One hundred-and-ninety-three American Idol IV contestants were flown to Hollywood to compete for a recording contract and stardom. Sadly, the "Shadenfreude Crew" is gone. No more laughing hysterically at the ridiculous American Idol 2005 not-a-chance-in-heaven-or-hell wannabes. No more "Do you really believe they think they can sing?" statements from the living room. Now it's all business. And serious business at that.

In Day One of the First Round of "American Idol Boot Camp," only forty-eight of the first 103 contestants made it into the group round.

The winner of American Idol IV will receive a $2 million recording contract. Their dream of performing in front of live audiences, and in recording studios which will allow for their voice to be heard by an even broader audience, will become reality -- in a big way -- in just three more months.

Whose career will be born this season?

Who will join Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard and Fantasia Barrino?

On Tuesday, 28.6 million viewers tuned into FOX to see which contestants survived Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell's first cuts at the Orpheum Theater in Hollywood.

193 contestants out of over 100,000 continued to try to fulfill a dream.

The judges and producers of the most popular tv show in the country invested a significant portion of last summer visiting seven of America's greatest cities to find these 193.

Their mission: To select the top twenty-four contestants for their upcoming show, one of whom will be the next American Idol.

On the first day of American Idol auditions in Hollywood, the contestants had to pick one of twelve songs selected by the producers of the show.

Unforgettable, Ain't No Mountain High Enough and Stevie Wonder's You Are The Sunshine of My Life were three of the most popular.

The kids, ages 16-28, had one week to memorize the melody and the lyrics to their chosen song.

It took two-days of auditions in Hollywood to watch 193 contestants perform. Their first audition was a solo performance -- save a pianist and three back-up singers.

Those who made it through the first round were invited to perform next in groups of three.

The contestants selected to sing on the second day of the solo performances were treated to a trip to the California coast, as well as to the set of another popular tv show created by the FOX network.

Those who made the cut on the first day of auditions must have had even more fun at the beach than Francisco, a grateful guy from New York, who was moved to tears to be looking at a Pacific coast sunset.

This week, America began to see the many sides of the talented contestants profiled during their initial audition in Washington D.C. with guest judge, Mark McGrath, in New Orleans, in St. Louis, in Las Vegas with guest judge, Kenny Loggins, in Orlando, Cleveland and San Francisco with guest judge Brandy.

Some we became more fond of. Some we were glad to hear they were heading home.

This morning, on the way to school, I asked my two daughters (ages seven and nine) whether there was any one contestant, thus far, who they would want to be if they were on this year's show.

My nine year-old quickly answered, "I don't think we've gotten to know them well enough yet to say, for instance, 'I would like to be Carrie Underwood, the farm girl from Oklahoma'."

My seven year-old, without missing a beat, said, "I know who I would like to be from last year's American Idol."

In unison, we all asked, "Who's that?"

"Diana DeGarmo," she said with an exclamation point.

Regardless of who our kids will want to emulate by the time this year's winner is selected, one thing is for sure; they are learning how not to behave.

Where the past two week's shows provided a good lesson on how not to sing or dress for an audition, this week's shows taught our kids how not to act when sleep-deprived, tongue-tied, under pressure, and in the face of bitter disappointment.

One can't help but be taken with these contestants' sense of entitlement.

For so many who are not selected to go on, they do not hesitate to lash out at the judges, other contestants or the camera, rather than looking at themselves and saying, "How could I have done better?"

Hopefully, this introspection will come when watching themselves on national tv to an audience of nearly thirty million people.

At least the producers of the show did a good job teaching the contestants to be respectful on-stage if told, "I'm afraid this is the end of the road for you."

Speaking of Carrie Underwood, we loved her response to host Ryan Seacrest when he asked, "Have you seen any stars?"

Do you remember her response?

She said, "It's been pretty cloudy," as she looked up and pointed to the sky.

When Seacrest clarified that he meant a different kind of celestial body of hot gases, i.e., "celebrities", she was quick on her feet.

Underwood responded, "No, no. Just you!" pointing to the host of the show.

Of the first ten performers to audition, on Monday night we got a taste of how four of them did in front of the judges.

In a sudden-death vote, with no words of comfort, those who got either a unanimous "yes" or 2 out-of-three were:

Carrie Underwood, a 21 year-old from Checotah, Oklahoma

Carrie is so popular, she already has two fan club web sites. If you're a fan of Carrie Underwood's, go to:

Jaclyn Crum, a 16 year-old from Gahanna, Ohio

Sara Mather, a 22 year-old from Wilmington, North Carolina, was invited to Hollywood by guest judge, Mark McGrath along with Paula, Simon and Randy.

On January 18th, Mather was one of eight singers highlighted on the show. She was one-out-of-forty-three lucky singers to receive a golden ticket from the Washington D.C. auditions last August.

Tamesha Foote, a 23 year-old from St. Louis, Missouri, promised her identical twin baby girls that she would not disappoint them.

Unfortunately, she wasn't able to get it together with her accompanist during her solo performance in Hollywood. As a result, she ended up singing Ain't No Mountain High Enough entirely off-key. It's too bad she didn't stop immediately to get in sync with the musician supporting her on piano.

The Mens' Turn

Anthony Federov, a 19 year-old from Trevose, Pennsylvania was introduced to us a few weeks in the first auditions of the season.

As a child, he overcame a tracheotomy. During an interview with Ryan Seacrest he said, "It is a magical experience just to be here."

