From somewhere in Central Park, Ryan tells us that this year the competition is allowing people to "nominate" more reluctant contestants, apparently via webcam. One of these is a 19-year-old named Jessica Kartalis, a poor man's Taylor Swift who's just putting on a little show for the locals in a dinky little Staten Island bar when Randy takes the ferry out to invite her to auditions the next day, much to her surprise and excitement. She shows up with a guitar and sings an original song. And it's a little awkward, because it doesn't go all that great as she makes several mistakes in her guitar playing. So now what do you do when you've brought someone in to audition and they're not that good? Nicki says she's not quite ready and Jessica offers to try something else, but they're good until next year. Hey, you went to her, jerks. Yeah, that didn't work. So now she comes out in tears to accept the support of her family. Nice job ruining someone's week unsolicited, Idol.

After a montage of people from all over the world, it's time to meet Shira Gavrielov. She claims to have charted a number one single in her home country of Israel and given her shaky performance of "Valerie," she probably should have stayed there. But they let her through, possibly more because of her cutoffs than her singing.

Day one closes with a 24-year-old guy named Frankie Ford, who tells the story of his adoption while sitting in an empty theater, which is a bit of a spoiler telling us that he's probably going to Hollywood. Currently he's a subway busker from Flatbush. He launches into a powerful version of "Sweet Dreams" by the Eurythmics, but stumbles not far in. There's a suspenseful pause before he starts over in a different key and gets through it this time. They like him and he promises to work hard, and although Nicki doesn't think he has the best voice, he's in. "Frankie, you're going to Hollywood," Keith tells him while "Relax" is appropriately spinning up on the soundtrack. Get it? Frankie goes to Hollywood! There are going to be so many people claiming to be named Frankie at next season's auditions.