At least, the little bit of it that the wildly popular talent hunt's vast audience got to see.
Like the wannabes who auditioned for judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson as Idol began its seventh season, Philly had a minimal amount of time to strut its stuff. Each segment of the two-hour show on Fox opened with shots of the city and host Ryan Seacrest reading a narration that sounded as if it might have come from prep material for contestants on Fox's Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
"Philadelphia has a rich history," Seacrest intoned, reminding us that the Declaration of Independence was signed here and Betsy Ross and Ben Franklin both lived here. "Now, it's the first stop on our audition tour, and Philly is making history all over again as our biggest crowd ever showed up to audition." (Idol executive producer Noel Lythgoe has put the number at more than 20,000.) The show included plenty of shots of the contestants jamming a parking lot at the Wachovia Center, where the auditions were held on Aug. 27.
Philadelphia came away without so much as a sneer from the famously sarcastic Cowell. In fact, there was almost no hint at all of interaction between the judges and the city, except for a shot of Abdul receiving a warm greeting from a fan. Cowell, Abdul and Jackson were seen almost entirely in an audition room that could have been anywhere.
As usual in the early rounds of Idol, last night's program had a freak show quality. There were some stunningly bad performances and obscenity –laced meltdowns by disappointed auditioners. "As you would expect in the city that produced the Constitution, people were not shy about using their right to free speech," Seacrest said.
The weirdness trophy had to go to Ben Haar, 27, of Newark, Del., who went out and got his chest waxed because Abdul said she was put off by the amount of chest hair his bizarre costume was revealing. But New Hope comedian Paul Marturano, 32, made it a contest. Marturano, aka Pauly Nipple, contributed to the weirdness quotient with "Stalker," a song he said he had written for Paula Abdul. "I'm not much of a talker, so I guess that I'll just stalk her," he sang. Abdul, perhaps not totally thrilled with Marturano's comedy, shrank toward Jackson, while Cowell decided he'd heard enough. "That was really creepy," he told Marturano. "There's something very disturbing about you."
Amid the craziness was the kind of real talent Idol was meant to discover.
Joey Catalano, 19, of Mays Landing, wowed the judges with Maroon 5's "Sunday Morning."
"Great voice," Cowell said. "Based on the first round, I think you've done very well, Joey. Very , very well."
Junot Joyner, 25, of Bowie, Md.; Jose Candelaria, 23, Bayonne, N.J.; Jonathan Baines, 17, of Smyrna, Del.; Angela Martin, 26, of Chicago, Kristy Lee Cook, 23, of Selma., Ore.; Beth Stalker, 28, of Grand Blanc, Mich.; Brooke White, 24, of Van Nuys, Calif.; and Chris Watson, 20, of Dover, Del., all made it to the next round.
"I want to be a legend," said Watson, who has dreadlocks and a killer smile. "I don't want to be the typical artist. I want to sell more records after I'm dead and gone than when I'm alive." Watson sang "Follow Me," by Uncle Kracker.
But before he can become a legend, Watson has to become an idol. The field he'll have to beat will grow tonight when the audition tour moves to Dallas.
Contact staff writer Michael D. Schaffer at 215-854-2537 or mschaffer@phillynews.com.
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