'American Idol' Judges 2014: J-Lo, Connick & Urban Meet 'Huggers' in Salt Lake City
Yesterday, judges Jennifer Lopez, Harry Connick Jr. and Keith Urban wrapped up their two-day visit to Salt Lake City, Utah where they continued their search for the 2014 American Idol.
The "American Idol" judges and host Ryan Seacrest enjoyed their time at Salt Lake City, where the locals where quite friendly to the team.
"There are a lot of huggers here in Salt Lake City," Seacrest said in an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune.
Lopez, who is returning to her "American Idol" judging seat for season 13 after taking a year-long hiatus to focus on her music, also had kind words to say about the Salt Lake City auditions. The singer said that the "Idol" hopefuls were "super nice."
"[Hopefuls] who you could feel that their dreams were crushed because, of course, we can't give a ticket to everybody, they were still so polite," Lopez told The Salt Lake City Tribune.
In July, Lopez, Urban, Connick Jr. and Seacrest visited Salt Lake City for open auditions. This week, the team critiqued a few hundred singers who dreamed of getting that golden ticket to the Hollywood round.
The judges were pleasantly surprised about the potential the city carried.
"There was a lot of talent here which is really cool because, frankly, you don't think of Salt Lake City as a music town." Connick Jr. said. "You just don't, and I think all of us were pleasantly surprised."
Before trying out Salt Lake City, the "Idol" judges checked out cities including Detroit, Austin, Texas and Boston.
"In comparison to some of the other cities as well, we were blown away," Lopez said. "There were a lot of people that we wound up putting through and that we think could really go the distance."
Seacrest agreed.
"It was the first time we almost ran out of golden tickets," Seacrest said.
Season 13 of "American Idol" premieres in January on FOX.