Caren West PR gave us good seats relatively close to the stage.

Clay started at 8:20 p.m., looking a bit heavier than during his the “Idol” days, with that Beatle-esque moptop he wore for the 2006 “Idol” final. Here’s a shot from my lousy camera with his two backup singers (There’s a photo gallery I’ll link up to later which were taken by a professional AJC photog.)

Sure, the dorky season two runner up still seems to appeal to a certain type of middle-aged woman, but the man truly has incredible pipes and sounded great. Clay doesn’t take himself too seriously, joking numerous times about the heat and being quite gabby throughout the concert. “What’s with the humidity?” he said early on. “They didn’t give us fans! The only breeze are the bugs flying by our faces. One got stuck to me.” A fan handed him a freeze pop. He stuck it on his forehead, then noticed while singing “When I See You Smile” that the pop was sugar free. “You think I’m getting fat?” he cracked.

He bantered easily with his two long-time backup singers Angela Fisher and Quiana Parlor. (They’ve all been working together for four years now.)

He notes that he’s sweating, that he usually doesn’t perspire this badly. “I’m sweating like Ruben Studdard!” he noted. When the crowd said, “ooohh,” he responded, “I am! We’re family. I love Ruben but he sweats a lot!”

Over two-plus hours, he sang 13 songs in full (mostly covers and only one cut from his first CD) and two extensive medleys. His backup singers each got to sing a song, too.

At one point, he gets the crowd to sing the entire “Brady Bunch” theme. Then after professing watching way too much TV growing up, he proceeded to play more than a dozen TV theme songs, from “What’s Happenin’” to “Growing Pains” to “Diff’rent Strokes” to “Gimme a Break.” Oh, and “Charles in Charge.” I have to remind you that the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is backing him up. This was surreal to say the least. He wore what looked like a very hot jacket and finally took it off during the “Jefferson’s” theme song, acting like a preacher. The crowd ate that up. He wore a long-sleeve white shirt with blue vertical stripes. (Vertical stripes are slimming, right?)

I did learn an interesting anecdote that I’m sure the Claymates knew already. While Clay was trying out for “Idol” five years ago in downtown Atlanta, he recalls spending two nights waiting on Spring St. thinking up songs to sing in his first round audition. But he blanked out and spurted out the theme song to “Perfect Strangers”!

During intermission, my old friend Erin Lee from Stone Mountain, who is a big Clay fan (though not a Claymate per se) came over from the fourth row of tables. She has seen Clay 29 times and five times during this tour. She noted that Clay has gained some weight but she still loves him. She did note that “his core fans travel all over for him,” then joked, “it’s the same 3,000 people at every concert.”

The Claymates brought “Clay”-faced fans and one even set a life-sized cardboard version of Clay on an empty seat. After he did “Measure of a Man,” he spied a poster that said, “I gave up a car to see you.” He asked the teen-ager what the deal was and she said, yes, her mom gave her a choice: a car or tickets to Clay. “Your mom,” he joked, “gypped you!”

He then changed the lyrics to Nilsson’s “Without You” to include the line “I can’t live, if living is without a car/I can’t live/ I can’t get anywhere!”

While singing that song, Jill nudged me and said, “he seems to be channelng Barry Manilow.”

Clay joked about the show’s modest production values. “I don’t want to spend the money on it,” he said. “That’s the truth.” Then he apologized doing only slow songs: “It’s Barry Manilow music,” he said, channeling Jill’s thoughts. “Me and Barry.”

He then set up a joke alluding to rumor’s he’s gay, a bit he’s been doing all summer. “Atlanta is the city where it all kind of started for me because I auditioned here. So this is a special night for me… I want to talk to you for just a minute about something serious. I know you’ve read this in the papers, probably seen stories in the tabloids or whatnot. Some radio shock jocks talk about it. Some of you have even thought this about me… Atlanta. I.. am… not cool.”

This segued into his first fast-paced song, a cover of Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel.” Yes, bat away those rumors by singing M.J.! :)

More amusingly, he and his backup singers then does a medley featuring “Baby Got Back,” “Like a Virgin,” “Bills, Bills, Bills,” “1999,” “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy,” “Oops! I Did It Again,” “O.P.P.,” “Yeah” (yes, he did Usher!!!), a very campy versino of “Sexyback,” “Achy Breaky Heart,” Paula Abdul’s specialty “Opposites Attract” and a return to M.J.: “Beat It.”

He was visibly out of breath by the end of that. “Butts and tractors,” he said. “I’m too cool for this now!”

