American Idol: Hollywood Week, Part 1

(Ryan Seacrest with Hollywood Week hopefuls in a Fox photo by Michael Becker.)

Is it a bad omen that one of the better singers we saw during the first two days of Idol's Hollywood Week auditions fell off the stage and hit her head? 

And more importantly, is the poor girl all right? Nigel Lythgoe and his co-conspirators are going to make us wait until Thursday night to find out, which strikes me as kind of a tacky use of a cliffhanger.

As the show ended, Symone Black, 16, had just sang "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay" and stepped forward to talk to the judges. She slipped off the stage and hit her head, and we saw people huddled around her while Nigel called for a medic.

"Tomorrow night, find out what happens to Symone ... and the pressure is building ... as we get ready for group night," said Ryan Seacrest's voiceover.

Well okay, if you insist.

As for the rest of the episode, it was another blink and you'll miss them set of auditions.

The part of me that comes home, watches shows and writes recaps after a full day of work is kind of glad Wednesday's episode was only an hour long. But the part of me that's just an ordinary viewer is annoyed that Idol is still being so stingy with the singers.

In particular, it was difficult to keep up with who moved forward and who was sent home.

Contestants hit the stage 10 at a time and sang a few bars a cappella. Then the judges conferred and cut some people on the spot, sending others to the next round. 

In the first group, for instance, previous favourites Johnny Keyser and Heejun Han were told they were staying, along with Gabi (I'm not sure if it's Gabi Carrubba, the tap dancer we saw in Savannah, or someone else), which made me think only those three had been spared. But then we saw a couple more people cheering as they spilled out into the hallway. Were they not worthy of having their names mentioned?

Another quibble: Ryan said there would be no feedback after the performances, but Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler were all very vocal about the singers they liked, which sounds like feedback to me.

Mind you, I wouldn't want to be the one to try to get Steven Tyler to stick to a plan.

We know that 309 people made it to Hollywood (Ryan called them "the nation's elite," which is silly; they're unproven singers chasing a dream) and 68 of them had been cut by the end of Day 1.

Here's who we saw on Wednesday:

Johnny Keyser, 23: He's the server from Hollywood whom JLo said was going to be a star. He is cocky as all get out, but I still love his voice. Randy responded by saying "Amen" over and over after Johnny sang Amos Lee's "Dreamin'."

Heejun Han, 22: I hope Heejun stays around just for comic relief. Take the following monologue: "I got here and everyone's so tall, so pretty. And even the guys are pretty. I don't know why; I don't know what they eat, but they're so good-looking. I just have to figure out how to overcome the beauty." I want that last sentence on a T-shirt. A very nervous Heejun sang Michael Bolton's "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" and it was very pretty, especially the last few phrases.

Elise Testone, 28: I have no recollection of seeing this woman, a vocal coach and musician from Charleston, S.C., at previous auditions. And that's too bad because she has an impressive set of pipes. Apparently, she's quite an experienced singer, so I have no idea why they've been keeping her under wraps until now and she got what? 12 seconds of airtime on Wednesday? She made it to the next round.

Baylie Brown, 21: It was another yes for the pretty blond nanny from Texas. She had good control and melody. Will she stand out from the crowd?

Hallie Day, 24: I continue to be impressed by this waitress from Baltimore with the hard luck story about drug addiction and attempted suicide. If only Lauren Alaina had put a fraction of her passion into "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" last season. She was an easy yes for the judges.

Jen Hirsh, 25: This is another mystery contestant who didn't get airtime during the previous auditions. Who knows why? She did a very solid job with Patty Griffin's "Up to the Mountain" and got to the next round.  

Lauren Gray, 23: JLo was practically crowning Lauren champion at the St. Louis auditions, but we're not quite there yet. Her rough-edged voice is still appealing, but she better learn to open her eyes and look into the camera if she makes it to the live shows. She had them shut so tight she missed Randy's cut-off cue.

Phil Phillips, 21: Phil, who works in his dad's pawn shop back home in Leesburg, Ga., got the fish out of water treatment: golly, he'd never been on a real plane before, imagine that. When it came to the singing, his facial contortions weren't any less disconcerting than the first time we saw him, but his "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" got him to the next round. 

Reed Grimm, 26: This stage veteran from a musical family seems to be the most eccentric contestant yet. After auditioning with the Family Matters theme song in Pittsburgh, he chose "I've Got a Golden Ticket" from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for Hollywood. It was jazzy and fun, and won over the judges as well as his fellow contestants.

Travis Orlando, 18: I would have traded some of the time spent on Travis for a look at a good singer we didn't see. We had to be reminded that his mother had left her family, apparently for another relationship, with the implication that his father's and brother's happiness as well as his own were resting on Travis's Idol chances. But here's the thing: I didn't hear one bit of genuine emotion in his song, just a carefully constructed imitation of emotion, so it's no surprise that Travis struck out for a second season in a row.

Adam Brock, 27: I did not love Adam, though it's clear the show would like me to. We saw Adam in the holding room, we saw him at the Pittsburgh auditions singing "Stormy Weather" and confiding that "I have been told that there is a large black woman trapped inside of my body." We saw him with his wife and baby daughter, and tearfully missing that daughter. And we saw a snippet of "Walking in Memphis," which got Adam to the next round.

Jane Carrey, 24: At least we know now that having a famous father is no guarantee of Idol success, since Jim Carrey's look-alike daughter didn't make the cut. I thought her singing sounded fine. Maybe it was the oddness at the end, where she stood grinning at the judges and going "Eeeeeee" that pushed her into the no column. Like father, like daughter?

Shannon Magrane, 16: This tall Tampa teen with a father who pitched in a World Series belted out Alicia Keys' "Fallin'" and made it through to the next round, fortunately without Steven making any allusions to her being hot.

David Leathers Jr., 17: I'm wondering how long we'll have to put up with the chick magnet shtick for this high school student from North Carolina who looks like he's 12. His high voice is one of the more unusual ones in the competition. Thought it wasn't perfect, he managed to pull off a risky audition choice: Celine Dion's "Because You Love Me."

Jessica Phillips, 26: This Brooklyn receptionist sounded better to me than her original audition in Portland but still put some unnecessary flourishes on "He Fills Me Up." Still, the sentiment seemed to come from a real place, with her boyfriend, who is recovering from a stroke, cheering her on from the audience. She made it to the next round.

