'Pop Idol' comes to America with a promise to be nice

Some had arrived the night before and slept in pouring rain. By dawn, the queue had stretched into Times Square.

All had come to the Millennium Hotel in Manhattan for one reason: they wanted to be America's idol. The British television smash hit, Pop Idol, is coming to the United States this summer, where it will be known asAmerican Idol.

Yesterday was the first day of an open call for aspiring talent in New York. Fox Television, which will broadcast the programme, wants to find its own Will Young.

In the end, 375 hopefuls were allowed up to the eighth floor yesterday. As cameras roamed the two holding rooms – the auditions themselves were happening one floor down, where five people were invited in at a time – producers gave their pep talk: sing something well known, look like you are enjoying it.

Few had seen the British Idol, although most were vaguely aware of Young, the 23-year-old winner and instant sensation. Mostly girls, they were simply focused on the job in hand, and on the ultimate prize: fame (at least for a while) and a guaranteed $2m (£1.37m) recording deal with RCA.

Like everyone else, Christina Hoch, 19, from New Jersey had a sticker on her belly with a number, 7031. That put her almost at the front of the line to audition, the reward for camping out all night wearing three jackets and seven pairs of trousers. She was preparing to sing the Mariah Carey tune "Love Takes Time".

Jenny Boyle, 22, an operating theatre technician from Virginia, had sailed through a preliminary audition in Washington DC and did not need to join the queue outside.

With a clear voice that quavered in all the right places, she let rip in the waiting room with a few bars of "Let's Hear it for the Boys", the Deniece Williams classic. Was she nervous? "I am more excited," she said.

Here is one secret that almost none of the hopefuls seemed aware of: the appeal of the British show had stemmed partly from the brutal handling of the would-be stars by the judges.

Most of these young things looked a little too fragile, and a little too desperate, to be able to bear such treatment. Andy Meyer, the American show's producer, said: "The judges are going to be honest, which means being critical, but they are not going to be out to hurt anyone's feelings."

With a glint in his eye, Mr Meyer then pointed out that Simon Cowell, of BMG records, – "Mr Nasty" in the UK version – will also be on the panel of judges on American Idol.

But Dante Blakeley, an impeccably groomed young man from Atlantic City, New Jersey, done up in a Tom Ford Gucci top with zips across the shoulders, said he would take it in his stride. "Lots of people get emotionally hurt by that, but they really shouldn't. You are not going to win every audition," he said.

Mr Blakeley had written his own song. Called "You", its first line was: "Don't be afraid." He was not. But then he had never seen Pop Idol.