American Idol: Hollywood Week Groups

“96 started 71 made it through.  One’s wife had a baby, One left before even performing, lot’s of Gaga, the good and the bad!!”

Here’s the rundown:

Day 3 Group Day

The Good:

Faith – “Irreplaceable” Michelle Delamor, Charity Vance & Ashley Rodriguez (One of the few all-girl groups shown and all did pretty good.)

Neopolitan – “Bad Romance” Liz Rooney, Thaddeus Johnson, Jessica Cunningham, Paige Dechausse (Apparently was part of the drama between Destiny’s Wild for stealing their ideas.  But all stepped up to the plate)

Destiny’s Wild – “Bad Romance” Todrick Hall, Theri, Jareb Liewer, Siobhan Magnus (Definitely one of the best performances despite the judges believing they were weird, but it’s Gaga)

Middle C – “Closer” Janell Wheeler, Jermaine Purifory, Casey James (All IN)

Three Men and a Baby – “No One” Andrew Garcia, Katie Stevens (Kara said she could be the potential winner), J.B. Ahfua, (4^th person wasn’t shown) (ALL IN)

Side note:  Notice the songs here all work well with vocal harmonies and people who have the vocal abilities to sing these songs!!

Split Decision:

Team Awesome – “Get Ready” Michael Lynche, Seth Rollins (showed his audition story), Tim Urban, Michael Castro (wasn’t shown singing) (Lynche and Urban IN)

Side note: Lynche was shown several times making calls to his pregnant wife and he is shown reacting to the birth over a phone-call.

Mighty Rangers from Denver – “Closer” Tori Kelly, Maddie Menrose, Mark Labriola (forgot lyrics), Kimberly Kerbow (forgot lyrics), Danny (wasn’t shown) (Kelly and Menrose who stayed up late to practice made it in)

The Phoenix – Kat Nestle (walked out), Jermaine Sellers (Amazing range), Ben Honeycutt, Jeff Goldford, Moorea Masa (forgot lyrics.  This girl made it all the way to the final decision last year) (Sellers and Goldford are in!)

The Bad:

Big Dreams – “Sweet Escape” Matt Lawrence (back story, lo), Amanda Shechtman (forgot lyrics), other two weren’t shown (All Out)

Side note: Many groups chose Sweet Escape but many also forgot the lyrics.  Why would anyone choose this song on a group performance??

Out but didn’t see perform:

Leah Laurenti (Boston), Carmen Turner (Atlanta), Kimberly Carver (Dallas), Dave Pittman (Dallas)

Save the …. Group for last:

The Dreamers – (Most drama seen throughout the whole show) Mary Powers, Hope Johnson, Margo May (bad), Alex Lambert, (5^th person wasn’t shown) (Powers, Johnson, Lambert IN)

Finally the people who made it but didn’t see perform in a quick montage:

John Park, Haley Vaughn, Angela Mardsen, Tasha Layton, Tyler Grady, Katelyn Epperly, Lloyd Thomas, Keia Johston, Christian Spear.

Final thoughts:

There was less drama this year once again.  The two Gaga groups and Mary Powers seemed to be the main causes this year, but neither created any major problems.  There are some people who have been featured again. You can see whose names I have written down more than once or even twice.  Overall the group harmonies were good and the groups performed very well.  As seen by the number of people who made it into the final round, choosing the final 24 will be interesting… I already have 2/3’s of the people I think will make it through but I will post those predictions next Tuesday after the last performances.

Ratings:

25.02m people watched the show last night.  Down just 5% from Round 1’s show and up 22% from last Wednesday.  Ellen effect is definitely in full motion and her presence has been positive for the show.

American Idol: Hollywood Week Round 1

“181 contestants started Hollywood Week.  New Judge Ellen joined the panel and the first round of competition begins.  Each contestant in groups of 8 has one chance to impress the judges with an A Cappella performance or they can also use an instrument of their choice.  96 contestants made it to the next round of groups, but there were many familiar faces, some bad, and only a few we haven’t seen in the past.  Here is the rundown:”

Day 1

The Good – These are the singers that got airtime and we got to see their performances (Thanks American Idol for telling us who to root for)

Katie Stevens 17 – Good voice but nothing memorable

Andrew Garcia 24 – This guy was phenomenal on the guitar. Taking a Paula Abdul song and making it his own.  Even Kara compared him to Adam in the way he is able to change the song.

Janel Wheeler 24 – Another girl who changed up the song and played the guitar

Haley Vaughn 16 – This girl is interesting.  An African-American girl that sings country and she sounded good!

Mary Powers 29 – Rocker Mom does PINK and actually sounds like her

Also making it through but didn’t get airtime:

Todrick Hall (Dallas) – I remember this guy had an amazing voice

Charity Vance (Chicago) – All I remember about her was that her parents are hairdressers!

Ashley Rodriguez (Boston) – Don’t remember her audition?!?

The Bad (Every year its always about presentation, song choice, the way they sang it, nerves, forgetting the lyrics..what did I miss?)

Skiibo Ski 22 – Still trying to figure out how he made it through (ratings) and I am glad he was eliminated)

Cornelius Edwards 24 – Bad Song choice

Meagan Wright 21 – All over the place!

Amedeo DiRocco 28 – Failed to find his voice.

And of course:

Montage of bad singers… playing instruments

Intersting:

Vanessa Wolf 20 – For someone who didn’t make it through.  I was surprised how much time was spend with her back story and her first trip on an airplane.  Such a pity!!

Day 2

(Montage of bad)

The Good:

Lilly Scott 20 – Didn’t remember her audition tape but she was pretty good

Michael “Big Mike” Lynche 26 – His wife was giving birth around the same time as his audition.  But the most interesting thing about this guy is the controversy surrounding his booting from the show because his Dad was interviewed recently stating he had made the show which is a breach of contract.  My question now is, why do they keep showing him then?!?

Tim Urban 20 – This is the first time we are seeing this guy despite a quick b&w of his audition we didn’t see.

Casey James 27 – Great Blues voice

Didi Benami 23 – This girl sang a Kara song.  Great song choice of course!

Crystal Bowersox 24 – Don’t remember seeing her audition but they show a clip of her getting a tattoo of her son.  She sounded amazing on the vocals!

The Bad:

Jay Stone 25 – Blake Lewis Beatboxer.  Too bad, unlike Blake, this guy did more beatboxing than singing

Montage of some of the girls we saw in the auditions

Erica Rhodes – Barney Dominatrix Girl

Paige Dechausse – Don’t remember her audition!

Amanda Desimone and Bernadette Desimone – Jersey Sisters

Maddy Curtis 16 –  Showed her back story but the song choice was horrible.

The Surprise:

Justin Williams 27 – I was very surprised he didn’t make it through.  The cancer survivor who looks and fits the part but the judges didn’t let him go through.  Interesting…

Final Thoughts:

Ellen was pretty good.  She delivered on nice and mean in a good way.  However, there were no fights between the judges.  It was all to orderly and cordial!  The performances as a whole were actually not that exciting.  No goosebumps or any major standouts besides Andrew Garcia but besides that there wasn’t anything memorable and there was also no drama.  It seemed like a pretty straightforward first round.  Hoping for a much more exciting Group round and hopefully some singers we haven’t seen yet showing us something new and unique.

Update: 27.7 million viewers +12% from last week (Most views since premiere)