Erika Van Pelt, 26: This "mobile DJ" is growing on me. I enjoyed her big voice, but hopefully the Idol wardrobe department gets to her sooner rather than later. Those plaid shirts have gotta go.

Creighton Fraker, 28: I'm still not loving Creighton, a "starving artist" from New York City. I thought he oversang Queen's "Somebody to Love," but he got to the next round nonetheless.

Aaron Marcellus, 27: I thought I was really going to like this music teacher, whom we caught a glimpse of in Pittsburgh, but that big run he did in "Starting Here, Starting Now," which he cornily dedicated to Jennifer and all the "ladies," was way too show-offish. He also made it to the next round.

Lauren Mink, 25: I have a soft spot for Lauren, who works with adults with disabilities. Alas, she chose one of the most overdone of songs for her audition, Heart's "Alone," and changed keys partway through, which Jennifer and Randy noted. We'll have to wait until Thursday to see if that cost her.

Jeremy Rosado, 19: I'm mystified why JLo was showing Steven the goosebumps on her arm while Jeremy sang Luther Vandross's "Superstar." I thought his read on it was corny, he didn't enunciate enough and I was distracted by his orange tongue.

Symone Black, 16: Poor Symone. She did some nice things with the melody of "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay," particularly in the quiet part, before she started answering Randy's question about why she chose the song and fell off the stage. But the fall could mean the end of Idol for her this season.

We had some glimpses of contestants who didn't make it through and a few more who did. The unsuccessful ones included Heather Youmans, Sascha Julian, Candice Russell, Ramiro Garcia, Wolf Hamlin and Jenni Schick. Ones who got through whom we didn't see included purple-haired Angie Zeiderman and NBA cheerleader Brittany Kerr.  

Thursday, we'll find out how the rest of the Day 2 crop did and presumably see some of the group round. It starts at 8 p.m. on CTV Two. 

The Voice: Blind auditions continue

Is there anything quite as daunting for an aspiring singer as the backs of those four red chairs on The Voice?

I was pondering that as I watched Monday's blind audition episode. There's no begging for second chances as the song plays out and the judges' chairs remain motionless. The unlucky ones take their leave and save their tears for their loved ones waiting backstage.

And again, we're not talking bad singers here since the auditioners need invites to hit The Voice stage. Among those unable to turn chairs on Monday were Neal Middleton, 33, who gave a CCRish rendition of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and was longing to support his wife and child through music; Aly Jados, who made it to Hollywood on American Idol last season; gorgeous Pamela Rose, whose pitch wasn't good enough for the discerning Voice judges; handsome Dez Duron, 21, who skipped out on the Yale football team to audition and came oh so close; Hoja Lopez, a 25-year-old who hoped to prove size doesn't matter but got torpedoed by her nerves on "Teenage Dream."

Some heartbreaking stuff, I tell you. 

Even some of the ones who did get chosen had to wait an agonizingly long time for a chair or two to turn. I was on the edge of my seat waiting for someone to push a button for Jamar Rogers, 29, from the Bronx. He was jamming away on "Seven Nation Army," had the crowd eating out of his hand, but Cee Lo Green didn't turn for ages despite his fellow coaches urging him to.

You'll remember Jamar from Idol. He auditioned with his friend Danny Gokey in Season 8 and didn't make it past Hollywood, tried out again in Season 9 and dropped out of the competition. We heard things about him Monday that I don't recall hearing about on Idol, that he was once a crystal meth addict, that he was homeless for a while, that he's HIV positive.

I was captivated by his back story, by the excitement on his face when Carson Daly hand-delivered his invitation, by his mother's tears and by the way he bounced across the stage like he had springs in his feet after he was chosen by his idol Cee Lo.

By the end of the two-hour episode, Cee Lo had filled three of the 12 spots on his team; Adam Levine, 3; Blake Shelton, 3; Christina Aguilera, 4.

The entertaining rivalry between the coaches continued, but they also entertained with a medley of Prince songs. Cee Lo was in head to toe red glitter; Christina looked like a dominatrix in a leather dress and spiked leather hat; Adam was in a tank top and Blake just looked like Blake.

As an aside, is anybody else loving Cee Lo's Dr. Evil-like bits, where he makes pronouncements for the camera stroking a large white cat? The man is seriously eccentric.

Back to the singing. Here's a brief look at the contestants who joined the coaches' teams.

The Line: Duo Hailey and Leland, who insist they're not a romantic couple, had all four judges turn their chairs for their take on Tom Petty's "American Girl." Blake was the first to hit the button and was dying to work with them, but Christina reminded them "last year ... he had a (duo) and he ended up sending them home." They picked Christina, with Leland marvelling, "It was four of the biggest names in music fighting to work with us." Blake, in arguably the best line of the night, said, "I actually feel bad for that. I think they were fooled by flash and boobs."

Gwen Sebastian: This 37-year-old from Hebron, North Dakota, put her desire to start a family with her drummer boyfriend on hold to give The Voice a shot. She displayed a sweet voice on Sugarland's "Stay," good enough to have Blake, Adam and Cee Lo turn their chairs. Blake won this one, though. "You are a great country vocalist," he told Gwen. "If you look across this panel here, you'll see spikes and you'll see tattoos and things like that. I'm your country guy. I'm your man."

Kim Yarbrough: You want to talk perseverance? Kim is 50 and she's been singing since she was 18, supporting herself in between gigs with jobs like working in a potato chip factory and doing security for the Dave Matthews Band. But all the judges knew was that she brought a giant voice and the appropriate amount of funk and sex appeal to Chaka Khan's "Tell Me Something Good." Part of the joy of this show is seeing the coaches get as excited as the contestants when they find a voice they like and Adam was practically giddy when Kim picked his team over Christina's.

Angie Johnson: She's a 31-year-old military staff sergeant in an air force band, whose claim to fame is a video that went viral of her and the band singing "Rolling in the Deep." That brought her to Carson Daly's attention and to The Voice. Carson was really invested in this one, yelling, "C'mon, somebody turn your chair!" at the backstage monitor. I didn't love her take on Pat Benatar's "Heartbreaker," but it was good enough to get Cee Lo to push the button. "Are you as beautiful as I think you are?" he asked, replacing his customary dark glasses with an even bigger pair of dark glasses. "I love a woman with guts, with power, with confidence."

