Aired 2/4/09
The agonizing melodrama that is American Idol Hollywood week continues at the Kodak Theatre. Ryan uses the word bloodbath again when describing the brutal cuts that will be made on tonight's show. The contestants provide more than enough drama; they don't need to beat us over the head with it.
Speaking of drama, the queen herself, Tatiana Del Toro, lays it on thick tonight. It feels like most of the episode is devoted to her and her group's woes. In fact, she switches back and forth between two groups, thereby alienating both. Incidentally, one of the girls in her original group strongly resembles Jordin Sparks. The other major skirmish of the night occurs in Team Diva, the group that includes Rose Flack and B.G. I can't even stand to type out her nickname anymore. I'm not even bolding her initials. Will someone please tranquilize Simon so that she won't get through another round?
Nancy Wilson, in the second group that Tatiana discards, is a little angry. No, she's a lot angry. I can understand her irritation with the Dramatic One, but this girl needs to LIGHTEN UP. They name their group Team Compromise. Huh?!?!? Not that the name matters, and of course, compromise can be good, but it just seems a little hesitant.
B.G. goes to bed before her group is done rehearsing and cries to her roommate. (FOX, it's not "roomate.") Rose and the other two girls—one of which is Jasmine Murray but I don't remember the other—aren't sure what to do. And over at Team Compromise, Nathaniel Marshall is having a meltdown of his own. Each one of them is wailing about how the other two are going to ruin their dream because of the fighting. These people have no social skills whatsoever. Sigh. And Nancy, yeah, I was serious about the therapy. Right away.
In the morning, Team Diva is missing one member—you'll never guess who! She is found still sleeping, not feeling good because she only got two hours of sleep. Pardon me while I grab a super-size Kleenex. They decide to go on without her, until she shows up at the last minute, pout intact, with a demand to be shown what she missed. This girl makes Paris Hilton look like Laura Bush.
Action Squad, which includes The Hyphenated Ones, Emily Wynne-Hughes and Alex Wagner-Trugman, is having trouble with their choreography. Do the judges really care about the moves? Why do they put so much attention on the dancing and the personality clashes and not so much on the singing? What is this, America's Best Dance Crew?
Team Diva claims to have settled their differences. We'll see.
Simon warns the approximately 100 contestants that if they forget the words, they're out. No pressure.
The group White Chocolate, which includes rapper India Morrison, start things off with a bang. Their act is polished and their singing is good. They are all moving on.
Austin Sisneros sings about doo-doo. Shelby Swartwood sings about hay and fo-fum. Julissa Veloz and Nick Mitchell are in a group who have never heard of melody. Painful. However, the guys, including Jorge Nunez, are moving on. The girls have to say goodbye.
Action Squad falls apart and sing only the last two words of each line, and in the wrong order, so the endings don't even rhyme. Alex and Anne Marie Boskovich make it through, Emily and Ryan Something do not. Emily smiles through her tears. Ryan thinks Paula is evil.
Simon wants a crate of Advil in the afternoon because of the excruciating, horrible, chaotic, messy, useless performances. Fortunately, Danny Gokey's and Jamar Rogers' group is here to save the day. They all get yeses, even though Simon makes them sweat first.
Jeremy Michael Sarver, Adam Lambert, Matt Breitzke, and a few others I have lost track of get praise from the judges. However, I don't think I could listen to Adam very long; his voice is so sharp I'm losing blood here.
Team Diva is trying to pull it together. Rose forgets the words. NOOO!!! After all that, she's the one who screws up? The only one who really shines is Jasmine. Poor put-upon B.G. touts her sob story once again. She has been in heels all day and then didn't get much sleep. Isn't she a model? Isn't wearing heels, like, you know, part of what models do? Oh, and she has scoliosis so her back was hurting. I'm waiting for her to tell us her parents died even more recently than Rose's did. Plus her dog got run over by a truck. And she lives in her Lexus. She needs sleep. She needs music. She needs to go away. And she does! (Until the finale, of course, when all the obnoxious contestants get more stage time.) WOO-HOO! Rejoicing by normal people everywhere ensues. Jasmine is the only one to survive, and she deserves to, but I'm sorry to see Rose go. I wonder how much of her dismissal was because of the group and how much was her talent level.
Other promising contestants who get splattered in the "bloodbath" are David Osmond and Deanna Brown (WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!) I know many people were pinning hopes on her, including me.
Tatiana's group sings rather poorly, and they're pretty sure it's going to be bad news, but they are all safe. This is crazy. Out in the hall Tatiana, tears streaming, thanks everyone everywhere for everything they ever did, ever, in a most annoying way. Nancy, make some room on that couch for TDT.
Team Compromise is last. They pray before going onstage. It doesn't work. Nathaniel displays some Noriegish moves. Nancy is in a different key. Kristin McNamara hits some high notes that are a little harsh. Simon thinks they sabotaged each other when singing backup. Kristin reaches out to Nancy and gets rebuffed. The same happens to Nathaniel after Nancy is the only one to get the boot. She gets bleeped during her last words to Kristin on her way out. What class.
Another interesting auditioner who gets cut is Melinda Camille. She won't get to inspire the world after all. At least not this way.
I really wish they would get rid of the group singing once again. Last year was so nice. If these people wanted to sing in groups, they'd have started barbershop quartets. I know it shows how they get along with others, and that's important, but I can't help but feel that a few contestants didn't get a fair shake because they ended up in a melee not of their own making. Anyway, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
About 75 people get to continue. Next week, it's the rooms cut and then the elevator cut to give us our final 36. See you then!
