I had this week’s episode, featuring Season 3’s Atlanta Auditions, of American Idol Rewind sitting on my computer…and I nearly forgot about it!
It was the summer of 2003, and Ryan Seacrest looks malnourished and overly tipped and frosted. Heh. Paula Abdul looks beautiful, healthy, and appears to be semi-coherent. Randy Jackson had just come off his gastric bypass and lost a bunch of weight. And Simon Cowell actually seems interested in his job, rather than bored out of his skull.
In between the bad auditions, they do manage to re-visit the auditions of contestants who made it into the Top 12. Featured this week are Jennifer Hudson, Fantasia Barrino and Amy Adams. Jennifer had just finished a Disney cruise, and the judges got a chuckle out of that. They stopped laughing after she opened her mouth to sing. Fantasia’s audition is made of all kinds of win. And Amy Adams, that season’s “red haired girl”, is on hand for a present-day interview.
I was poking around TWOP and found the schedule for this current season, and I’ve posted it after the jump. There are 22 episodes, and only the first 7 cover Season 3, the rest of the 15 are devoted to Season 4. Five of the Season 3 episodes are devoted to the auditions, the other two to the Top 10 episodes. Totally skipped are Season 3’s Hollywood Week, the semi-finals and wildcard rounds. I’m know I’m in the minority, but I would have liked to have seen at least a little more of the season covered. At the very least, the audition rounds could have been condensed to allow some highlights from the semis and Hollywood.
After the jump, check out the schedule, and audition videos from Jennifer Hudson, Fantasia Barrino and Amy Adams.
Videos after the JUMP…
301 Season 3 Auditions- New York
302 Season 3 Auditions- Atlanta
303 Season 3 Auditions- LA/SF
304 Season 3 Auditions- Houston
305 Season 3 Auditions- Hawaii
306 Season 3 Most Memorable Moments (Top 12 to 6)
307 Season 3 Most Memorable Moments (Top 6 to Finale Results)
308 Season 4 Auditions- Washington DC
309 Season 4 Auditions- Cleveland/ Orlando
310 Season 4 Auditions- St. Louis
311 Season 4 Auditions- New Orleans
312 Season 4 Auditions- Las Vegas
313 Season 4 Auditions- San Francisco
314 Season 4 Hollywood Week Special
315 Season 4 Semifinal Special
316 Season 4 12 to 10
317 Season 4 10 to 8
318 Season 4 8 to 6
319 Season 4 6 to 4
320 Season 4 4 to 2
321 Season 4 Finale and Results
322 Season 4 Carrie Underwood Special
Jennifer Hudson:
Fantasia:
Amy Adams:
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And still I think they punk’d us by putting Fantasia through.
I kinda miss hot-mess Jennifer and her eclectic choice of clothing :-)
Hmmm … I’d never seen the auditions for this season before, so thank you, MJ, for posting these. I started watching AI for the first time that season, around Top 10, I think, and I don’t recall Amy at all. But I do wonder if David Cook watched Amy’s audition video before he selected the hair color he was sporting when he auditioned for Simon, Randy and Paula. Maybe he figured he could be season 7’s “redhead” even if the judges didn’t like his voice!
I love how Simon asks Jennifer, “Have you tried to get a recording contract?”, like it’s the easiest thing in the world. It’s all about image…and whether you’ve won any major awards, like maybe, an Oscar. Even then, they’ll Photoshop the heck out of you. Hollywood!
I wish they would show Hollywood week. That is more interesting to me than all those auditions.
Fannie’s audition was incredible. She is amazing!
Thanks for these videos, mj. I’d never seen them, particularly Fantasia’s audition, before.
I’m disappointed about this. I started watching part way through Season 3, and had wanted to play catch-up. I don’t really like the audition episodes, so I don’t know that I’ll bother to watch much of the Season 3 stuff until they get to those last couple of post-audition episodes that MJ mentions.
My favorite audition from that show was Lauren Emswiler (unfortunately, she was robbed early on in Hollywood week)…
Lisa Leuschner was another one who, in my opinion, was robbed during Season 3. They shut her right out of the Wildcard Round. Hopefully, we’ll at least see an audition.
Lisa was definitely robbed. She didn’t audition in Atlanta though…
No. I believe it was San Francisco.
I wish I cared enough to track down the original episode for comparison to see what stuff they took out to add in what I’m sure is never-before-seen stuff (Fantasia’s “Killing Me Softly” and Boomie’s audition).
Oh, man! She was SO robbed. I remember when they had to write songs in the Hollywood round and hers was this funny little ditty. I was always bummed she didn’t reaudition in Season 4; she would’ve been much more entertaining than Farmbot.
OTOH, I’m one of the few who never cared for Lisa Leuschner. She just bugged the crap out of me for some reason.
I only started watching this year. When you mentioned Amy Adams and red hair I thought of the actress Amy Adams who has strawberry blonde hair. I had to watch the clip to see if it was she. Of course it wasn’t , but I did like this Amy Adams- she has lots of personality. Is she still active in the industry? I tried googling her but haven’t found anything yet.
I’m not sure what AI’s Amy Adams has been up to lately. She has been one of the quietest Idols.
Wow. Now I clearly remember why I was not on the JHud bandwagon of fans who thought she got robbed. It was clearly a no-brainer to pass her through to Hollywood, but that over the top, eyerolling, boomtastickness needed a few edges polished off, for sure.
Glad she’s found success; still not much of a fan.
Regarding the short shrift that is the season 3 rewind, I seem to remember that season three was a lot of unsure, immature performances, and a season’s worth of field days for the judges to exercise their more merciless impulses. (I hate to admit that’s part of what hooked me on the show.)