Regional Auditions
Auditions were held in the following cities:
| Episode Air Date | Audition City | Date of audition | First Audition Venue | Callback Date | Callback Venue | Golden Tickets |
| January 19, 2004 | New York, New York | August 25, 2003 | Jacob K. Javits Convention Center | August 29, 2003 | Waldorf-Astoria Hotel | 29 |
| January 20, 2004 | Atlanta, Georgia | August 20, 2003 | Georgia Dome | September 2003 | Atlanta Convention Center at AmericasMart | 24 |
| January 21, 2004 | Houston, Texas | August 13, 2003 | Minute Maid Park | September 4–5, 2003 | InterContinental Houston | 13 |
| January 27, 2004 | Los Angeles, California | August 3, 2003 | Rose Bowl | September 2003 | Renaissance Hollywood Hotel | 25 |
| San Francisco, California | September 22, 2003 | Pac Bell Park | September 2003 | Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel | 10 | |
| January 28, 2004 | Honolulu, Hawaii | September 30, 2003 | Aloha Stadium | October 4–5, 2003 | Sheraton Waikiki Hotel | 17 |
| Total number of tickets to Hollywood | 118 | |||||
In this season over 80,000 attended the auditions in 6 cities. Paula Abdul was absent from the Los Angeles audition. A prominent auditioner was William Hung, a University of California, Berkeley student, who became a surprise cult figure following his tuneless rendition of Ricky Martin's "She Bangs" at the San Francisco audition. He was later invited back to perform on a special edition Uncut, Uncensored and Untalented. His appearance on the show landed him a record deal with Koch Records and he released an album soon afterwards. He became one of the most successful contestants to emerge from this year.
During the audition round in Houston, Texas, auditioner Jonathan Rey threw a cup of water at Simon, who moments earlier commented that he was terrible and "there's not a song in the world you could sing." Security quickly escorted Jonathan out, and Houston police questioned him, but released him after Simon decided against pressing assault charges on him. Another prominent auditioner that year was "scooter girl", Nicole Tieri.
Read more about this topic: American Idol (season 3)
Famous quotes containing the word auditions:
“Addison DeWitt: Your next move, it seems to me, should be toward television.
Miss Caswell: Tell me this. Do they have auditions for television?
Addison DeWitt: That’s all television is, my dear. Nothing but auditions.”
—Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909–1993)