RECAP: "AMERICAN IDOL" - EPISODE 1 (NEW JERSEY AUDITIONS)

Tonight was the premiere episode of Season 10 of American Idol, where we're seeing a few changes that will change the game after 9 seasons: one, replacing Simon Cowell, Kara DioGuardi and Ellen DeGeneres are Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler and multi-hyphenate Jennifer Lopez as judges, with Randy Jackson taking the helm as senior judge; and two, the age limit has changed: the lower age limit has dropped to 15 (from 16 in the past seasons), while the upper age limit stays the same at 28. I blame you, Justin Bieber.

The auditions kicked off in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where in the end, 51 out of the thousands who turned up to audition managed to get "golden tickets" to Hollywood. Memorable auditions include NJ native Tiffany Rios (who turned up in a star-adorned bikini), Britney Spears fan Ashley Sullivan (who went through, even though her voice is more appropriate for Broadway) and Melinda Ademi (whose family members were war refugees from Kosovo).

And with every AI, the bad auditions do not go unnoticed: Achille Lovle sang "Dress You Up" by "Madoona" (??), complete with an accent, gassy Michael Perotto and nerdy Boy Scout Chris Cordero. However, the one bad audition that made me smile widely came courtesy of Japanese Michael Jackson impersonator Yoji "Pop" Asano, who sang Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" (a song that he HATED, mind you) while dancing like MJ. He made me laugh the most amongst the others, and he might be the next Larry "Pants on the Ground" Platt (although, I may let him go 'cause his MJ moves are pretty darn good).

My favourites from this episode are sweet-as-candy Victoria Huggins and singing waitress Devyn Rush. I have my eye on them... for now.

Steven Tyler provided much comic relief during the episode, and J.Lo is so sweet and quite a softie toward the auditioning contestants (not really contestants, but pre-contestants. We can call them that, right?). Randy was on-the-spot as a judge, and Ryan Seacrest, as always, does a phenomenal job as host. Judging skills-wise, J.Lo can do better, while Steven Tyler did a pretty good job providing constructive criticism.

From what I've seen tonight, Season 10 looks promising with much young talent making it to Hollywood. Tomorrow, we're taking a look at the New Orleans auditions.