Lindsey Pavao: This 22-year-old from Sacramento, Calif., had never sang in front of more than 40 people and was understandably nervous, but Blake, Christina and Cee Lo all turned their chairs, intrigued by her Fiona Apple-like take on Trey Songz' "Say Aah." Cee Lo called it "probably the coolest thing that's ever happend on the second season so far." He and Blake fought hard, but Lindsey picked Christina's team.

Jermaine Paul: Not many people audition with the blessing of Alicia Keys, but this 33-year-old family man has been her backup singer for years. He did a blistering verison of the Avril Lavigne hit "Complicated," but only two coaches turned their chairs, Cee Lo and Blake. Jermaine wasn't content just to accept Cee Lo's praises. "You said you want me on your team. Want is a cool word, need is even a better word, but I want to hear that word keep. I want to be kept," Jermaine said. But Blake gave him the straight goods: "I think the word keep is up to you. You still got a lot of work to do." Jermaine went with Blake, "another tall brother to another," as he put it.

Angel Taylor: The 23-year-old from Los Angeles is the youngest of five daughters who fled their abusive father with their mom. She brought emotional resonance if not vocal purity to Adele's "Someone Like You." Adam, Blake and Cee Lo were all vying to recruit her. "I don't know what I can do for you, but I'll be damn proud to try," Blake told her. "I do know what I can do for you. I did do well last year," said Adam, referring to his win with Javier Colon. Angel overlooked her admitted crush on Blake to pick Adam.

The blind auditions continue Monday at 8 p.m. on CTV.

(The photo of Cee Lo is courtesy of Bell Media. Sorry, I'll work on getting new photos by next week.)

 

The Bachelor: Kiss and cry (spoiler alert)

(The other women check out Courtney's assets on The Bachelor in an ABC photo by Francisco Roman.)

If there's one thing you can count on in an episode of The Bachelor, it's tears and smooching.

We got more than the usual amount of the former in Monday's episode. And for one woman, the first kiss was the last as Ben sent her packing after a disastrous cocktail party makeout session.

Altogether, three ladies got the boot, one more than intended, for this was the show where one of the Internet's worst kept Bachelor secrets was revealed: yes, Casey S. was in love with someone else back home. Cue the shock and horror.

The 26-year-old trading clerk broke the cardinal rule of The Bachelor: she just wasn't that into him. Frankly, I never thought she was and I never got why Ben kept her around, but now we know. Casey managed to raise the drama quotient in an episode that was feeling pretty sedate after last week's skinny dipping follies.

Not that Courtney didn't try to raise the bar, both with her semi-nudity during the group date and her invitation to Ben to come visit her in her hotel room, but more about that later.

Back to Casey. Chris Harrison called her away for a private chat and revealed that three people had squealed that "you're in love with somebody else and not in love with Ben."

(Yeah, duh, of course she's not in love with Ben; she never even had a one-on-one date with the guy.)

Casey disputed her ex Michael's allegation that they'd practically been living together before she left to shoot the show, but she couldn't bring herself to say that she wasn't in love with him. "I don't want to be in love with Michael," was the best she could manage.

It turns out the cad didn't want to marry her, so Casey broke up with him in hopes she'd fall in love with Ben, who does want to get married. I dunno. Give up the guy you love back home so you can compete with 24 other women for the affections of a total stranger: it doesn't sound like the surest path to happily ever after for me.

After Chris brought Casey to Ben's room -- barefoot no less -- to confess her crime, Casey made a halfhearted attempt to get Ben to keep her around, but he was having none of it.

"There have been women who I have sent home who, I think, really genuinely wanted to be here," Ben said sternly. "If you felt this way, that you were in love with this other guy, I wish you had told me sooner.... I think you should go home."

Casey had a good cry on Chris's shoulder and then shed more tears for the cameras, not for Ben but for the fact she'd be heading home to an ex who still didn't want to marry her. Ben stared pensively into the distance from his balcony and pretended to care that Casey was gone.

The remaining women got a lecture from Chris when he announced Casey's departure: "If you're not open to truly finding love right now it's not going to work. If anybody's here and they are not completely open, this is the time to step away."

Phew, at least Kacie B. got the memo. She got the only one-on-one date with Ben in their new locale of Panama City, Panama, and decided she had to lay it all on the line if she wanted to get the date rose.

But first, she and Ben were helicoptered to the deserted island of San Blas (well, deserted if you don't count the camera crew) to play Survivor. Each had to pack three things for the date. Ben packed a fishing net, a machete and matches. Kacie packed a utility knife with a corkscrew on it, a bag of candy and a lime green stuffed monkey. Maybe she thought they were sleeping over.

Luckily, Ben had the necessary tools to chop down coconuts and catch a fish for their lunch. "If we can accomplish something like this together I feel like we can probably do anything." Yeah right. Try doing it for 39 days, then we'll talk.

Back in civilization, i.e. dinner at the Trump Ocean Club hotel, Kacie shared her dark secret: she had anorexia and bulimia in high school, for about a year. Luckily for her, her parents caught her upchucking during a Super Bowl party and put her on the path to recovery.

Ben was duly impressed by Kacie's honesty. "She's a brave girl. She opened up to me and that takes guts," he said. Kisses and a date rose were her reward.

And what of our other apparent front-runner, Courtney? She got stuck on another group date along with Emily, Nicki, Lindzi, Casey and Jamie.

It involved paddling into the rainforest in a really long boat. And look, there were some native children playing soccer. And Ben and the girls decided to pull over and hang with them, totally spontaneously, of course. And just as spontaneously, the indigenous people came out to greet them and outfitted them all in native dress (which meant a loin cloth for Ben, and sarongs and beaded bikini tops for the women). And everybody got body parts painted with some sort of black dye and got to dance and look foolish. I mean, I'm sure producers didn't go scout out the location or anything and arrange for the visit beforehand. No, really.

Courtney, of course, had to take it a step beyond. She dispensed with the bikini portion of her beaded top  so that her tatas were apparently exposed, necessitating the use of a black bar across her chest every time she was on camera. 

"We're in nature. It's raining. Go bikini-less," she told the other scandalized women. "I'm bare-chesting it."

