Forestville's David Luning still alive on 'American Idol'

Forestville's David Luning cleared two more hurdles on "American Idol" on Wednesday night. Only one was expected.

Luning, 27, had passed the show's audition phase earlier and advanced to the Hollywood portion of the show, or so he thought.

"I flew down to L.A. from Sonoma County airport and the next day they didn't tell us where we were going after we got on the buses," Luning said of the show taped in December. "But we arrived at this airport hangar (in Santa Monica) and I was thinking to myself, 'Is this where they are going to host the Hollywood auditions?'"

Luning said the "American Idol" folks opened up the hangar and proceeded to call out the names of people who would be moving on to Hollywood, including Luning. The rest, it turned out, were given one last-ditch chance to sing and salvage their appearance on the show. Many were sent home from the hangar.

The next day, portions of which were shown Wednesday night, was the real Hollywood segment. Luning did an a capella cover of Little Walter's "My Babe," which wasn't aired, and advanced.

With the 75,000 who initially tried out for "Idol" down to fewer than 125, that is where tonight's show at 8 on Fox picks up. The winner will be crowned in May.

Watch Luning tell his story here and check out a recap of Wednesday's show here.

For more, visit idol.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.