While he talked about a new original song “Lover All Alone” with the melody courtesy of David Foster and the lyrics by Clay, Jill whispered to me, “Call him chatty Cathy.” The song was quite lugubrious and sounded autobiographical. He got big applause for it.

Before finishing up with “Because You Loved Me,” he teased his Claymate fans:

“We’ve been to Atlanta on almost every one of our tours. We love coming back here. We recognize a lot of your faces. (Pause.) Mostly because you’ve stalked us. We see you driving past my house. Not cool. Following us to the Waffle House after the show. Not cool. Not cool. We see your faces in our nightmares. But we really appreciate seeing you in the audience.”

Once the Celine Dion cover was over, he waved and left, dispensing with the cliched encore. The lights went up at about 10:35 a.m., 25 minutes before Chastain shuts the sound off. Jill said she heard that Clay will shake hands and meet with every Claymate after the concert. We went home. Overall, he was highly entertaining, even in the muggy heat. But I’m never going to be a Claymate. Sorry.

Set list:

1. Here You Go Again

2. Everything I Have

3. I Want to Know What Love Is

4. When I See You Smile

5. Right Here Waiting

6. TV theme song medley

7. These Open Arms

8. When the Lights Go Down (Quiana Parlor sang)

intermission

9- A Thousand Days

10- Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word

11- Measure of a Man

12- Without You

13- The Way You Make Me Feel

14- Random music medley (listed above)

15- Listen (Angela Fisher sang)

16- Lover All Alone

17- Because You Loved Me

My brief video interview with Ryan Seacrest is here.. Feel free to mock me. I’m sure the broadcast folks have nothing to worry about.

My colleague Niketa Patel, Online Producer for ajc.com, (above with her sister Dimple on her left during auditions) was one of the many thousands who tried out for “American Idol” Tuesday at the Georgia Dome — and one of the vast majority who didn’t make the cut. Here’s her first-person account:

Auditioning for the 7th season of American Idol was a very surreal experience. I went in with no expectations and left feeling proud of myself for having taken a bold chance.

It’s something my family and I have wanted to do for a while because I have a performing arts background and have been singing in choirs and at events for years. I am a British-born Indian lady and have lived in the U.S. for eight years now. Doesn’t that give me an edge?

I jumped at the chance when I heard that the Features dept at the newspaper was looking for someone on staff to tryout. Why not? I thought. Even though the odds are very slim and Idol favors strange characters on air, I’m 26, really enjoy singing and have been strongly encouraged to audition and follow my dreams by family members and friends for years. My sister Dimple Patel is my #1 fan!

My sister and I reached the Dome at 7 a.m. this morning and I was relieved to see that most folks were already inside. Waiting in line was the last thing I wanted to do, having waited for two and a half hours on Sunday morning from 5 a.m. to 7.30 a.m. just to register.

I was amazed that there were so many folks trying out from all over the South, from Brunswick to Houston. And as usual, the crowd consisted of the very talented, mediocre wannabes and the down right weird!

The crowd had already practiced the group song one time by the time we took our seats which was ‘I’d like to teach the world to sing’. How ironic considering Atlanta is home of Coca-Cola which is one of the major sponsors for American Idol.

We were asked to get on our feet about an hour later to practice screaming, waving banners and the group song again in front of the cameras. As cheesy as this was, the Idol team cheerily kept up our energy levels by making us chants and sing routinely throughout the morning.

I was actually pleasantly surprised that Ryan Seacrest showed up to welcome us and shoot the introduction and sign off for this portion of the show. He was rumored to have a prior commitment earlier this week and unable to attend. His arrival was met with much enthusiasm. Seacrest was a charmer with the crowds pausing for hugs and photos amidst his camera cues.

We then had to yell more phrases into the cameras after Seacrest left, such as ‘Welcome to Atlanta’, ‘I am the next American Idol’ and ‘Welcome to the 7th season of America Idol in Atlanta’.

As strangers became friends and people practiced in the stands, the auditions finally began around 11 a.m.

Idol had 13 tables set up with curtained partitions on the field with at least 2 producers at each station. Row by row, we were asked to walk down to the football field, walk across the pitch, to line up in groups of four.

Once directly in front of the producers, each of us had to step forward and sing our first song. We were all cut off after the first verse and chorus of one song. I sang ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ by Bonnie Rait.

Judges then asked us to step up to the table and we were given the their verdict.

