The celebrity judges' round of auditions in Chicago is set to take place Monday and Tuesday (August 31 and September 1) at the Hyatt Regency at 151 East Wacker Drive. You never know who might show up there (wink wink). You should show up too to get even more gossip and let us know how it goes.

In what can already be seen as a VFTW Victory, Neil Patrick Harris likely didn't disappoint as one of the guest judges in the Paula Abdul replacement rotation for American Idol 9's auditions. Neil told Entertainment Weekly some fun facts about his time judging:

• He says "I shattered dreams." Loving it.
• He had conspiracies like a good Worster. "I thought there was a lot more shady dealing going on in there. I thought they would say, “This is one that we held for two years, this is a ringer, we want to keep him in,” or, “Go to town on this one.” There’s nothing going on. It’s exactly like it is." So it turns out that the producers just didn't let Neil in on who was a ringer and who wasn't to protect their secrets.
• He got the gig because he's friends with Kara. So yes, someone actually likes Kara DioGuardi.
• The judges were only there for 4 hours the day he worked. So when they complain that they're "so tired" or "bored", it's lame, because they only have to work 4 hour days.

We're excited to see what NPH has to say to the contestants. Let's hope he helped get a bad contestant or two through to Hollywood.

No matter which country you're in, just don't bother trying out for a reality TV singing show. X-Factor, the British American Idol run by Simon Cowell, is currently having its auditions, and a reporter chronicled her experience. It's eerily similar to the experiences we posted in our expose about what it's like to try out for the first round of Idol auditions. Both shows are produced by Fremantle, and both shows employ the same tacicts such as treating the auditioners with little to no respect and cutting good singers with very little reasoning. So British readers, don't waste your time. It's the same shit, different country.

The Worsters were out in full force this year, trying out to be part of America’s Largest Karaoke Competition to see if we could get a plant onto the show. We did succeed in getting a few people past the first round, but we'd like to give you a taste of what it’s like to go to an American Idol audition and how pointless the day is.

We’ve already exposed the falsifications of the audition process in our expose The Truth About American Idol Auditions. In case you haven’t read that story, the auditions take place over many weeks. The first auditions (the ones advertised by Idol) are just a casting call where you sing in groups of four for a producer. You are given the green light to advance or you’re sent home from there. You’re then called back multiple times in the future, up to a month or two later, to see producers and possibly the celebrity judges. Only about 50-100 people from each city see the celebrity judges, and that’s after lots of weeding. The producers ask the contestants to continue to wear the same clothing to each audition though so that they can pretend it all happened in one day.

But this piece is about what to expect when you go to the casting call. Is it worth the trouble? What method do the producers use to select candidates? And how do the plants all make it past round one? Some of you don't believe what this site has to say, so don’t take our word for it. Read all about the auditions from the stories of a group of people who auditioned this year. Most realized just how silly it all was. And please, make sure to forward this on to anyone who ever considered trying out for American Idol.