Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Feel like taking a trip to Los Angeles later this month?

If so, there’s still time to audition for season 10 of American Idol.

Idol completed visits to its initial six audition cities — including East Rutherford, N.J. — last month.

But on Thursday, the show announced a seventh audition, set for Sept. 22 in Los Angeles.

That’s despite what executive producer Ken Warwick called “an exceptional turnout — both in the number of people auditioning and the level of their talent” at the first six cities.
“Los Angeles has always delivered great talent, and so we feel it only fitting that we end our 10th season audition tour here in our home city,” he said.

You can learn more about how the Los Angeles audition will work here.

My guess is that this is something of a stall tactic.

The show would normally be doing callback auditions about now. Those require the presence of the judges.

Instead, there still hasn’t been an announcement of who will be judging season 10.

We know Simon Cowell is gone. We know Ellen DeGeneres is gone. I’m hoping media reports are correct and Kara DioGuardi is gone as well.

At the Emmys, Nigel Lythgoe, returning to Idol in an executive producer role for season 10, said he believes only Randy Jackson is under contract for season 10.

CBS is reporting today that Jennifer Lopez is close to finalizing a contract to judge the show. Rumors persist that Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler has already secured a spot at the judge’s table.

Meanwhile, the season nine Idol summer tour wrapped up earlier this week in Indianapolis.

The venue was 70 percent empty, but the season nine contestants still put on an entertaining show, according to this review on Indystar.com.

But given the lack of interest in the summer tour — several dates were canceled because of lackluster ticket sales — you have to wonder about the post-Idol careers of everyone but Lee DeWyze and Crystal Bowersox, who already have record deals with 19 Recordings Limited and RCA Records.

Look for debut albums from them before the end of the year.