'American Idol' live-blogging recap: It's a golden-ticket bonanza in Denver

We live-blogged Tuesday night's "American Idol" episode featuring auditions from Denver.

Here's how the evening unfolded:

5:00 - "This ... is 'American Idol'."

5:02 - We're in Denver, folks, and the judges are definitely going to be feeling light-headed because of the altitude. Especially guest judge Victoria Beckham.

5:03 - Our first audition of the night features Mark Labriola. Mark likes cheese. Good choice of song! "Tempted" by Squeeze. He has no range but I like him. Victoria's hair is very weird. Mark gets four yeses and we have our first golden ticket of the night.

5:07 - Mario Galvan is up next. He has an annoying laugh, and the judges are mocking him. Seriously mocking him.

5:12 - We're back and treated to a montage people with bad attitudes after getting rejected. Can you blame them.

5:13 - Kimberly Kerbow has a cut 5-year-old daughter named Amelia. She's got a great look and a decent voice. She makes it through to Hollywood. Kimberly says she's a single mom and Simon said "I can see why." Ouch. And the judges, after she left, said she looked like she was wearing a wig.

5:16 - And finally we have a featured audition of a Seattlite. This is Danelle Hayes, who hosts karaoke and performs in a band. She's tearing up in front of the judges. She's loud, but she's got an interesting rasp voice in her voice. She's through to Hollywood easily. Um, I'm going to hazard a guess and say she doesn't make it past Hollywood, because she's listed as performing at the Edgewater Hotel here in Seattle on Feb. 13.

5:25 - Casey James is up. Simon stops him short and says no. The chicks say he's hot and Kara asks him to take his shirt off. Simon asks if this is "Project Runway." Randy gives the tie-breaking vote and sends him through to Hollywood.

5:28 - Tori Kelly is 16, and tanned. She has a cute younger sister who made drawings of each of the judges. Tori has a nice voice and a great look. Simon thinks her voice is annoying. Victoria is lots more vocal this time: Does she really have a personality after all? Simon votes no but the rest of the judges vote her through.

5:30 - So Day 1 of the Denver auditions are over, and there were a lot of golden tickets bestowed. It appears that Denver folks are stunningly good looking, and that's serving them well here.

5:35 - Time for Day 2. Things are not off to a good start. It's time for the jock feature. Austin Paul is a football player from Washington D.C. But hold the phone! This jock has some singing talent! But the judges find him too cocky to send him through. Was he really that bad? Couldn't someone have helped him with that attitude?

5:38 - The "male Mary J. Blige," Kenny Everett, is ready to sing for us. He's pretty confident too. Ouch! This guy is nails on chalkboard bad! Off he goes and he's shocked. "I'm a great singer," he says.

5:45 - We're back and treated to a montage of failed singers.

5:48 - Nicci Nix has traveled from Florence, Italy. Is she an American citizen? I thought you had to be for this show. Must have dual citizenship or something, or else is just a U.S. citizen whose family lives abroad. She sings and her voice is much lower when she sings than we she talks. They send her through.

5:54 - Let's wrap things up here in the Mile-High City. We meet Haeley Vaughan. Her sob story is that she was a premie -- born premature. And her dad died when she was 10. She has a great attitude. Could she succeed as a black woman in country music? After she sings, we get to meet her mom and sister. She's going to Hollywood for sure.

5:59 - But we're not done yet. OMG. It's a guy in a bikini. Ty Hemmerling. This is hilarious. If we had bikini girl last year, why not bikini boy this season? This look like complete staging to anybody else? The judges walk off in mock disgust.

So who did you like tonight, in addition to bikini boy, I mean?

Here are my rankings for the evening:

1. Haeley Vaughan (sheerly on guts alone)
2. Tori Kelly
3. Danelle Hayes