Late last July, a woman identified only as “Maria Saint” auditioned for American Idol 10 in New Orleans, and she has blogged the experience. It’s the most-detailed account of the audition process I’ve ever seen, and while most of it consists of specifics about things we’ve heard before, there are some fascinating revelations, from a fake Ryan Seacrest’s exit interviews to the fact that the contestants are coded from the very start of the auditions so producers will know how to treat them: as a great singer, an okay singer, or a bad singer who will be featured for that very reason. Most readers of my writing and fans of the show, never mind those who just pay close attention to the audition episodes, are aware that the audition process is not at all what it looks like on TV. It spans multiple days and stages , and involves more people screening contestants than just the judges—who weren’t even hired when auditions started last summer. Maria Saint wrote about the start of her experience...