She shook her breasts for the camera every chance she got and tattooed the words "B + C = (heart)" on Ben's back. As Emily said, "I had a few flashbacks to my seventh grade lunchroom" (not the breasts part, I'm guessing).

At the group date dinner, Courtney tried to pull another coup. The time, she invited Ben to her room later where they could "just lay there and be quiet for 15 minutes." No doubt, clothing would be optional.

Courtney wasn't the only one with sexy time on her mind. Jamie was realizing that her chances for all-expenses paid vacations on ABC's dime were about to dry up if she didn't lay a lip-lock on Ben soon. But their tete-a-tete by the pool was interrupted when Courtney wandered over and stripped to her bikini. Ben was so distracted I'm surprised he even remembered whom he was talking to, and Jamie was too shy to try to kiss him in front of Courtney.

Both Lindzi and Emily did get some smooching in, though. Lindzi was the recipient of the "reassurance rose" after she told Ben that she'd cried over having to share him with other girls. That was a sign she was opening up and Ben liked that. Open and honest, that's how he likes them, unless of course they're telling him something he doesn't want to hear.

But don't worry, Emily wasn't going to do that again. Her lips were sealed on the subject of Courtney, or "getting involved in other people's business," as Ben put it. "There's no sense in making enemies," he added. A contrite Emily said she'd learned her lesson and, to prove it, she apologized later to Courtney for misjudging her. Except I don't think Emily misjudged Courtney at all.

"I appreciate you acknowledging it and being direct with me because I respect that, and I had lost all respect for you, I'm not gonna lie," replied Courtney.

"We will never be friends. I don't respect you in that sense. You treated me poorly. Nobody treats me like that," she added.

I would have withdrawn the apology if I were Emily, but Ben turned up at that point so everyone hushed up.

The best part was watching Courtney later, as she fixed her hair and makeup, then sat checking her watch in her empty hotel room, waiting for Ben to show up. He never did and, for the briefest moment, I thought Courtney might actually have a heart when she said sadly, "I've been consistently disappointed by men. I'm really at the point now where I know I want to be with someone who gets it, who just treats me the way I want to be treated."

Yeah, no, I can't bring myself to feel sorry for her. 

It could have been worse; Courtney could have been Blakeley. She and Rachel went on the season's first two-on-one date with Ben. That's the kind where only one person comes home. 

Blakeley was absolutely exuberant about the date, so confident was she of getting the rose, which should have been our first clue that her time was up.

Ben took the girls for a salsa dancing lesson. They both got to wear hideous things that looked like leftover bridesmaids' dresses (blue for Rachel, hot pink for Blakeley) and take turns dancing with Ben. Or dancing on Ben, in Blakeley's case, when she decided to drape her legs around him. 

The dancing was followed by a very awkward three-way dinner. Each woman got some alone time in which to emphasize to Ben how into him they were. And who knows, maybe Blakeley still had a chance at that point, but then she committed two unforgiveable sins. She whined about not getting to go on a one-on-one date (and we all know how well that worked out for Samantha a couple of episodes ago). And she pulled out a scrapbook she'd been making to commemorate the Bachelor journey, complete with photos and cut-out sayings to represent "things I've seen in you that have made me start to fall for you."

Ben restrained himself from running away on the spot and delivered the bad news at the dinner table, saying he had to base his decision on whom he could see spending his life with and obviously that wasn't a well-endowed scrapbook enthusiast. 

Blakeley tried to storm out of the restaurant, but Ben chased after her and she ended up sobbing on his shoulder, which is so much more humiliating, I think.

That being said, perhaps no one humiliated herself more than Jamie at the cocktail party. 

She was determined to show Ben that she was a woman who could please him (nudge, nudge, wink, wink), although her natural prudishness was getting in her way. But she threw caution to the wind, told Ben that when she went to bed at night "I think about things I'd like to do with you," then straddled him, nearly splitting her cocktail dress in the process, and laid a big smooch on him. 

Things might have gone well if Jamie had stopped giggling throughout the kissing. They tried again after Jamie climbed off Ben's lap, but she insisted on orchestrating the kiss, telling Ben exactly when she wanted him to open or close his mouth. "It's like an instruction guide. I can't even handle this right now," Ben said.

To no one's surprise, least of all Jamie's, she was left empty-handed at the rose ceremony. At least, she saved her tears until after Ben had walked her to the van.

So Kacie, Rachel, Lindzi, Nicki, Courtney and Emily are headed to Belize with Ben on next week's episode.

The promos make it look like Ben starts to doubt Courtney, wondering "if she is, in fact, saying different things behind my back" and pulling her aside for a private chat. Don't believe it, though. He'll send Rachel, Nicki or Emily home before he dumps Courtney.

You know where I'll be next Monday at 8 p.m., watching it unfold on Omni and recapping it for you here.

Canada's Got Talent starts March 4

(Stephan Moccio, Measha Brueggergosman and Martin Short in a Citytv photo.)

In less than a month, we get to judge just how talented Canadians are.

Citytv announced Monday that Canada's Got Talent will start airing Sunday, March 4, at 8 p.m.

The first seven episodes will feature the cross-country auditions, which stopped in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Halifax and Montreal. Then, in a special episode on March 26, we'll see judges Martin Short, Measha Brueggergosman and Stephan Moccio deciding which 36 acts move on to the semifinals.

Six acts per week will compete over six weeks, with live, one-hour performance shows airing Sundays at 8 p.m. and results shows Mondays at 7 p.m., when two semifinalists will advance: one selected by viewers, one by judges.

The 12 finalists compete in a live, two-hour episode on May 13, with the first Canada's Got Talent winner revealed in a live season finale on May 14.

I had a chance to watch second-round auditions in Toronto in December and I think this is going to be a fun one, folks.

The Voice: It's On!

(Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green and Carson Daly of The Voice in a file photo courtesy of Bell Media.)

I know it's probably bad form to start off my first Voice recap of the season talking about that other singing competition (cough, Idol), but I got more enjoyment out of Sunday's Voice premiere than I have out of the whole Season 11 Idol audition tour. 

I was grinning like an idiot pretty much the whole way through.

Well okay, I teared up in a couple of spots, as well. The Voice, like Idol, gives us contestants' back stories, but I appreciate the fact we're not hammered over the head with them. And even better, the judges (excuse me, coaches) don't hear the tales pre-audition, so a marginal singer won't get through to the next round because someone feels sorry for them.

