A big difference between previous American Idol seasons and this season is that the Hollywood portion of Season Nine did not take place until last month, after the early audition episodes were already in the can. In the past, one could usually draw safe conclusions about who survived Hollywood based on how much play their audition received, but the lateness of that stage this year meant that the producers had to do much more guessing about who the hot prospects were.

So if Wednesday's final Idol audition show, which covered those who didn't make it into the hours devoted to their audition city, seemed much more packed with talent than usual, that's the reason: the producers now know who the final 24 are, and we can assume that several singers who got left out of their own city's audition episode were dealt with on Wednesday so they won't be complete strangers when the knockout rounds begin.

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Before that, however, we still had Tuesday's Denver audition to endure, and the second appearance this season of guest judge Victoria Beckham, who showed up in incongruous red carpet wear while Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell donned their usual t-shirts. Even more so than when we first saw her three weeks ago, Posh confined nearly all her comments to critiques of the singers' clothing and overall persona. Her refusal to say anything concrete about singing was especially missed because Kara DioGuardi was if anything more annoying than usual, at one point urging a pleasant if overmatched young man to take his shirt off so she could gawk. Maybe America found the casting couch role reversal (the kid, Casey James, ended up going through to Hollywood against Simon's wishes) to be harmless fun, but it was demeaning to everyone in the room.

The most interesting performer to come out of Denver is probably single mom Danelle Hayes, who unleashed a furious instrument on Melissa Etheridge's "I'm the Only One," but badly needs to learn the difference between singing and screaming. I also have my doubts that America will be moved by her story of hardship, which involves her dislike of running karaoke shows and doing corporate gigs. Is that really such a horrible life for a 23-year-old singer? Nothing that pays is a "bad job" in 2010.

Three others from Denver showed particular promise. Tori Kelly's audition was borderline, but being tan and blonde helped pull her through; besides which she is a sixteen-year-old who looks 35 and thus is probably being adopted by Dina Lohan even as I type. The judges seemed particularly taken with Nicci Nix, who flew in from Florence (Italy, not Alabama) with a Jennifer Tilly-like speaking voice and had the shrewd idea of auditioning with the sort of Europop trifle that both Posh and Simon can't resist. She's a singer you have to keep your eye on because if she survives Hollywood, she has enough gimmicks going for her to keep her memorable. Teenager Haeley Vaughn is something new for Idol (if not as new for music as she seems to think): a black singer with ambitions to go country. She's probably too inexperienced to make it out of Hollywood, but the judges haven't always been tolerant of singers whose sound doesn't match their look, so kudos for that, I suppose.

The catch-all Wednesday episode featured just a couple of freakshow auditions (the six foot-eight male swimmer who sang Elvis in a falsetto and looked like the human growth hormone version of Jane Lynch will be haunting my dreams for years), and several performers who look like real keepers. See Idol? It's really not that hard to put together an entertaining, quality-filled hour! There were so many potential finalists featured on Wednesday that I'm going to cover them bullet point style:

Lacey Brown: I wasn't blown away by her version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," but she's aiming to become the first person ever eliminated in a Hollywood "two chairs" playoff to ever come back and make the finals (Megan Joy beat her out last season). If she made it that far once, she could do it again.

Crystal Bowersox: A possible contender for the "female rock" slot, though Danelle Hayes probably has the look Idol would prefer.

Michael Lynche: Idol has had very few buff male contenders over the years, and given that we've seen rabid fanbases form for the likes of Clay Aiken, who knows what sort of potential Lynche could have? He could make a deep run.

Aaron Kelly: And this kid could make an even deeper run. The sixteen-year-old doesn't have as mature a voice as David Archuleta did, but he doesn't have Pikachu's air of strangeness either. If the powers that be want to insure a female victory this season, it would be smart for them to keep Kelly away from the final 24. But having said all this, he sang in a faux-soul mushmouth that's going to be polarizing.

Amanda Shectman: I doubt she'll make it to the finals, but she deserves mention because with her high-strung behavior and inability to recognize when the judges were just trying to banter with her, it's clear she's being set up for a meltdown story arc in Hollywood. Hopefully she will have done something about her tan lines before then.

Lee Dewyze: We haven't seen many Kris Allen imitators this last few weeks, but he could fill the bill -- he even auditioned with one of Allen's Idol successes, "Ain't No Sunshine."

Genesis Moore: Another black teenager auditioning with a country song ("I Told You So"), and damned if she didn't sound better than Haeley Vaughn did. Will Idol actually pit them against each other in the two chairs?

Jessica Furney: A Hollywood entrant last season (the Kansas girl who was taking care of her grandmother), she's back with a somewhat more commercial look and sound, auditioning with a Simon-penned tune as opposed to Janis Joplin last year. I don't think she's improved exactly, but the changes may be enough to get her through this time.

Didi Benami: This was my favorite audition from the entire four weeks, which means I've probably doomed the poor girl (Simon is already a skeptic) just like I did Alexis Grace last season. Sounding like a cross between Megan Joy and Brooke White, she did something we rarely see on Idol, which is take a familiar song ("Hey Jude") and give it an individual spin, but without the runs that usually pass for inventiveness on the show. She even has the all-important personal drama (a best friend who died of leukemia), not that she needed it.

Hope Johnson: She got the important anchor spot, the last audition shown this season, and seems almost tailor made for Idol down to her first name. She's pretty but not gorgeous, and a fine singer without being overly polished -- the same qualities at the same age as another Texas singer of some renown, Kelly Clarkson. Even her relative modesty about what appears to have been a difficult upbringing gives her more appeal than a full-throated sob story would. Yes, I do think we'll be seeing some more of her.

Next week, the 181 singers who made it to Hollywood begin the final winnowing process, and get to meet Ellen DeGeneres for the first time. Her opinions on them will be a greeting card compared to the Idolverse's collective judgment on her.

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