Apparently, “even though we have great talent and good voices, we are not what Idol is looking for this season”. For what that’s worth!

Our wristbands were cut off our arm and we were promptly shown the exit. It was all over in a matter of minutes!

I pondered about what had just happened on my way to find my sister. Do I not have the right look? Was my voice not up to par? Was having another ‘token Indian’ on the show overkill due to the over exposure of Sanjaya last year?

I could ruminate over this endlessly but the fact of the matter is that I threw caution to the wind and while the audition felt somewhat like a poodle show overall, I will still watch Idol next year because I am passionate about singing and really just enjoy the show.

I am going to continue to sing and see where that takes me. American Idol won’t bring me down. I am game for karaoke with my coworker and friend Rodney Ho any day!

All I have left to say is oh well, another thing to scratch off my ‘’been there, done that’ list!

Bert Weiss hated Constantine back in 2005 because he thought he was way too smug and self-important.

The Q100 team, while Bert was out last week, set him up by having Constantine show up without Bert’s knowledge. As Bert noted afterwards, it was a bit awkward until Bert owned up to his dislike of Constantine. Constantine took it well, seemed quite humbled since the competition.

Here’s a shot of the two of them Bert sent me. It’s pretty funny:

You can catch some of the audio here.

Okay, this is my last blog entry from the field at the Georgia Dome.

I was truly joyous when I heard the Brittenum twins have returned and made it past the first round. Here they are, dressed in dapper white, Derrell on the left and Terrell on the right:

To refresh your memory on the Brittenum twins from 2005’s Hollywood auditions, here’s a trip back in time, courtesy of msnbc.com.

The guys were brash and made overdramatic statements. Then they were booted after they were accused of identity theft in relation to a car they purchased..

They have returned humbled and ready to bring out the soul again. They had a tentative deal with SoSo Def Records soon after the controversy but they said it didn’t work out in the end, blaming an avaricious lawyer. They said they now do speeches about not succumbing to peer pressure at local high schools.

“It was a blessing” to be back, Terrell said, noting that all the producers knew who they were, as did many of the other folks at the tryout. “It was a family reunion.”

And Terrell promises that this time, if they make it to Hollywood, “I’m going to shut my mouth! I will be very tasteful.”

Then he pointed at a 16-year-old gal from Douglasville, Alexandrea Renee Lushington and proclaimed, “She is going to be the next American Idol!”

Check her photo out below. There was a lot of buzz about this gal and she, like Diana DeGarmo of years yore, has been singing for years, doing national anthems at Hawks and Braves games and such.

She struck me as very poised and mature, yet sweet. She also has a cool sense of style, wearing an old Boy Scouts uniform and hat she found at Junkman’s Daughter in Little Five Points. She said she sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” “I’m excited,” she said. “I’m proud of myself.” In fact, she was also the “fast pass” winner on Star 94’s “Idol” contest. This allowed her to jump to the front of the line during auditions.

Note: in 2005, the “fast pass” Star 94 winner was Mandisa Hundley, who ultimately finished in the top 10 that year. So don’t be surprised if we hear from Alexandrea again.

I finished my print story, too, so on this bizarrely multimedia day (video, blogging, pictures, print), I am hopefully done with “Idol.”

I managed to talk to both Constantine Maroulis and hometown boy Ryan Seacrest using the vidcam. I presume we’ll have video of my nascent attempts at broadcast journalism up later today. I’m sure I was awful. Ryan knows me and he teased me for my effort to ape the broadcast folks. For Ryan, this was literally a quick trip in and a quick trip out. He said he’ll have more time in October to see family and friends.

Constantine is here on behalf of Ganier, which is appropriate given his hair. His CD came out last week and he held it up to the camera, of course. His single “Everybody Loves,” he said, was cowritten by Atlanta singer/producer Angie Aparo.

It’s now just past 11. Auditions have finally started. They are allowing people with purple wristbands (contestants) and friends/family (orang wristbands) to go in and out, which is nice. Some folks think it’s too cold inside and come out for a bit of heat.

Here are some photos of Constantine and Ryan I took:

Brandon Rogers from season six interviews Ryan above. Ryan imitated Brandon to a tee. Brandon seemed vaguely embarrassed and bemused at the same time.

I managed to talk to both Constantine Maroulis and hometown boy Ryan Seacrest using the vidcam. I presume we’ll have video of my nascent attempts at broadcast journalism up later today. I’m sure I was awful. Ryan knows me and he teased me for my effort to ape the broadcast folks. For Ryan, this was literally a quick trip in and a quick trip out. He said he’ll have more time in October to see family and friends.

