Idol Auditions start August 8

From USATODAY.com

Here we go again.

American Idol will seek a fresh crop of singing stars when TV's top series starts its sixth-season audition tour Aug. 8 in Los Angeles.

Producers will visit seven cities, starting about a week earlier than last year, trekking from The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., to San Antonio, East Rutherford, N.J. (near New York City), Birmingham, Ala., Memphis and Minneapolis before winding up in Seattle on Sept. 19.

Three of those cities get their first visits from the Idol crowd: Memphis (which was dropped at the last minute last summer because of Hurricane Katrina), Minneapolis and Birmingham, the prolific hometown of previous winners Ruben Studdard and Taylor Hicks and runner-up Bo Bice.

"Because that's where so many of our Idols have come from, that's a must," says executive producer Nigel Lythgoe. "If they paid us a visit, we must pay them."

All of the auditions will shift indoors, to protect against the rain that soaked tryouts in Chicago, Boston and San Francisco last year and the stifling 105-degree heat that plagued Austin.

Otherwise, the song remains the same: Auditions are open to most anyone ages 16 to 28 as of Aug. 6 who's eligible to work in the USA. (Rules at americanidol.com).

Lythgoe expects 12 producers to see as many as 100,000 candidates in those cities during early rounds. About 1,000 will make it to a second round, where Lythgoe and executive producer Ken Warwick will cull the list to 250 — both good and bad — who will be visited this fall by Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul.

Idol, fresh off its highest-rated season yet, returns with audition segments in mid-January; live competition among 12 finalists is due in March. Lythgoe hopes to enlist Andrew Lloyd Webber and Carole King as guest stars.

Tags: American Idol 6