You can read our view on various auditions from the opening night of American Idol by clicking here.

Here's how another blogger, from The San Francisco Gate, looked at the competition:

Charles Moody of New York showed up dressed like Apollo Creed (pictured), tried a few bars of Italian opera, before being stopped by Simon, who sighed, "I don't know what I'm doing on this show any more. The fact that we're taking this seriously ... You're singing opera dressed as Apollo Creed."

Perhaps the most amazing reject of the night was Troy Benham, 24, a lanky guy with a Jed Clampett hat, a scraggly beard and a pony tail, who described his look as "urban Amish." Benham offered a bit of a self-penned song with such hook-filled lyrics as "trip me as I carry liquids." We wish we had.

Watching guys like Moody and Benham get the gong can be funny, but at other points in the show, the producers clearly had cruel intentions, keeping the camera on poor Tashawn Moore for several minutes as she flailed around trying desperately to remember her lyrics.

Colombia-born Perla Meneses, 25, seemed to think flirting with Ryan Seacrest before her audition might help her get to Hollywood. Or somewhere.

As it turned out, a few minutes of a Shakira song helped her overcome a bad delivery of Blondie's "Call Me" and she got her wish. For Hollywood, I mean. If Charo ever retires, Perla has a future.

"There's something about you I like," Randy purred, while Simon wiped the drool off the table.

A couple of contestants not only had talent, but the kind of backstory that will sell well on the show. US Navy Intelligence Spec. Jarrod Fowler of Arizona, stationed on the USS Ronald Reagan in San Diego, won a shipboard Idol-like contest before going for the real thing. He got his ticket to Hollywood.So did Rachel Jenkins, who works in her parents' Minnesota body shop when she's not training with her Army Reserve unit. Her husband has been stationed in Iraq for more than a year.

It's always a crap-shoot at this point to figure out how much of a future anyone has on the show, but I'd pick 16-year-old Denise Jackson of Madison, Wisc., to make it at least through the first few rounds. She's got talent and confidence to burn, but also an incredible backstory:

She was born "a crack baby," she says, but was lucky enough to be raised by her grandmother and considers herself a survivor. Just the kind of combination American Idol loves.

Just ask Fantasia Barrino.

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.