PROVO — The third season of "American Idol" kicks off tonight and could include a Zone Girl and a former member of Brigham Young University's Young Ambassadors.

Provo's John Preator and Sandy's Christy O'Driscoll are among more than 100 hopefuls who survived regional tryouts with 80,000 other applicants for the Fox-TV reality series.

Friends and employers of the two Utahns will find out tonight whether O'Driscoll, 19, a Salt Lake Community College student and bank teller who moonlights as a promotional Zone Girl for 1280 AM The Sportszone, and Preator, a BYU student majoring in music, dance and theater, will be featured on the show as one of the final 32 contestants.

The hit TV show, which airs on FOX, has minted three new music stars — Kelly Clarkson, who won the first year, and winner Ruben Studdard and runner-up Clay Aiken last season. It has become a cultural phenomenon. More than 38 million people watched May's finale of "American Idol 2" — more than the Academy Awards but not nearly the size of a Super Bowl audience. It is a remarkable number in an age of declining network audiences — and a nationwide tour grossed nearly $16 million.

The two Utahns — O'Driscoll graduated from Jordan High School and Preator from Provo High — are contractually obligated not to confirm or deny whether they made it on the show. That's put the Young Ambassadors and their artistic director, Randy Boothe, in an awkward position.

"I'd sure love to know if he was going to be working for me or not," Boothe said of Preator. "He's my administrative assistant in the music department. He's my right hand. We'll all be glued to the TV."

Preator also was expected to be "one of our main attractions" when the Young Ambassadors perform for four weeks this spring in Brazil and Argentina because Preator served an LDS mission in Brazil and speaks Portuguese, Boothe said.

Preator performed with the Young Ambassadors last year and was a member of the group this fall before he was selected for "American Idol" during an audition in New York. O'Driscoll won a spot in Los Angeles, where Preator was cut. He made the trip to New York for a second chance, Boothe said.

That trip has paid off so far for Preator but not Boothe. The 134 contestants who made it to tonight's show had to sign contracts not to perform anywhere else until August 2004.

That meant Preator, who played in "Oklahoma!" at the Jackson Hole Playhouse last year, had to quit Young Ambassadors and Boothe has lost his Portuguese-speaking Ambassador.

"They've got him tied up pretty much, whether he's in it or not," Boothe said.

Preator did not return a phone message left at his home Sunday.