The Orlando Sentinel had a bit of a spoiler of sorts about tonight's episode:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/enter...l-home-entlife
Keep your eye on 2 Orlando singers on tonight's 'Idol'
The City Beautiful and Cleveland share billing on the popular series. Judges say competition is tough.
By Hal Boedeker | Sentinel Television Critic
Posted February 1, 2005
Orlando's big moment on television's most popular series will be abbreviated tonight. The City Beautiful shares the American Idol spotlight with Cleveland, and the hurricanes could be partly to blame.
The Fox reality series' visit to Orlando in August, between Charley and Frances, stunned producers.
"Turnout wasn't as much as in other cities," says executive producer Ken Warwick. "But we got some good kiddies there. The talent is there."
Keep your eye on two singers when the Orlando portion airs in the hour episode's second half. The program starts at 8 on WOFL-Channel 35.
"You've got one very good boy from Orlando and one very good girl," Warwick says. "There are two that are in the show that stay in the competition and do very well in it."
Because of the hurricanes, American Idol flew the top Orlando contenders to Las Vegas to sing for judges Randy Jackson, Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul.
"We couldn't get the judges in because of the weather," Warwick says. "We've never had problems because of the weather."
The show was supposedly going to have ratings problems with its fourth edition. Reality series usually decline as they age. But 33.6 million tuned in to the Jan. 18 season premiere, the biggest audience this season for an entertainment program.
The next three episodes have averaged more than 26 million. The Tuesday and Wednesday editions of Idol have become the No. 1 and 2 series this season, overtaking CSI and Desperate Housewives.
Abdul says this competition will be tighter than last season, when eventual victor Fantasia Barrino was an obvious contender.
"This time around, you're going to have a tough time saying goodbye to these kids," Abdul says. "They are that good. . . . And I think because of Fantasia winning, she kind of woke up the ones who would be skeptical about auditioning."
Cowell likes the contest's unpredictability and says he never would have given Clay Aiken a contract at first sight. (Aiken was the runner-up to winner Ruben Studdard in the second edition.)
"I would have been wrong, because the competition has turned him into a star," Cowell says. "I don't want 24 people who all look like what our perception of pop stars is. It should be the American musical dream, this show, where someone who wouldn't have been given a chance, like Clay, gets to do well."
Jackson predicts that a boy will win this year. Warwick hopes for a more balanced competition between the sexes than last year, when Barrino and other women dominated.
The show visited seven cities for auditions, and six of the stops were new. American Idol devoted full episodes to Washington, St. Louis, New Orleans and Las Vegas. It will do the same Wednesday with San Francisco, the only repeat stop from last year.
Abdul and Jackson agree that New Orleans and St. Louis were the standouts. The show has seen about 103,000 hopefuls this year.
In Orlando, the show heard many theme-park employees and a good deal of Broadway and movie music.
"Disney-esque themes are very popular," Warwick says.
"It was better than I thought it was going to be," Jackson says.
In Central Florida, American Idol also drew some strange performers, and those singers tend to boost the ratings in the early rounds because of their shock value.
"Wherever we go, we get off-the-wall characters," Warwick says. "They're delusional. You can't say, 'You're no good.' They're not having it."
So how did Orlando stack up to the other stops?
"Pretty well," Warwick says, "considering the turnout was mitigated."
Hopefully we get some eye candy this year...last year was BAD for that. And let's all hope nobody like that football player guy makes it this time...I couldn't deal 
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