LOST: The Final Season!

Kim: Ooops, sorry! I mean .....

Perhaps my expectations were a little too high last evening, especially after last week's entertaining Idol show in Dallas, which was packed with talent! But last night’s AI one-hour show, with auditions from Denver, CO, which gave us Season 5 Idol Star Chris Daughtry, lacked any real serious talent. There was just no WOW factor at all. A total of 26 contestants got tickets punched to Hollywood, but I doubt we see any of them in the Final 10-15 spots. Victoria Beckham was again the guest judge, only thing is she still looks anorexic, and just how many times did she compliment a contestant's face, teeth, hair or clothing style and said absolutely nothing about the person's singing skills. This isn’t ‘Project Runway’ babe! Ugh!? Bring back Shania!

Of the 26 moving on, here’s my thoughts on the BEST that we got to hear and see in the Mile High City…..

· Mark Labrioal- 28 year old Jack Black look-alike from Aurora, Co. Sings “Tempted”, and has a surprisingly good voice. He also has a very questionable past, or at least his parents do. Seems as though mom may be running from the law in one of the 50 states somewhere! Doubt he makes it through Hollywood.

· Kimberly Kerbow- 24 year old student/single mom from CA. She’s certainly an attractive girl with a bubbly and boldpersonality, and also with a good voice….but a not-so-good wig, or at least that’s what Kara and Simon pointed out. I wouldn’t have caught it. Dark Horse for Top 24 because I think she’s got the personality and the looks, and she did get to Simon a bit.

· Danelle Hayes- 24 year old mom from Seattle, who doubles as a singer-songwriter and a karaoke host. Very emotional during the whole audition, has had a tough life preparing for her big break. She sings Melissa Etheridge’s “I’m The Only One” and does rather well. Great song choice for her, as she has a big, raspy voice, so it worked. Judges all love her, and I hope she goes far too! I have her as a lock for the TOP 24.

· Casey James- 27 year old musician from Austin, TX who had a very bad motorcycle accident at 21. Kara was ‘GA-GA’ over him, as was Beckham, and Kara even had him take his shirt off! Simon blasted him, saying he had "no charisma, no effort, no attempt," but the females loved him, so Randy was the tie-breaker and put him through to Hollywood. He won’t be there long, but could easily become a model if the singing career doesn’t work out.

· Tori Kelly- Very cute 16-year-old high school student from Kenny Lake, CA, who looks way more mature than 16. She sang John Mayer's "Gravity" and received 3 yes’s from the Judges, with Simon the only one who didn’t like her. I thought she had a nice voice with good pitch and range, so I’ll put her in the TOP 24!

· Nicki Nix- 22 year old from Florence, Italy who flew 14 hours to get to the audition. Talks very ‘nasally’ and sounds quite annoying, like she just sucked helium from a balloon! But when she sings, her voice becomes much deeper and she actually sounded pretty good. She gets 4 yes’s and if she can keep the talking to a minimum in Hollywood and ‘just sing’, she just may crack the Top 24! I’ll put her in as a ‘dark horse’.

· Haeley Vaughn- Another 16-year-old high school student who is hoping to become "the first black pop-country, kinda-mainstream singer." She boldly sings Carrie Underwood’s “Last Name” and shows that she has a strong voice with good range, with a likeable personality as well. Does have a lisp that could become an issue. She’s definitely got a niche to go after in wanting to become a black pop-country singer, but I doubt she goes very far at all in the competition.

The bottom line…. At the end of the day, we got 26 Golden tickets, but again, no real ‘knock your socks off’ performances. And for all the supposedly talented folks in Denver that Ryan Seacrest mentioned all night long, we only saw 7 of the 26 ticketed to Hollywood actually perform, a little over 25%! PLEASE FOX…..TAKE ME TO HOLLYWOOD ALREADY!

Fast Facts: For those keeping count, here’s a breakdown of Golden tickets handed out so far: 26 in Denver. 31 tickets in Dallas, 23 in Los Angeles, 31 in Orlando, 13 in Chicago, 25 in Atlanta and 32 in Boston.

Idol Chatter: We're FINALLY at the end of the early audition round! Additional audition footage from all cities will air on Fox tonight (Feb. 3) at 9 p.m. before the show heads into the highly competitive Hollywood rounds next Tuesday, Feb. 9. So remember to set the DVR’s for tonight’s show, which is on in a later time slot, from 9-10 PM.

More ‘Eddie Idol’ chatter to come after the FINAL auditions tonight on Fox, but first……Eddie needs a break!

Kim: Sorry peeps, I was absent last night -- it was the LOST Final Season Premiere!! And my head is still spinning from it!! What in the Sam Hell is going on???? Help me Jacob, Help me Locke, Help me Jack and please, oh please, Help me SAWYER!!!