Exclusive behind the scenes at Idol auditions in Dallas

We're still five months away from the start of American Idol season nine, but the auditions started months ago. FOX16's Idol insider Jeremy Baker went to the judge's round in Dallas, and he has an exclusive look behind the scenes from the Big-D.

These are the final two days of American Idol auditions for these Idol hopefuls in Dallas, before possibly making it to Hollywood.

Kara arrived first with her own judging philosophy. "You wanna be careful not to squash their dreams totally, but at the same time, you've gotta give 'em a reality check."

Next was host Ryan Seacrest. "You know Randy Jackson?"

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the Dude! What's goin' on man, what's goin on big D?" says Jackson.

Joe Jonas played guest judge of the day, and what did he expect? "I was kinda hoping maybe somebody would freak out, you know that always makes good television, so."

No freaking out by the contestants in the holding room, just dancing! But they had some advice for Simon, "Hey Simon don't mess with Texas…yee-haw…wooo!!"

As for Simon, he's a man of many words.

Eventually we found an Arkansan hoping to follow in Kris Allen's footsteps.

"Of course everyone expects to get through, but I don't know what to expect. You've learned in this competition just to expect the unexpected," says Zachary Hickman.

On day two, another cool, calm, and confident Arkansan was just minutes away from his chance at fame. "I think it's gonna go pretty well, I think I'm gonna pull it off. It's been a dream of mine since I can remember," says Dave Pittman.

And if Kara has anything to say about it, the boys will make it through. "They say that I don't let the hot girls through which is such a lie, really, oh wow, but I say they don't let the hot boys through, so we're gonna have to get into it, okay."

Each contestant auditioning will either sadly meander through the curtains or burst through with their coveted golden ticket in hand."

We saw plenty of people walk through the curtains in Dallas, either with or witout their golden ticket, including those two guys from Arkansas, but the head honchos of Idol made sure that we zipped it, locked it, and threw away the key, at least until January.