First Ten Group Adventures:
The first ten contestants were treated to a week of fun, food and excitement. The first adventure we were able to see them on was a boat trip across the Sydney Harbor where they were getting to know one another and have some relaxation. Some of the crew were getting along better than the others, with Daniel Spillane flirting quite a bit with Jade-Lori. Jade and others were seen phoning friends to tell them what cool stuff they were getting up to while others were busy taking photos and having a rest. The trips full of laughs and fun, they’re making the most of the experience of being in the top 30 of Australian Idol.

Next up is the Solo Performances and the decision that could change someone’s life… The nomination of the top 30.

One might think that since the judges have managed to cull 149 to 59 that the next step might be quite easy, cut the next group in half and that’s the top 30, but this is no easy task. Earlier on the judges said that this could be the best top 12 in Australian Idol’s history, so if they decide on the wrong people they could have seriously screwed up their ratings and credibility (that is if any of them have any credibility in the first place).

This is going to be a full of performances, outside it’s raining and the 59 remaining contestants fill the studio and start to get themselves in the zone, psyching themselves up for what could be the most important gig in their lives… The stakes are high, the contestants are many.

We join the Idol hopefuls after a long night of practicing and stress, and a very short night of sleep. Today they will have to audition in groups of 3 and then, if they are lucky perform a solo in front of the judges.

6am all the Idol contestants are slowely waking up, some slower than others and some seem to be stressing a lot more than they would like to. Today it’s make or break and with the boys singing first we’re going to see a large number of people crashing and burning as their group auditions seriously fail to impress the judges.

First up is Michael Barry, Jarid Williams and an unnamed contestant who fail dismally in their performance, it’s out of tune, its badly timed and it’s very easy to spot that the nerves had got the best of them this time. Michael stops mid song and looks like his hopes had been shattered before rejoining the muddled mess of an audition.

During the promotional footage for next week's "Top 150" show there was a close up of a contestant that might look slightly familiar to those of you who watched the ill-fated X-Factor in 2005.

The image was of Jacob Butler, the rock-dude who was "mentored" by Kate Cebrano and who decided to leave after it came down to either him or his team mate. Jacob might also be remembered for sticking his finger up at the camera when his name came up with one of the lowest votes.

It seems that while the Idol contract states that if one gets beyond the top 50 they are not able to audition in the next year's show there is no such clause for failed contestants on other talent shows, even the X-Factor.

Tonight we'll be tortured over and over again by the worst of what NSW threw at the Australian Idol judges at the NSW auditions. It's highly unlikely that we'll get to see many great performances as last night we saw 8 from WA and 23 from Adelaide go through to Sydney but only saw 9 of the successful auditions.

For those of you not mathematically inclined, that was only 29% of the successful performances from last night.

So, from 730pm tonight Idol continues...

Sydney, it’s time to prove yourself…

It took 3 full days of judging to get through all of the auditions in Sydney, from people dressed up as Ronald McDonald and Batman to guitar-playing-beanie-clad young people waiting for their audition.

Queensland: 41

Victoria/Tasmania: 33

Perth: 8

Adelaide: 23

NSW: 44

Total through to Sydney: 149...

But the final audition show said there were 150?

Adelaide:
Andy and James walked around Adelaide hugging their fans, yes, the Idol Train has well and truly entered the City of Churches.

Guy Sebastian visited the home town Idol hopefuls to encourage the crew to audition…

I’m going to start the poo poo list again, scroll down to the bottom of the post to read it…

Through:
Josh Williams – a 16 year old lad from the UK sang a nice song, but had a good package going, attractive, young, nice smile and polite. Josh got 3 yes votes and rushes to work to tell his colleagues about his good news.

A number of hopefuls made it through, but we missed all their auditions because Andy G and James wanted to moon a church and the editors found the painful auditions funnier to watch. Seriously, why do we have to watch crap auditions over the ones that made the judges think that they had something to offer?

Recap:
Queensland and Victoria
Kyle endearing himself to the public.

Introduction:
Tonight we’re going to Adelaide and Perth, we’ll see some Guy action and we’ll get to see the judges kick over a table…

We start off in Perth, Western Australia where James gives a bit of a tourism promotion prior to showing us the hoards of people who were waiting to audition.

First up is Jayden Lewis Winter who is interviewed by James and asked for his influences, he lists off a number of musicians that I can’t be bothered to type out, but one of them is U2. Jayden says that without being too cocky he is fantastic and heads in to the audition. Jayden stands up to the judges and looks like he’s experiencing some kind of constipation while he sings, “it’s not pretty to watch

Hear that sound?

Yes, it’s the sound of another season of Australian Idol! So grab your popcorn, a quilt, a nice mug of hot chocolate and a pair of earplugs because it’s highly likely that you’ll need them. Prepare yourselves, because in just moments you’ll be a part of Australia’s biggest search.

Channel 10 is doing some cross-over-reality-tv with the final couple of weeks of the current season of Big Brother still to go and the new series of Australian Idol just about to premier I fear that Australia will have reality-tv overload.

Just think of all the cash that they'll be raking in through sms' and competitions...

Yes, that's right... from 7.30pm tonight (26th July) the new season of Australian Idol kicks off in a one hour audition spectacular, over the next few episodes we'll see all of the good and the bad that Australia has to offer. We'll also get to check out how the new judge on the block Kyle Sandilands fits in with the two remaining judges. Apparently Kyle's been told to play nice and not upset Marcia, however the promotional material up to now has been selling him as the new "bad boy" of the Idol competition.

Sydney 2Day FM breakfast radio host Sandilands has been chosen to step into Dicko's shoes alongside Hines and fellow judge Mark Holden.