American Idol Recap :: Tuesday January 12 :: Wednesday January 13

Courtesy of Fox

Idol is back for its ninth season and there’s lots of drama already! Simon Cowell has announced this will be his last season as a judge so we’ll have to get our fill of his snide comments while we can.

Can American Idol survive without Simon? Ellen DeGeneres is betting yes—she signed a five year contract, but we won’t get to see her on the judge’s panel until February. Instead, our guest judges were the always spicy, Victoria Beckham on Wednesday and Mary J. Blige on Thursday.

Boston Auditions

The casting call kicked off in Boston, with the usual coterie of banshee shrieks and Mariah Carey wannabes. Judge Kara DioGuardi faced off with a rude contestant who whined about having to wait three hours for his turn: “I don’t like you…at all,” Kara deadpanned. Still, while it’s nice to see Kara dipping into Simon’s bag of insults, Paula and her insane blubbering from the judge’s panel are sorely missed.

Boston Stand-Outs

Leah Laurenti who, despite wearing a disastrous jean ensemble, managed to impress the judges with her jazzy rendeition of Blue Skies.

Maddy Curtis, the first to get a ticket to Hollywood, is the ninth of twelve children, many of which are adopted and have Down Syndrome. She sang Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah and Kara said, “You have this old soul about you, and when you sing, it feels very authentic.”

Justin Williams, a cancer survivor and vocal coach, performed some vocal acrobatics and impressed the judges with his enthusiastic rendition of Feeling Good.

Atlanta Auditions

Vanessa Wolfe, the “country girl from the country” who spends her free time bridge-jumping (into water) got Simon’s thumbs up. He called her “ill-prepared” but said “you stand out in the crowd for me.”

Holly Hardin wore a guitar costume that put off the judges, but she sang Loretta Lynn’s You Ain’t Woman Enough to Take my Man with enough heart to win them over in the end.

Pants On The Ground

Larry Platt, who is 62-years-old and clearly too old for the competition, entertained us all with his bizarre, self-penned song, Pants On The Ground that’s destined for YouTube viral greatness.