The eighth season of American Idol will begin auditions on Thursday July 17th in San Francisco. Other cities that will be holding try-outs for the hit singing competition show are Louisville, Kentucky; Phoenix, Arizona; Salt Lake City, Utah; Kansas City, Missouri; Jacksonville, Florida; East Rutherford, New Jersey; and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Any TV Squad readers going to sing for Paula, Randy and Simon? If I were to audition (and I won't), I think I'd sing something by Stevie Wonder (cause no one ever sings anything by him), or Mariah Carey (cause her songs are super easy), or maybe I'd just do my own composition and dedicate it to Simon (he likes that stuff).

More audition information is after the jump.

Ah, the infamous Seattle auditions. That was the show that caused all the controversy. Simon was too cruel. The parade of wacko contestants was relentlessly brutal. Before the show even aired, Simon had publicly denounced the Seattle turnout as "the worst bunch of miserable contestants EVER." Even Paula agreed, labeling the auditioners as "unusually fantastically delusional."

Seattle was the butt of Idol's jokes, deemed a pool of untalented crazies. Yet here we are, down to the Top 24, and the last laugh may be on Simon. A total of FIVE semifinalists were found in that "atrocious" city. In comparison, only one semifinalist was found in Birmingham, lovingly dubbed "Idol Country" by the show's writers.

(S06E07) We're in San Antonio, Texas, home of the Alamo. There's lots of history at this location, but will we make American Idol history tonight?

It's the last stop on this year's audition tour, and what a tour it's been. I'm beat. I'm ready to wrap up these auditions and move on to the real competition. But first we see 11,000 people packed into the Alamo Dome as the Rawhide theme plays. An interesting tidbit: The Rawhide theme was originally sung by 1950s crooner Frankie Laine, who died today at the age of 93.

Back in San Antonio, the judges arrive, and Simon is cranky and suffering from jet lag. Poor Simon.

The people behind the FOX megahit say that a bombshell is coming to the show in midseason. To quote producer Cecile Frot-Coutaz, it's "something that will blow America away."

Hmmm ... what could this possibly be? A viewer at home has a chance to win a million dollars? All of the contestants are robots? Ryan Seacrest is going to reveal that he's ... Catholic (hey, where did you think I was going with that?).

Maybe they're going to do a crossover with another FOX show. Maybe bad guys will take over the studio and hold everyone hostage, and then it's up to Jack Bauer to rescue everyone and clear the phone lines so America can get through and vote for their favorite singer.

The new season starts on January 16.

[via TV Tattle]

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