Marginal wasn't much of a problem with this crop, mind you.

We did hear four singers that the coaches didn't turn around for (remember, singers don't get chosen unless at least one of the judges presses a buzzer to spin their big red chair to face them), but only snippets of three of them. The fourth, 20-year-old Daniel Rosa, wasn't awful, but a lack of self-confidence and bad case of nerves wreaked havoc with his pitch.

Also, the rivalry between the coaches is clearly alive and well, but it's a good-natured rivalry, not like Simon Cowell trying to come up with new ways to insult (the now fired) Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger on The X Factor.

We saw five singers picked for coaches' teams: two for Christina Aguilera, one each for Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green and Blake Shelton. Each judge has to choose 12 people in total. Here are the selections so far:

RaeLynn: She's a 17-year-old country cutie from Baytown, Texas, who showed up for her audition with a big red flower in her hair. She took a chance and sang "Hell on Heels" by Pistol Annies, a group that happens to include Blake's wife, Miranda Lambert. RaeLynn started out sounding girlish and turned grownup and gutsy by the end. Both Blake and Adam wanted her, but going with Blake was a no-brainer given RaeLynn's country bent. "I can make you a country star," Blake told her. "Why would you want to be just a country star?" Adam retorted.

Jesse Campbell: This 42-year-old single father from Chicago says he slept in his car for a while. Being a struggling musician wasn't making ends meet and drove away his wife, but he persevered with the help of his brother and jobs singing at churches and weddings. He performed a very passionate version of "A Song for You" that had the crowd cheering and all of the judges vying for him. Cee Lo tried to appeal to Jesse as a fellow "brother." "I was feeling the soul too, even though I'm not the same colour as Cee Lo," protested Christina. "Hey, Christina, everybody's the same colour with the lights off," purred Cee Lo, which had Adam on his feet for a fist bump. Adam, who won last season's competition with Javier Colon, made the first of several references to his winning record, but Jesse picked Christina.

Juliet Simms: I thought Adam had a good chance of bagging this 25-year-old rock singer for his team, given he's probably the closest thing to a rocker the panel has. Juliet shredded The Beatles' "Oh! Darling" with her rough powerful voice, which Adam praised for its "dirt." Cee Lo took a more direct approach: "Baby, I am so thoroughly impressed and in awe of you. You turned me on." Juliet looked a little taken aback at that but went with Cee Lo anyway. Adam looked mighty disappointed but got a consolation hug and declaration of love from Christina, who dissed Adam earlier as being like a used car salesman (their sparring was due to sexual tension, according to Cee Lo).

Chris Mann: It just goes to show you that you get all kinds on this show. Chris, a 29-year-old from Wichita, Kan., is an opera singer. He has a gorgeous voice, but there was hesitation from the judges after Chris launched into Andrea Bocelli's "Because We Believe," which has lyrics in Italian. Cee Lo and Christina went for it. Chris told them tearfully he'd decided to sing like himself rather than "shrink my voice down to fit." "Sometimes there are voices that come along that you can't shrink down," said Christina, and I guess she would know. Cee Lo said the performance was exceptionally beautiful and there was nothing that Chris couldn't do, but Chris chose Christina.

Tony Lucca: Here's proof that not everybody who was part of The Mickey Mouse Club got as famous as Christina. Tony, a 35-year-old singer from Waterford, Mich., who performed with Christina, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake on the kids' show, said he was looking for his break after years of playing small club gigs. Looks like he got it after he impressed all four judges with "Trouble." (Well, Cee Lo's button got pushed by Adam, but Cee Lo admitted Tony was great.) Christina praised the "beautiful, silky quality" to Tony's tone ... without clueing in that she'd heard it somewhere before. It wasn't until after Tony had teamed up with Adam (for pushing the button twice) that Christina realized who Tony was. She sought him out backstage with his wife and kid. "Britney had the biggest crush on you; she used to talk about you all the time," Christina confided.

So that's it for Night 1 of The Voice. What did you think? Were you happy to see it back? Did you find yourself comparing it to Idol as you watched?

Monday night, there's a two-hour show on CTV at 8. I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to blog that and The Bachelor in the same night, but I'll think of something.

In the meantime, talk to me: here, on Twitter @realityeo or on my Facebook page.

(Sorry I don't have photos of the contestants for you. NBC has apparently decided that all we Canadian media types are potential pirates, so it doesn't allow us access to its website. Heck of a way to promote its shows.)

Award for Tre Armstrong

Congratulations to former So You Think You Can Dance Canada judge Tre Armstrong, who will receive an award Saturday at the Black History Month Gala in Ottawa.

Tre is getting the "Success, Engagement, Empowerment Award," given to people who make a difference in their communities. Tre founded the Tre Armstrong Give Back Foundation, which aims to empower youth through dance and workshops.

She also runs the dance studio A New D.A.E.I. (Dance Academy for the Entertainment Industry) in Brampton with Tonya Burke.

(Photo is courtesy of CTV.)

American Idol: St. Louis auditions

The narrative was clear after Thursday's American Idol: St. Louis, Missouri, is where country megastar Carrie Underwood auditioned for Idol and maybe St. Louis auditioner Lauren Gray will be this season's star. 

Just in case we missed the point, Ryan Seacrest summed it up at the end of the episode: "Eight years ago, Carrie Underwood launched her career from St. Louis. Maybe this is the start for Lauren Gray, or one of the 46 hopefuls heading to Hollywood."

Or maybe one of the dozens of other golden ticket holders from other cities on the audition tour, whom we've had only scant glimpses of since the season premiere.

The good news is the audition episodes are over. And next week, Ryan promised, will be "the most emotional and exhausting Hollywood week ever" (though doesn't he say something similar every season? Mind you, I don't think we've seen anybody fall off the stage and hurt themselves before).

The other good news is that Idol saved us some choice bits for this last audition show and Lauren Gray was one of them. Lauren had as much vocal power as Adele, whose "One and Only" she sang, but I heard Amy Winehouse-like flavour too. Though her voice broke a little reaching for a high note, Steven Tyler told her it was "the sexiest thing on the planet" and she was fearless. The 22-year-old from Hardie, Ark., is definitely a Season 11 contender.

