So far this season on American Idol, the auditions have proceeded in a noticeably different way than in the recent past, with a clear focus on successful tryouts (even if a few too many yellow tickets have been doled out) and judges that at least looked interested in doing their jobs.

But this week represented a depressing throwback, one so stark that I now find myself asking the question that seems to always occur to me as we near the end of the auditions: can any of these people really win? Wednesday’s journey to Austin wasn’t horrible, I suppose – just lacking in obvious front-line talent. But the Los Angeles audition Thursday was pointless and insulting to viewers – a night which featured only a few even passable singers and focused heavily on delusional attention hogs that would have fit comfortably into any Simon Cowell season.

The miracle is that L.A. was the designated spot for the judges to see those who submitted auditions on MySpace. Even though one assumes Idol wouldn’t have had lousy singers “discovered” on MySpace fly all the way to California just so they could be made fun of, not a single person who came to the show’s attention that way stood out positively. That might have more to do with the social networking site being practically comatose these days (MySpace, like Fox, is owned by News Corp), but it was still an unwelcome surprise.

Idol doesn’t yet have its breakout wacko from Season Ten – no William Hung or General Larry Platt or Renaldo “Brothers Forever” Lapuz. Thursday came across like an attempt to create one, but I’m not sure anybody is going to long remember Tynisha Roches, the tuneless and clueless New Jerseyan who tried to impress the panel by talking about her three albums that are “ready to be composed;” or Victoria Garrett, the God-inspired loon who sang about the lamb in a voice that sounded like said animal a half hour before it hits the plate; or Matt “Big Stats” Frankel, who was hopefully kidding about both his career as a “freelance music producer” and about that ridiculous wraparound mini-beard.

We saw only five yellow tickets handed out in Los Angeles, with the best of the bunch being brothers Mark and Aaron Gutierrez, who brought a joyful vibe to their duet on “Lean On Me.” But even though they seem like longshots to get out of Hollywood, their chances have to be better than those of bellydancer Heidi Khzam (wonderful name), Jennifer Lopez’s biggest fan Tim Halperin, and another one of those infamous Whitney wannabes, Karen Rodriguez. My advice is to try to forget everything you saw Thursday except that short montage of the alleged “best of the season” so far that kicked off the hour – there’s a reason Idol went to the trouble to remind you.

The trip to Austin was marginally more fruitful, with a couple of real voices to remember and a few others that were at least not hopeless (though it’s hard to believe we really saw the best of the whopping 50 tickets handed out).
I was mystified by the focus on the night’s last singer, Casey Abrams – his was one of the voices we heard again in the L.A. montage. The Seth Rogen lookalike (hey, he might not want to hear it, but facts is facts) brought a melodica to the audition, and showed off a voice that owed less to Ray Charles (who he covered) than to Taylor Hicks. I thought the judges might ask him to try something more melodic to test his commercial appeal, but they were charmed enough to put him right through. Casey, I’m pretty sure, is not what they’re looking for in 2011, being neither a clean-cut teen nor having breasts.

The first singer of the evening, Corey Levoy, was introduced along with his sister, who he lived near but never saw till they were both teenagers. Now they’re besties. Well, that’s it for Austin’s heartwarming human interest! Corey has a high speaking voice and probably sings a little too high for America to really get behind him, but he wasn’t that bad – though I would urge him to never again refer to his “J. Lo booty” if he has any hopes of returning to Longview, Tex. But while Corey deserved the trip west, I have no idea what the judges were thinking putting through the not-hopeless but obviously overmatched teen Hollie Cavanagh. Yeah, I know – she started crying. They can’t stand to see her shedding tears right in front of them, but she’ll be far away on a stage and swallowed up by others when she’s sent home bawling on the first day of Hollywood.

Three singers were introduced in a way that made it seem as though they had to be gags, but all got tickets to Hollywood and all were merited, broadly speaking. Courtney Penry seemed to think she had to bring two shticks to the audition: an alleged burning crush on Ryan Seacrest and a chicken impersonation. She doesn’t seem to be all there, but she somehow channeled Jennifer Nettles decently enough to make it through. Sweetheart choir singers Jacqueline Dunford and Nick Fink were spotlighted in an over-the-top segment about how madly in love they are, with little unicorns and rainbows everywhere. I assume they can’t be so dopey that they didn’t realize it was all a gag, but the surprise was that both are OK singers: Jacqueline with a strong if inconsistent take on “Mercy” (and a way tight skirt she presumably doesn’t wear to church); Nick with a low-key, pleasant “Sunday Morning.”

The two to likely watch for out of Austin might not have been the best and certainly didn’t have the biggest voices, but both have a commercial look and sound that would fit comfortably into Nashville. John Wayne Schulz has the backstory that will pull many in – an actual Texas rancher in the family business, with a mother that has overcome breast cancer – and an acceptable country feel, if not nearly to the extent of last week’s Scott McCreery. While I’m reluctant to get behind another blond woman named Janelle after Janell Wheeler failed to come through for me last season, young Tennessean Janelle Arthur has a very appealing package for country-pop, with a sweet if not powerful voice.

Next week: One more audition in San Francisco, and then the beginning of the Hollywood round. Idol, don’t lose me now!