The San Diego show opened with cocky Tatiana, who from our perspective was a little forgettable. Simon thought she was OK, but not great, but she did get a ticket through to Hollywood. You never know, she might do well - anyone described by Simon Cowell as ‘obnoxious’ must be doing something right!


Perrie Cataldo was the next to get through to the next stages of the competition - a single father, who’s wife was lost in January 2005 in tragic circumstances. The Idol audience loves a tragic back story, and so if he makes it through to the Live shows he’s bound to pull in the votes. What’s more, his rendition of Boyz II Men’s ‘I’ll make love to you’ was heart-felt and pretty impressive.


Aussie Michael Johns (he lives in LA so didn’t have to travel that far) had Simon tell him “You’re like a white soul singer”. I’m sure we’ve heard that before (Taylor Hicks, anyone?), but this guy has good looks over Taylor, so could be in with a great shot of the American Idol title.


Of course, it wasn’t all good on the West Coast, and they had their fair share of shockingly bad auditions: Valerie Reyes was probably the standout. She went in to the auction thinking she was Mariah Carey, and left thinking about the shame of being the ‘rejects’ show. As she put it herself: so not cool…