[First off, this disclaimer: I didn't audition -- the Wife did, so that's her story to tell. I know that her "Natural Woman" advanced her past the first screener to the "producer," which led to her walking out of that room with the traditional Idol reaction of glum, glum, then jumping-up-and-down-oh-my-God-I-did-it!; and can confirm her subsequent Facebook status update in which Jen stated she "finally understands the importance of song choice. 'Life is a Highway' did me no favors," which apparently led to the producer saying, "I'm sorry, it's a 'no'."]
The purpose of the auditions is to locate 6-7 groups of three performers each to perform in hourly shows before ~1000 people in a stunningly realistic approximation of the Idoldome:
The singers have a list of about 100 songs from which to choose, each with prerecorded backing tracks and edited down to ninety seconds, the same length as real-Idol performances. The winner of each show during the day -- based on audience voting on panels in the seat armrests -- moves on to the final show at 7pm each night. The winner of that show every day gets a "Dream Ticket" to bypass the lines at any real Idol audition in the future and proceed directly to the initial judges' screening. [Details at the FAQ. (PDF)]
The production values of the show are top-notch and authentic enough -- a lame warmup comedian, video packages and words of encouragement from formal Idol winners (plus a Jordin Sparks-led audience singalong video of "I've Got The Music In Me"), taped interviews with the contestants before each performs, live video of the performances on the monitors (and a clipped-together montage at the end before the audience vote), cutaways to the performers' friends in attendance, the Carbonated Beverage Hot Seat, an affable host and, yes, three judges:
If you're looking left-to-right, that is indeed Amiable Hefty Black Man Who Wears A Large Watch, Daffy Woman Who Praises Every Performer For Being Beautiful Before Evaluating The Singing, and Crabby Australian. Verisimilitude!
What's fascinating about all this is that in the land of when you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are, which promotes "Where Dreams Come True" as the slogan at the entrance, in this land that aims to fulfill all your hopes they've now embedded rejection as an experience for its guests -- rejection in private by the "producers," or rejection in public by the audience, and hundreds of people, every day, are signing up for it. They want the opportunity to succeed -- and are willing to be judged along the way -- and we all want to watch them, just like we do at home. It's a must-see attraction. [Just as long as you FastPass the Toy Story Midway Mania! first.]
[Another take is here.]
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