Anthony got the nod to move ahead in the competition.

For twenty-two year-old Michael Luizza, who did a bang-up job in New Orleans, his distinct, unique quality went flat in Hollywood.

Fortunately, he was one of the few, who had a great attitude after his performance.

He said, "I'll just have to change the world in some other way."

Rashida Johnson had a cold coming off the plane and was beginning to lose her voice. Nonetheless, her vocal coach at the auditions was there to pump her up. Her coach said, "Nobody has 100% of their voice. That's alright. Use what God gave you for right now."

And that she did!

But you wouldn't have known it, at first, as Simon prepared to either send her home to her mom or move her forward in the competition.

Johnson went out on the stage, promised to "work hard in good and bad times". She promised to represent the creators of the show in the right way.

The twenty-eight year-old from South Ozone Park gave a sultry performance.

Afterwards, Simon said:

Hi Rashida. [pause]

Ah, Rashida. We were unanimous. [pause. pause]

You're through to the next round.

Paula echoed Simon's vote of confidence. She said, "We love you."

In utter disbelief, Johnson thanked the judges and then exited stage left in tears.

Other contestants told the judges why they should become the next American Idol.

Many talked about being an inspiration to other people.

Others spoke about being a role model.

A few were nearly as creative as last year's winner, Fantasia Barrino.

Where Barrino spoke of her lips being big but her talent bigger, others got air time by saying, "I want to be the American Idol because...

I think it will give me a better chance of meeting Johnny Depp.

I'm worth idolizing.

Bald is beautiful.

I am 'FFT.' That's fat, fashionable and of course, talented.

I enunciate.

I clean up well.

I look like I sound.

I'm a nice Greek boy.

An African American guy wearing shades said, "I'm Simon's little brother."

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

There was no mountain high enough to put into words how Amanda Avila, Travis Tucker and Lindsey Cardinale must have felt after making it into the next round. We can only imagine.

Amanda Avila from Las Vegas was the next contestant profiled on Tuesday night.

If you remember, she is the Treasure Island performer from Las Vegas.

Where Avila was move onward and upward, it was the end of the road for Richard Molfetta.

Molfetta first auditioned in New Orleans together with his twin brother, JP.

After Richard's second attempt in Las Vegas, the judges said "yes" to his solo performance.

His brother JP also tried again, but received no ticket to Hollywood.

However, for as much talent as he may have had, he also came with a very foul mouth.

Where Rich's performance in Hollywood did not go over well (he got a unanimous "no"), fortunately his mouth had cleaned up since hangin' with his brother.

After receiving the bad news, he said: "I usually don't choke. But I choked...Such is life."

Sean McNeill, the youth pastor from Plymouth Mass, was the one who talked about the assets of being bald.

He also has a voice that shines.

After a painful pause, Simon gave Sean a simple "yes". McNeill had made it to the next round.

Ross Williams, the crooner from Portland, Oregon got a unanimous "yes" on his solo performance.

Nadia Turner, the twenty-seven year-old gal from Miami, Florida with the "big hair" sang Stevie Wonder.

The judges liked her performance. They liked it a lot.

"A unanimous yes" is what she got from the three judges.

David Brown, the nineteen year-old from New Orleans, also sang You Are The Sunshine of My Life.

He too got the judges vote of approval.

Paula said, "This is also a unanimous yes, yes, yes."

Brown immediately called his mom to share the good news.

Scott Savol, the twenty-eight year-old from Shaker Heights, Ohio who auditioned in Cleveland, was likewise voted into the next round.

All three judges also gave him the thumbs up.

Anwar Robinson, the twenty-six year-old music teacher from Newark, New Jersey continued to be one of our favorites.

Simon was understated in his praise. "See you tomorrow," was all he said. Robinson graciously said, "Thank you," as he stepped back, so that the next contestant could step forward and be judged.

Jeffrey Johnson, the twenty-seven year-old from Irving, Texas was the only one of the five in this initial group to get the "I'm afraid it's a no" from Simon.

The Road To The Orpheum Theater

Shunta Warthen, a twenty-three year-old from Burlington, New Jersey, got on the wrong bus the morning of her audition.

Thanks to the encouragement of her fellow competitors, she jumped off the bus and into the first taxi she could find that would take her to the Orpheum Theater.

Warthen not only made it to the audition in time, she made it through to the next round.

Was Randy trying to fool us when he shook his head "no" but then said yes?

Mr. Jackson looked as if he was about to deliver bad news to Shunta.

Instead he said, "It's unanimous. It's a yes; we'll see you tomorrow."

Ryan Seacrest said, "Well, for the first time today, Shunta is finally headed in the right direction."

Regina Brooks, a twenty-eight year-old, Belpre, Ohio wife and mother was the contestant who pawned her wedding rings to stay for her D.C. audtion.

Despite her sacrifice, we would not see her continue after her first audition in Hollywood.

She belted out Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Fortunately, she still has a supportive husband and child at home.

Unfortunately, her reaction afterwards was not idol material. She said, "I'd rather just be crappy and not have to expect anything from anybody."

Fifty-four other contestants received "no" votes on the first day of auditions.

48 lucky, talented people made it through.

Ninety more to go.

Inspire & Be Inspired.

Here's to healthy, adventuresome, soulful, "survival of the most talented at The Orpheum" living!

~ Jennifer Carolyn King