Rate & Predict American Idol

While analyzing the screen times for our Top 24 contestants, I noticed there were a chunk of contestants that we met during the initial auditions, but never heard from again.  Most were forgettable, but there were a couple that received a lot of initial screen time, and I personally wonder how they performed during Hollywood Week, or if they attended at all!

Here are a few contestants from the first 8 audition episodes who were never explicitly mentioned in the 4 Hollywood Week episodes.

• Chris Golightly – Definitely the most controversial of the non-mentions, Chris had reportedly made the Top 24 before being disqualified, and replaced by Tim Urban.  Rewind the final moments of the final Hollywood Week episode, and you’ll see Chris off to the right side of the screen, among the Top 24 finalists.  You can read more about this on other Idol blogs, like Joe’s Place.
• Mike Davis – Boston contestant who worked as an “actor” on the Codzilla speedboat.  Singing The Beatles’ Yesterday, he was described as a confident young man.  I didn’t think he was very good.
• Holly Harden – The Atlanta contestant who dressed up as a guitar.  For such a big personality, I would have thought she would be shown again.
• Jim Ranger – The worship pastor from the Los Angeles audition.  There were questions about whether he could handle his commitments to family and church.  However, I believe he was shown bobbing his head during Andrew Garcia’s “Straight Up” performance.  He ended up being cut at the same time as our favorite country girl, Vanessa Wolfe.
• Joshua Blaylock - The contestant who lacked confidence, whom Simon said had a good voice for a 13-year-old, who also told Simon to shut up (please).  They never called him out, but he got eliminated on Day 1, in the same line as beatboxer Jay Stone and former Barney kid Erica Rhodes.
• Danelle Hayes - The karaoke host with a 3-year old son.  She broke down during the audition.  I thought she had a great voice, and could flourish in the competition, but unfortunately, it seems she had some legal trouble that the producers did not want to deal with.