Video (02:13) : Neal Justin got a chance to speak with "American Idol" judges Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr. about the upcoming season of the show at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Wednesday. "American Idol" may no longer be a ratings juggernaut, but it can still get hearts racing, especially when the celebrity judges come to town. Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr. were welcomed by 50 local finalists and their families Wednesday morning at the Minneapolis Convention Center, where they spent the afternoon deciding who would get to a ticket to Los Angeles next season. "Last year, we put some people through that might not have had a great audition, but we put them through thinking that maybe they were just a little shy and that they'd come out of their shell. But it doesn't always work that way," Connick said shortly before listening to the contestants. "More times than not, as Jen pointed out to me, the performer you're getting on audition day is very similar to the performer you'll get at the end.

So you've got to bring it right from the start." One hopeful said she expected to be among the chosen few as she awaited her turn in a holding area filled with beanbag chairs, family supporters and lots of guitars. "I'm pretty confident," said Cindy Jo Scholer, 26, of North Branch. "I think you have to be, because if you think about everybody else here, then the nerves are going to go up." If anyone's nervous, it would be the producers of the show. Although it still ranks among television's 20 most-watched series, average viewership fell to 12.3 million in its 13th season, an all-time low. Fox Network officials have said that the show will be more "streamlined" when it returns in January, with roughly 37 hours of programming compared with 50-plus in the past. Urban said he doesn't keep an eye on the ratings. "We just do the best job we can," he said. "You have to be focused on the task at hand." Poll: Should the name of Lake Calhoun be changed? Author James McBride finds humor in pain and pain in humor

Poll: Should all sit-down restaurants offer reservations? Review: 'Being Esther,' by Miriam Karmelhanging egg chair price in pakistan Looking for a new treat this season? buy wheelchair pretoriaTry our Holiday Cookie Finderbackpack beach chair with cooler pouchGallery: Hit acappella group Pentatonix performed at Xcel Energy Center.folding chairs for sale in trinidad Gallery: Hit acappella group Pentatonix performed at Xcel Energy Center.wedding chair rentals burlington nc

Gallery: Abi Ann performed as the opening act for the hit acappella group Pentatonix at Xcel Energy Center.cheap table and chairs barnsley Long relegated to small-town colleges and the butt of jokes on NBC’s “The Office,” a cappella groups around Minnesota can walk and harmonize with a little extra swagger after Pentatonix headlined Xcel Energy Center on Wednesday night. The Texas vocal quintet graduated to the arena five years after it won the NBC series “The Sing-Off.” While a majority of the acts from those kinds of TV contests fade into the county-fair circuit (or wherever Clay Aiken is nowadays), these kids recently topped the Billboard charts and toured with fellow exception-to-the-rule Kelly Clarkson. Playing their first local arena headlining date was arguably the biggest test of all for Pentatonix’s members, all in their mid-20s and as bright and cuddly as the beanbag chairs they brought on stage at one point.

The group’s resident everyman Scott Hoying even claimed the St. Paul crowd of about 10,000 fans was the biggest on their tour so far. “You guys are all here for an a cappella show — so crazy!” Hoying’s bandmate Avi Kaplan yelled a few songs into their performance. The a cappella wunderkinds did a fairly convincing job keeping the big crowd entertained over the course of 90 minutes. Perhaps the biggest driving factor in Wednesday’s modestly impressive school-night attendance was YouTube, which requires at least a little charisma from its stars. Not only has Pentatonix amassed a staggering 11 million followers for its YouTube channel, opening act Us the Duo has also drummed up nearly 5 million followers with its cutesy (and drum-free) remakes of pop songs. The “Us” in the duo is married couple Carissa and Michael Alvarado, who played lounge-y piano pop very much in the gushing vein of ’70s hitmakers Captain & Tennille and demanded every hint of cynicism in the arena be thrown out with the very few empty beer cups in the bins.

The Alvarados earned a mass response of “awww” when they revealed their song “No Matter Where You Are” is a rewrite of their wedding vows. For their rewrite of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” they left out the part where somebody gets shot, and turned it into another cheery love song. Pentatonix did its fair share of lighthearted reworking, too, but with more energetic and compelling results. They started with a melodic take on the Omi hit “Cheerleader” and soon delivered a wham-bam medley of Michael Jackson snippets, from “ABC” through “Man in the Mirror.” Things got a little syrupy in Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself” — falsetto singer Mitch Grassi’s voice sounding a tad too pipsqueaky — but they made up for it with their surprisingly rhythmic and inventive, Grammy-winning mash-up of Daft Punk tracks. Wednesday’s biggest crowd-pleasing moments, however, were its most original. First, Kevin Olusola simultaneously beatboxed and played Bach on cello (can’t say you’ve seen that before).