First off, I want to apologize to our readers for my lack of blog posts yesterday.

I had originally hoped to blog every hour on the hour, but the lack of internet access in the immediate vicinity of the arena made it difficult.

If it weren’t for the good people at the Westgate City Center’s Coffee Plantation and their free Wi-Fi, I would have been completely screwed.

So here are my impressions of the first ever “American Idol� auditions in Arizona.

- Logistically, everything (at least on the outside of the arena) was very well done. It was like when they implode those older Las Vegas casinos. A lot of thought and precision went into the entire process. Rather than making everyone enter through Gate 1, Idol contestants were let into the gates closest to them in an extremely orderly fashion. All of the Fox security people that I witnessed were courteous and polite and even encouraging to the thousands of nervous 16-28 year olds outside of the venue. They were all in by 7:15 a.m. and people began leaving at around 9 a.m.

- Contestants were also very well-behaved. Granted I probably missed out on a thing or two, but it really seemed like problem Idols were kept to a minimum.

- The contestants that were cut (most of them) were just as congenial. We sat outside of the gate where they sent the rejected hopefuls for hours yesterday, and in that time, only a few people came out bawling or cursing. Most just hugged their family members, called people on their cell phones, talked to various national and local television crews then beelined it back to their cars. I did witness one teary-eyed reject yelling at her family because they were slow to leave…but as soon as they got their act in gear, she toned it down.

- If you missed today’s story in the paper, several Tucsonans we met before and during auditions made the cut. And several didn’t. And several wouldn’t return my phone calls (maybe the reception is worse than I thought in Phoenix.) Regardless, the number of Tucsonans trying out this year was impressive. It would be nice to see the Old Pueblo represent on this Fox ratings giant.

Here is a tally of those who I know tried out. I will try and provide updates early next week when I get in touch with some of the others.

Updated Note (7:16 a.m. 7/27/2008): Those mentioned to have made it to the next round in this post and today’s article were interviewed on-site. They had permission to talk to credentialed reporters.

In

Nicholas Gallardo
Genny Gaus
Brook Sample

Out

Clarissa Moran
Megan Lopez
Matthew Montoya
Nerih Barquin
Marc Sandin