So is Johnny Keyser, 22, from Pompano Beach, Fla. He sang Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come" like an old soul: beautiful tone, beautiful control, beautiful phrasing, beautiful face to go with the voice. I think it's the first time I've seen the judges ask an auditioner to keep singing.

"You know you're gonna be a star, right?" Jennifer Lopez asked him. "Keep singing!"

Good taste, JLo. He's my favourite out of everyone we've seen so far. 

We only saw six people sing at length on Thursday night, five of whom got golden tickets. The rest of the show was a grab-bag. Along with the usual stuff -- Steven communing with the adoring masses, Ryan hanging with auditioners and their families, crowd scenes, snippets of bad auditions -- we got a preview of Madonna's "Give Me All Your Luvin'" video, bons mots from Ryan's cranky cab driver and a tribute to The Artist.

"We got to blame somebody for all this congestion that you people are going to create," Walter the cabbie griped. "They said 20,000 people are going to be here all trying to get their day in the sun. Beats the hell out of working, right?"

Walter was pretty amusing. The tribute to The Artist, the silent movie widely expected to win this year's Oscar for Best Film, was a head scratcher. We were told, "Some auditions are best seen and not heard" and then watched a silent segment called "The Contestant," in which a chap in a white fedora and tie elicited laughter and pained facial expressions from the judges, with title cards that said things like "I'm amused by your off-key rendering ... dawg." They even threw in a shot of Uggie, the Jack Russell terrier from The Artist. Not sure what it all had to do with a singing competition but anyway...

Back to the meat of the matter: the singers.

For the second night in a row, we had a single mom try out, complaining that her ex held her back from pursuing a singing career. Rachelle Lamb, 26, of Mountainview, Mo., turned up with cute blond daughter in tow and gave a hearty, twangy rendition of "Find Somebody New" by Faith Hill, a song her ex supposedly hated. She got three yeses. 

Justin Bieber-haired Reis Kloeckener was sort of like a real-life version of Glee, but without the slushies. He said he'd been bullied in high school to the point he considered quitting, then he joined the school choir and turned things around. He sang "Lean on Me." Steven said it moved him to tears and made him "all crazy inside." It wasn't a tearjerker for me. Reis had a pleasant voice, but too breathy and not very strong, I thought. 

Ethan Jones, 22, of Pontoon Beach, Ill., came in with a hard-luck story about his dad, with whom he used to play in a country band, who was in rehab for drug and alcohol abuse. No tears from Steven on that one, but he said he could relate and wanted to meet the father when he got out of rehab (he seemed like he meant it, too). Ethan did a nicely raspy version of Edwin McCain's "I'll Be," got his golden ticket and a tearful phone call to his pop.

The night's unsuccessful contestant was Mark Ingram, 28, an auditor at the Hilton hotel where the auditions were being held. His was a cautionary tale about why all those co-workers who tell people they sing really well should not be trusted. Mark brought a gaggle of supportive co-workers into the audition room with him, but his voice -- while not terrible overall -- broke badly on Stevie Wonder's "Overjoyed." So it was back to auditing for Mark.

And that's it until Wednesday at 8 p.m. on CTV when the Hollywood Week shows begin. Bring 'em on, I say.

(The photos of Lauren, Johnny and Reis are by Michael Becker for Fox.)

American Idol: Portland, Oregon auditions

The good news about Wednesday's American Idol auditions in Portland, Oregon, is that we heard a couple of intriguing voices and the bad auditions were relatively entertaining.

The bad news is that it was more of the same formulaic programming: more sob stories; more corny jokes at contestants' expense; more crowd shots of thousands of people who never got anywhere near the judges; more rock-star posturing from Steven Tyler; more of Randy Jackson calling everybody, male or female, dude; and if Jennifer Lopez calls one more female contestant "mama" I may throw something at the TV. 

Ryan Seacrest tells us 45 people got golden tickets over two days of auditions. We saw 10 people sing and the ratio was six successful auditions to four unsuccessful ones, so that leaves a lot of presumably decent singers that will be mysteries to us by the time we get to Hollywood.

Of the good auditions, I liked the two Brits the best: Brittany Zika and Britnee Kellog.

The first is a 21-year-old nanny/social media tech from Portland whose claim to fame is singing "Gravity" onstage with Sara Bareilles. Brittany said she foresaw the moment in a dream and got the singer's attention with a homemade cardboard sign after her mom got her two tickets to a sold-out concert as a birthday present. When you think about it, that sounds way too fortuitous to be true, but you can watch it on YouTube.

For her Idol audition, Brittany sang "The Story" by Brandi Carlile in a lovely voice with a good range. She also brought a forthright personality and quirky fashion sense to the audition, although Randy made her take off her fedora and black-rimmed glasses. This one could be a keeper, I think.

Britnee Kellogg was a 27-year-old banker and single mom of two from Vancouver, Wash., (and a Britney Spears lookalike) who was nursing a grudge against her basketball player ex-husband. As Britnee explained it, she put aside her singing aspirations to "pursue his dream with him and then he decided to pursue other women." (I went looking to see which famous basketball player she was married to and apparently it's just some guy who owns his own basketball training company.)

Anyhow, Britnee sang "You're No Good" and did herself proud with a strong rock chick vibe. We'll find out if she has enough outrage left to take her safely through Hollywood Week.

Two men also put in good showings. 

Jermaine Jones, a 24-year-old music teacher from Pine Hill, N.J., may be the tallest American Idol contestant ever at 6-foot-8-1/2 ("Don't take away my half," he told the judges). Ryan may need a stool or to borrow Simon Cowell's lifts. 

The self-described mama's boy from a church-singing family did Luther Vandross's "Superstar." He has a nice tone, particularly in his lower register, but I thought he got too fancy with some of those notes. I hope he doesn't come down with Jacob Luskitis if he moves forward in the competition.

We also heard Romeo Diahn, 22, a shipping clerk and Liberian refugee from Portland. At first, when Romeo mentioned the country's civil war and we saw photos of child soldiers, I figured Romeo had been one of them. Turns out his father was able to get his family to a refugee camp in Ghana, which I'm sure was hellish enough. 

Romeo, who reminded me physically of Sean Kingston, displayed an appealing, husky voice on Bob Marley's "Is This Love," although JLo said she worried about where he would go when he had to sing other stuff. 

