I have to admit that by the third week of American Idol auditions, I get a tad antsy. If the singer is not great ... if he or she didn't bring it, then I don't really have any interest.

I get bored easily. So, forgive me if I spare you the details of all the crappy performances.

Well, except for that crazy dude at the beginning. Chris Burnheisel kicked off Tuesday's Omaha auditions episode with a terrible, over-the-top performance and then decided he'd rather be a red-carpet reporter for his local FOX affiliate, thanks to Simon's encouragement.

Believe it or not, Omaha is a super cool, hip little midwestern town. Seriously. It's like Santa Fe of the Midwest, but instead of a southwestern landscape of art houses and coffee shops, Omaha is kind of the indie-music capital of the heartland.

But for whatever reason, no Nebraskans impressed me. Now, it didn't mean that none of the Omaha auditioners caught my ear. Three did. However, not a one of them was from Omaha.

Samantha Sidley, 22, from Los Angeles, waltzed in and sang Norah Jones' "Don't Know Why," as Ryan Seacrest took over as a judge while Paula interviewed contestants -- thereby stealing all of Sam's thunder.

Let me paint the picture. Do you remember Brenda Vaccaro from the 1970s? The young version. Sidley looks like her a ton, but her voice was sultry jazz. While Seacrest bemoaned her performance charisma while pretending to be a judge, the real judges sent her to Hollywood.

And, then I learned a ton more about our fair Samantha.

First, she's a student at Berklee -- the greatest music school in America. Bar none. You go to Berklee; you're good.

Second, she's a legitimate New York cabaret singer, having performed at New York's Algonquin Hotel.

Third, she has opened up for the Manhattan Transfer.

Do you smell a ringer? Look, the whole smooth, smoky jazz thing won't go very far on Idol. It will bore the teenyboppers to death, but I'm afraid Samantha might have a stalker on her hands because I found her MySpace page (just go to samanthasidley.com, and the URL will resolve to MySpace), and she sings the standards well beyond her 22 years.

Tulsa's own David Cook entered the big room with a big task -- to sing Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer." And he did it in a way that matched his indie-pop look. It was kind of brooding, sort of emo.

He was an easy ticket to Hollywood, and potentially is another in a long line of Oklahomans to fare well on Idol. First was George Huff (OU student). Second was Carrie Underwood from Checotah now of superstardom. Third was Melinda Doolittle (Tulsa Union HS). Fourth could be Mr. Cook of the multi-colored hair.

Finally, Leo Marlowe explained to Simon that his mother had raised a perfect homecoming queen but that "too bad it wasn't one of her daughters."

While the Iowan probably didn't need to explain that he was gay right off the bat (like they always say ... "we knew"), we did wonder whether the boy could sing.

Marlowe tackled Donny Hathaway's "Song For You," and I always say that if you can sing Donny, it ain't no lie. You can sing, and he could.

What struck me about these three singers in particular was how likeable they were. It's hard to say how far these singers will go in this competition -- although I think they'll all bear a close watch over the next few weeks -- but dare I say that I'd have a hard time rooting against a one of them.

Collectively, that trio could be among my personal favorites of the entire season.