Idolator

The initial round of auditions for American Idol took place in San Diego Monday, with 12,000 people showing up at Qualcomm Stadium for their shot at stardom. The San Diego Union-Tribune has an exhaustive chronicle of the day—including the moment where prospective Idols were told that any non-Coke beverages had to be stowed under their seats—but the most notable detail was about a change to the audition process that may send shock waves through the initial weeks of the program's seventh season:

Miller and Carey said they will probably have to go through two or three more rounds of screening by the show's producers before they even get a chance to sing in front of the "real" judges, Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell.

Those rounds have not yet been scheduled. If they make it far enough, they may also be allowed to play instruments when they sing, an "Idol" first, producers announced.

Oh boy. Instruments? Sure, after Blake's attempt to become a human beatbox—and the American Idol with bands spinoff, The Search For The Next Great (Wedding) Band—this was probably inevitable, but I'm just hoping that this means "Weird Al" Yankovic will sit in for a guest-judging stint on an upcoming audition episode, since it probably isn't too out there to imagine that at least eight or nine accordionists will show up at each audition-show stop.

Thousands audition in S.D. for 'American Idol' [SignOnSanDiego.com, via MJ's Big Blog