Hollywood, Day 3/Episode 2 (2-14-06)

Ignoring the Brittenum twins (as I wish the producers would have), this was a great show! I love the group numbers!!

Part of me wants to try to glean every bit of information possible from my 44 minutes of tape. However, the other part says that the top 24 will be revealed in less than 24 hours from now, so why bother? (Because it's fun and I can!) So we'll see how far I get...

I'll start with the highlight: I love Elliott Yamin's voice!!! And he's shown to be seemingly a nice guy. Yay!!

Ok. A couple of changes: groups can be 3 or 4 people, and can be of mixed genders.

One thing not changing: the amazing number of people who can't learn the words to the same songs that are used for group numbers every. single. year. It's not like it's a brand new song they've never heard; if they're smart & do any homework at all, they'll learn some basic Motown and come prepared. However.

First group: Paris, Hanna F (17), Stephanie Scott (19, CA). Paris & Stephanie advance; Hanna goes home. 1st we've heard of Stephanie; pretty good, though sounds & acts very young, which is something to say when she's 2 years older than her groupmates.

Next: Terrell, Sway, Elliott Yamin (27, VA), and Anthony. No choreography whatsoever. Elliott rocks; the rest are meh (T & Sway both mess up lyrics). Everyone is through except Anthony. Elliott impresses me because he hesitates to actually criticize T (Simon doesn't!), and sticks up for Anthony when T is blaming him for all the group problems.

The young boys: what a fun group! Kevin, Josh Jordan (21), David, and William. David is good but I don't like him; he's too young to be Harry Connick, Junior, plus we already have one. William rocks, yay! Definitely still a favorite of mine. And we finally get to hear Josh sing; he's good, and cute. All 4 advance, for now.

More Brittenum drama: Derrell advances, but in confusion (thinking T was cut?) announces his spirit was wounded and quits. Later his brother corrects him and talks him into going back on stage to apologize. Simon sends them away to come back yet again 30 minutes later, and lets him through. Can we *please* get rid of these guys soon? So. utterly. annoying.

In several groups of gals singing Band of Gold: Mandisa, Brooke B, and Sarah E (25, TX, not shown before). All advance.

Some of my friends have been anticipating (read, drooling over) this guy they call 'Bo Cobainaroulis' because of his rawker look. His actual name is Bucky (not much better). Tonight we finally get to hear him sing... and he messes up the words! Hee.

They do a cute montage of people messing up "I Can't Help Myself," adding subtitles showing the incorrect lyrics. Some are absolutely hysterical. This I'll definitely have to go back over for the details.

And we get to see more of Tyra today, but it's not good. She leaves her group, and then later winds up leaving the 2nd group & going back to the first (who graciously let her)! The 2nd choice was the wiser one, as everyone from the other group (Meredith, 16; Leah B; & another) goes home, while everyone in her original group (Celeste, Kinnik - she's good!, and Nicole Turk) advances. I don't like Tyra's performance this time, though, reminds me too much of Ryan Starr (in manner as well as voice).

Marcy Smith (28), Brenna G (25), and Nick Whitten perform after surviving some drama from Brenna, the self-proclaimed 'Simon' of the group. I like Marcy but think she messed up the words. All advance.

Then another funny 'fluff' piece: a 'movie trailer' for something called Brokenote Mountain, starring our three favorite cowboys, who are the last group to sing. Well, it stars our one favorite, Garet, plus 2 others we've hardly seen - Matthew Buckstein, whom we've heard once (& wasn't very good), and Michael Evans. The movie trailor was much better than the performance, however, and all are sent home.

Day 4: Contestants have a list of 95 songs from which to choose to sing alone, a cappella, receiving no feedback from the judges at all. I'm guessing we'll see some of these tomorrow (The episode with The Chair of Decision!). For now we move on to The Rooms of Decision... Here's what I caught briefly, I'll fill in more later:

Cut: Room 1, with Gina, Tyra, Nicole, Cory?, and Josh Jordan (sorrow)

All the rest are through!

Room 2 - Becky, Ayla, Sway, Chris, Mandisa

Room 3 - Derrell, Taylor, Paris

Room 4 - Terrell, Kellie, William, Kevin, Bucky, and Ace (we hear Randy saying Bucky's name a few times; is Randy a fan?)

At the very end Ryan alludes to the Top 24, and then a bunch of faces are flashed before our eyes very quickly before credits roll. Didn't seem like enough to be 44, seemed more like 24 to me! ;-) I'll write these down tomorrow & we'll see, but I'm guessing, for anyone who cares, that the Final 24 were actually revealed tonight. Not that I'm surprised as spoiler lists have been circulating and we know most of them anyway. Or so we think - one more day will tell!!