‘American Idol’ review: Meet Burnell Taylor, Paul Jolley, Maddie Assel, Charlie Askew

Okay, we’ve officially decided three episodes in to “American Idol” that Nicki Minaj is awesome. We don’t care about the fact that half of the viewing public probably hates her, but there is something about her just makes for some hilarious TV. She brings the crazy out of normal people, and thus the majority of the auditions this week we found entertaining … even the bad ones. (Somewhere, Adam Lambert is probably tearing up at how someone destroyed “If I Had You,” which is the first time that we can recall anyone covering one of his songs on the show.)

With this being a shorter episode than the three previous ones, we of course have fewer singers to report on. But with that being said, we actually liked this group more than any other audition city thus far.

Megan Miller – Love the personality, and love how the leg injury for this Miss Baton Rouge was just a circumstance and not a song story. She performed well, had a great voice, and could be one of those contestants who stays positive and producers more than cookie-cutter TV all season long.

Charlie Askew – What a cool, quirky kid … and was that his mom with the blue hair? This is the rare sort of androgynous voice that comes from a true original. There are only a few times on this show over the years that have really had anything like this, with the most-recent one being season 10’s red-haired wonder Brett Loewenstern.

Maddie Assel – No one should audition to “O Darlin'” other than Haley Reinhart! Okay, that’s just the protective Haley fan in us … and this singer was a self-admitted Halien. Maddie actually did a very admirable job with the song, and you could tell with the way that she sang that she was completely into what she was doing, rather than just having some force audition in front of the judges.

Paul Jolley – Love the name, love the guy. There’s just a light around the guy, and he is someone that voters could connect to … even if he needs a little bit of an edge to go along with it eventually.

Dr. Calvin Peters – We understand the doctor wants to make his dreams come true … but isn’t there a part of you that wants to see him stay a doctor so he can actually save people’s lives? We don’t know if he’s good enough for the top 10, but he’s got a pretty falsetto.

Dustin Watts – He’s a good-looking fireman who sings country music. If he makes the voting rounds, you may as well chalk him into the top six, regardless of if he does anything original with some of his songs.

Burnell Taylor – We don’t really know what was with the dude’s shorts, but everything else about this audition was pretty great. He was one of those guys who felt the audition in every bone in his body, and he has an incredible voice. If he does not get deep in the competition, there is a major problem in the world.

Who was your favorite singer from Baton Rouge? We want to hear your thoughts below, and you can check out the highlights from Wednesday night’s Charlotte show over at the link here.

Photo: Fox