Constantine is here on behalf of Ganier, which is appropriate given his hair. His CD came out last week and he held it up to the camera, of course. His single “Everybody Loves,” he said, was cowritten by Atlanta singer/producer Angie Aparo.

It’s now just past 11. I think auditions have finally started.

Here are some photos of Constantine and Ryan I took:

Brandon Rogers from season six interviews Ryan above. Ryan imitated Brandon to a tee. Brandon seemed vaguely embarrassed and bemused at the same time.

It’s now just past 9 a.m. Everybody is inside the Dome — except Ryan Seacrest. They need him to do the “establishing” shot where he announced Atlanta auditions with thousands behind him. Without him, the auditions can’t start. He’s running a bit late.

The publicist said 15,000 people are inside. We got in early and checked out the scene. I counted the number of seats in each section and there are 14 sections filled, from one endzone til the middle of the other one. Each section holds about 870 people, so that comes out to roughly 12,000. So it’s fair to say 12,000 to 15,000 are inside and at least 8,000 of them are there to try out. There is plenty of food for sale, including nuts, bananas, apples and lemonade. No beer that I can ascertain. There were long lines for the women’s bathrooms since at least 2/3 of the contestants are female. Some women are getting their hair done, courtesy of new sponsor Garnier, which also has a karaoke stage set up where a guy was singing “Living on a Prayer” as we walked by.

We watched an “Idol” organizer explain the process, which is pretty much what we already know: there are 13 tables lined up from endzone to ednzone. People go down by sections, line up in fours and each get to sing for 15 to 30 seconds. The few folks who get the yellow ticket to the next round go to the left. The rest get their wristbands snipped and go to the right and their journey is over. Cut in line, the guy said, and you are out. And don’t argue with the producers if you don’t get through. “The producer’s word is final,” he said. “There’s no begging, no arguing.”

The “Idol” organizers let people into the Dome early. Lines were apparently huge at 4 a.m. or so, an hour before I even got here. By 5 a.m., thousands were already inside. They kept a couple thousand in the outdoor plaza waiting for Ryan Seacrest but they abandoned that idea when they heard he was running late. So they were sent inside. (We thought they’d let them in around 8.) That kind of left us on the outside stuck without many folks to interview, save for a few stragglers who are registering late.

I spoke with Brandon Rogers, the 12th place finisher from season six auditions. He’s here for TV Guide Channel. Remember him? Nice guy. He said he heard that at least 15,000 people have registered to try out so I think that gave the organizers extra incentive to get the proceedings started as soon as possible. He said that was the biggest showing so far among the four audition cities so far (San Diego, Dallas, Omaha were the others). In Dallas, people were auditioning well into the evening and that could well happen again today.

The videographer Michael Lindsay and I taped about a dozen people singing for a Web site feature in which we’ll have you judge their abilities. We heard a lot of good, not great singing, the type of auditions that the first-round producers would reject outright simply because they were neither bad enough nor good enough. A couple of folks were really bad, though nobody was in William Hung territory. The last guy we interviewed did a hilariously awful version of “Dangerously in Love” with enough camp value that he could make it to Randy, Simon and Paula on that alone. I don’t think we saw the next “American Idol” in our sampling.

I then tried to do that trivia/Jaywalking concept and it failed miserably. It simply isn’t funny when people simply say “I have no idea!” over and over again. Oh, well. It makes me appreciate how tough it is to do “man on the street” interviews and make them amusing.

We’re awaiting a possible few moments with Seacrest. And there’s always Constantine.

Good morning blawgpound!

“Idol” wants to start on time so they are already letting people into the Georgia Dome at 5 a.m. A couple of thousands folks who got here really early were funneled to a plaza area by the Georgia Dome for “establishing shots,” in which Ryan Seacrest will introduce everybody with the big crowd behind him. Yes, hometown boy Ryan ended up coming after all. (I saw him on “Larry King Live” last night in New York talking about Merv Griffin so he must have flown in overnight.) It’s still dark so this shot won’t be taken until after 7.

A few hopefuls are actually sleeping on the concrete. Some are prepping songs on their iPods. Most are just hanging out, people watching, casing the competition, shooting the breeze. It appears some people did show up many many hours ago even thoughit really didn’t matter. People already have reserved spots inside.

Logistically, by having 80% of the people in the building by 8:30 a.m., they should be able to start auditions in time, which is no later than 10 a.m.