(I think my favourite part of the audition was when a giant friend of Romeo's waiting outside, appropriately named "Junior," looked Ryan up and down and said, "So who are you?" Ryan didn't play the diva but stuck out his hand and said, "I'm Ryan.")

The contestant that we were obviously really meant to get behind was Jessica Phillips, 25, a dental hygienist from Brooklyn. Her boyfriend of five years, Angelo, had a stroke almost a year ago and Jessica is now his caretaker. 

I'm not sure how auditioning for Idol will improve their situation unless she gets lucky and strikes it big in the music industry. I will say that I thought her performance of Faith Evans' "Again" was good but not great. Nonetheless, she got three yeses from the judges. 

Naomi Gillies, 22, a student from Boston, also got a golden ticket after seeking Steven's permission to sing "Crying." Props to hear for hitting those high notes, but I didn't love her voice.

Of the not so good auditioners, Sam Gershman, a "motivational dancer" from Clarksville, Md., could kind of sing but ruined the effect with a corny musical theatre vibe. 

Ben Harrison, a shipping agent from Eugene, Ore., was a cheerfully demented sort of man-child who is perhaps not as adorable as he thinks he is, particularly after he mangled Queen's "Somebody to Love." Still, at least he took his rejection in stride, unlike some of the camera bashers we saw on the episode. "I didn't puke or pee my pants or any of the stuff that I was scared about, so it wasn't that bad," he said.

Words to live by.

And it could have been worse. He could have been David Weed, who sucked at both singing (an inept Geddy Lee imitation on "Tom Sawyer" by Rush) and standup comedy (which he told Randy was his other dream).

Cable TV salesman Ben Purdom both belched and blew his nose extensively on TV before failing to impress with Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" and Nicki Minaj's "Super Bass," two of the weirder audition choices I think we've seen.

The good news is the auditions are almost done. Thursday's show, at 8 p.m. on CTV Two, brings us the final stop in St. Louis, Mo.

I'll be recapping it here. And if you're still watching, let me know what you think: here, on Twitter @realityeo or on my Facebook page. 

(The photos of Brittany Zika and Romeo Diahn are by Michael Becker for Fox.)

The X Factor: Steve, Nicole, Paula are gone

(Simon Cowell with fellow X Factor judges Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger in a Getty Images photo.)

When I saw a story yesterday saying that Steve Jones' days as X Factor host were numbered, I wasn't broken up about it.

To hear that Nicole Scherzinger is done as a judge makes me positively gleeful. She was way over her head on the panel and she deserved to be canned after her cowardice cost Rachel Crow her place on the show.

But Paula Abdul gone too? That's a shocker. For clues I turned to Deadline Hollywood, which broke the rumour about Paula's departure yesterday. The website, quoting sources, says neither Abdul, Scherzinger nor Jones left of their own accord.

Nicole's people floated the story that she asked Simon Cowell if she could leave to focus on her music career, to which I say good luck with that.

The only judge safe from Cowell's cuts was his sparring partner L.A. Reid.

The big question is who Simon will snag for the judges' panel to boost the ratings, which seems to be his goal, given the 12.5 million or so viewers the Wednesday shows delivered weren't in keeping with his goal of reality TV world domination.

And who on earth will host? Can they clone Ryan Seacrest?

Stay tuned.

The Bachelor: The naked truth (spoiler alert)

(Ben with Courtney, Casey, Lindzi, Jamie and Kacie in the PG section of The Bachelor in an ABC photo by Francisco Roman.)

There's only one question we really want the answer to after watching Monday's Bachelor episode?

Never mind "Who does Ben end up with?" Did Ben and Courtney get it on while they were skinny dipping in the ocean? That's what inquiring minds want to know.

I'm guessing Courtney would have liked to seal the deal, given how enthusiastically she wrapped her nude limbs around Ben's equally nude body parts, but the last we saw of them in the buff they were several feet apart in the water. So I'm thinking (hoping) Ben exercised at least some common sense and figured having carnal knowledge of a bachelorette before the officially sanctioned fantasy suite dates would be a no-no.

The next question is when or if the other girls will cotton on to Ben and Courtney's midnight rendezvous. When Ben confessed to feeling crappy about his "very intimate moment" with Courtney and owing "it to myself to be open with everyone," I was thinking we might get a confession along the lines of Ashley Hebert's "I saw Bentley again" reveal to her bachelors ... and you remember how well that went over.

But apparently Ben doesn't dip and tell. Courtney, on the other hand, was just dying to spill to the other women, even though she knew they'd "hate me forever and ever and ever." She even brought up the topic of skinny dipping with some of the other girls at the rose ceremony cocktail party.

Jennifer, little suspecting that a) Courtney had already bared it with Ben and b) that she herself would be going home soon, embraced the topic enthusiastically.

"If you had to pick a place to skinny dip, where would it be?" Jennifer asked Courtney.

"Puerto Rico in the full moonlight," replied Courtney with a glint in her eye.

If Jen's question had been more along the lines of "Where have you been skinny dipping?" the cocktail party would have got a lot more interesting very fast.

As it was, there was at least one surprise at the ceremony. I didn't see Jennifer's ouster coming. With Elyse getting the heave-ho on her one and only one-on-one date, I figured Rachel might bite it at the rose ceremony if Emily didn't get drummed out for harping to Ben -- again! -- about her mistrust of Courtney.

I thought Ben liked Jennifer. He certainly seemed to like kissing her, which he did unabashedly during the cocktail party. He also described their conversation as "easy," and he seems like a guy who really likes to talk, whereas every chat with Rachel, no matter the setting, seems awkward.

But nope, it was Jennifer who got to hiccup-sob in the back of an SUV, wondering what she had done wrong. (And can somebody not hand these poor women a tissue for their runny eyes and noses? They're wearing cocktail dresses, for gawd's sake, it's not like they can use a sleeve.)

Anyway, let's recap the rest of the visit to Vieques Island, Puerto Rico.

We had the obligatory "this is where it starts to get serious" voiceover from Ben and saw the girls checking into the luxurious W Resort and Spa Vieques. We also got a little taste of the Emily and Courtney drama. 

"I absolutely feel that Courtney's not good for Ben," said Emily. Courtney said Emily better watch her back. "If she slips up with me a few more times I will embarrass her so bad."

The first date card came for Nicki, whom Ben had connected with during the group date in Park City.

First rule of dates: the minute you hear the bachelorette say "What could possibly go wrong?" you know something will. So Ben and Nicki got rained out on their walking tour of Old San Juan, to the point that they had to buy dry clothes. Ben channelled his inner Ricardo Montalban by dressing all in white: white shirt, white pants, white shoes, plus "one of those sweet Colombian-looking hats." Lucky for him, it didn't pour rain again: wetness and white pants can be an embarrassing combination.

Ben was feeling turned on by the fact that Nicki could go with the flow, i.e. didn't have a hissy fit about the rain. And then they happened on a wedding in an old stone church, which was a perfect segue for Nicki to talk about her divorce (as you know, previous marriages are serious stuff on The Bachelor and divorced women are suspect unless they can prove they're not just man-hating harpies.)

Nicki passed the test, reassuring Ben that she wanted to marry again and that she'd been "a different person" when her marriage broke up. She got the date rose and some smooching and yes, there was tongue involved.

Next up was the group date. Nine of the remaining 11 women, Lindzi, Courtney, Jennifer, Kacie B., Emily, Rachel, Casey S., Jamie and Blakeley, got to play baseball at the Roberto Clemente Stadium in Carolina, Puerto Rico, with help from coaches for the Carolina Gigantes. 

But what started as a fun, athletic afternoon turned serious when Chris Harrison appeared. Channelling his inner Jeff Probst, he told the women they'd be split into teams and play against each other. The winners would get a romantic evening on the beach with Ben; the losers would head back to the camp, er, I mean their hotel, alone.

Red team Courtney, Kacie, Casey and Jamie faced off against blue team Blakeley, Emily, Jennifer and Rachel. Lindzi was chosen by Ben to play for both teams and got an automatic invite to the beach.

Despite having ringer Blakeley on their team ("Who knew that strippers could play baseball?" quipped Courtney), the blue team lost. From the tears and lamenting on the bus ride back to the hotel, you'd think they'd lost something important instead of a chance to fight with a bunch of other women to monopolize Ben's time.

I'm with Courtney on this one: "There's no crying in baseball; rub some dirt on it, walk it off."

On the beach, Courtney's chief rival, Kacie, scored the group date rose because of her ability to get Ben to open up, seeing as they conversed about Ben's unsuccessful past relationships and the fact he doesn't want to "come up empty again." Actually, I think Ben felt he owed Kacie the rose after changing his mind the week before and giving it to Courtney.

But Courtney wasn't so easily foiled. She lured Ben away from Kacie and the others for some kissing on the beach and told him she wanted some alone time, "you and me with a bottle of wine and skinny dipping."

Before we could get to that, though, Ben had to endure a one-on-one date with Elyse. I've been trying to figure out how she's hung on as long as she has, given I've seen no evidence of any chemistry between her and Ben. 

Poor Elyse was destined to be the bachelorette equivalent of Ryan P. (although hopefully she won't embarrass herself and come back to try to convince Ben to give her another shot). Ensconced on a big honking yacht with Ben, the personal trainer prattled on about all the life goals she'd crossed off her list, including getting undergraduate and master's degrees (I didn't know they had a master's in personal training), living in Florida, living on her own and having a serious relationship. Oh, and she quit her job and skipped her best friend's wedding to be on The Bachelor. No pressure.

Then she blurted out, "Let's just screw everyone else, let's get married here and make a wonderful life together." Oops. Next thing you know Ben proposed they jump off the side of the boat together, although I'm surprised he didn't jump alone and swim back to shore.

When they got to the dinner portion of the date, Ben told Elyse his relationships with some of the other women were "far past what we can ever get to at this point." He walked her to the shuttle boat, gave her a hug and sent her on her way with some blather about her being an "incredible woman."

Courtney's amusing assessment when a burly guy came to collect Elyse's suitcase, to the shock of the other girls, was "Maybe she drank too much and the Jersey Shore came out."

Courtney left the other women to mull it over while she snuck off to greet Ben outside his room in a bathrobe with a bottle of red wine and two glasses. Fresh from breaking Elyse's heart, Ben succumbed to Courtney's charms after she opened the robe and flashed her lace bra at him.

"I'm thinking to myself this probably isn't a good idea. At the same time I want to spend some time with her," Ben rationalized. So off they went and off came the clothes.

We already know that Ben and Courtney's secret was safe at the rose ceremony cocktail party.

There were two other developments of note. Frankly, I have a hard time believing that a competitive pressure cooker situation like The Bachelor is an ideal venue for women to hone their self-esteem, but Blakeley claimed that for the first time in her life she'd realized that she deserved someone like Ben. 

Ben was pleased with Blakeley's "epiphany," which he demonstrated by smooching with her. It appears she talked herself into a rose, since Ben said he'd been having doubts about her.

Emily, on the other hand, almost talked herself out of one. First she reassured Ben that she wasn't focusing on her differences with Courtney anymore, then she threw Courtney back under the bus.

"I would hate to be the one to watch things progress (between you) when I know there's some weird s--t going on and not sayign anything about it," Emily said.

"The moments I spend with each and every different woman, you have no idea what goes on in those moments," reprimanded Ben. "What I encourage you to do is just kind of drop it. Tread lightly, be careful; that's all I'm saying." 

As we know, Emily still got a rose, despite annoying Ben, along with Lindzi, Jamie, Rachel, Courtney, Casey and Blakeley, plus Kacie and Nicki already had date roses.

Those nine move on with Ben to Panama City, where Kacie, Courtney, Emily and Rachel will all get some smooching time with Ben, and Casey will get to do some crying. Word on the spoiler sites has been that Casey had a boyfriend back home. Seeing her crying in the back of a car in the promo certainly hints that she'll be leaving suddenly.

The more intriguing bits of the promo, for later in the season, showed some of the other girls ganging up, apparently to confront Ben about Courtney, and Ben pulling Courtney aside for a chat after saying he'd been betrayed. Will Courtney get her comeuppance? Don't bet on it, but it's fun to think she could.

Join me for another recap after next Monday's episode, at 8 p.m. on OMNI. And tell me what you thought about Courtney's skinny-dipping stunt or anything else that tickled your fancy: here, on Twitter @realityeo or on my Facebook page.