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The NGH Report – American Idol 9’s Hollywood Week Round 2: “Drama!”by Joseph Banks -- 02/11/2010
View Printable version of this article Group day is always my least favorite part of Hollywood Week. There’s always this inherent cheese factor present and I feel like the only thing that we can gleam from these “auditions” is how well a certain contestant can handle themselves under pressure. Granted, that’s important to know, but couldn’t they have found a less dramatic vehicle to test the constitution of these young competitors? Also, why are we naming the groups? How old are we? Neapolitan, Destiny’s Wild, The Mighty Rangers. It felt like we were about to start playing intramural kickball. Sure, if I’m joining an Ultimate Frisbee team then I have no problem being called Team Awesome, but something tells me these contestants have more on their minds than having to pick group names. 
I know I could never do it. Hell, I spend an hour and a half deciding between the racecar or the thimble before starting a game of Monopoly. My group would spend half their time arguing between my favorite team names and the other half rehearsing. It would be a disaster. Side note: my group would be called “Let’s Fight Sharks.” So, the Idol contestants formed their groups and then found a nice cozy part of the hotel where they could belt out famous tunes until three o’clock in the morning. I felt really bad for the other hotel guests. “Hey, girl with the weird hair and glasses, it’s almost 4 am! SHUT YOUR FACE!” Michael Lynche seemed to have the most screen time this evening as the episode chronicled the birth of his first child. There were even cameras in his wife’s emergency room! Who would agree to having their lady bits filmed for a segment on a nationally broadcasted television show? That’s ridiculous. On the other end of the spectrum, Mary Powers was made to look like a total psycho. That’s alright, though. Mary was a total jerk and came off as a power hungry tool. My heart went out to the members of her group. Isn’t that always the interesting part about this episode? This is the only time we truly see what some of these contestants are like when they aren’t smiling for the judges. Eye-opening. Let’s take a quick look at the groups that were featured… Faith allowed a few girls to show off their pipes even though the performance came off as wooden. Charity Vance and Ashley Rodriguez sang the right notes but looked blank and vacant. I couldn’t even hear Michelle Delamor over the piano. Somehow, they all made it through. Go figure. This was a masterclass in mediocrity. Team Awesome was confident and pleasant, but again, nothing special. Michael Lynche looked poised and polished and Seth Rollins and Tim Urban sang well but added nothing in flavor. Neapolitan was the first of two groups to sing “Bad Romance” for their audition. The judges loved it but it sounded seriously off-key. Liz Rooney sounded terrible and watching Thaddeus Johnson sing Lady GaGa was nightmare-inducing. Also, there was a little drama, because apparently Neapolitan stole their ideas from… Destinys Wild, who somehow managed to make “Bad Romance” work better than the previous group. Todrick Hall and Siobhan Magnus were stand-outs in this ensemble. Siobhan, never heard from until tonight, seemed to have a killer rock voice hidden inside her poorly-fashioned exterior. The Mighty Rangers completely bombed their one chance, which is weird because I thought they’d do better with Zac Efron in their group. I’m sorry? Oh, apparently that was not Zac. My bad. Tori Kell was the only contestant to sing well as the rest (Maddie Penrose, Mark Labriola, and Kimberly Kerbow) quickly drowned. Phoenix had a member quit on them at the last second. They let this affect them and squandered their opportunity to make a good impression. Ben Honeycutt mumbled through a verse, Moorea Masa forgot the majority of her words, and Jermaine Sellers resorted to screaming past the melody. Jeff Goldford was the only contestant not to let Kat Nestel’s departure drag the group down. In the end, Phoenix decided to complain about their luck. Simon nailed it; this is show business… suck it up. Middle C showed us a nice showcase of talent from Janell Wheeler, Jermaine Purifoy, and the always improving Casey James. Unfortunately, Casey still looked incredibly awkward without a guitar slung around his shoulders. He better get over that. 
Three Men and a Baby allowed Andrew Garcia to once again wow us with his talent. Once again I am of the firm belief that Garcia is ready for primetime. Katie Stevens also managed to maintain her confidence. After all, she is only, as Randy would say, seventeen! The Dreamers was the last group of the evening. They were also the one with so much drama in their midst they made the people on Jersey Shore look like perfect citizens. Mary Powers screamed out some awful notes and just set the tone for an awful ride. Hope Johnson looked close to tears and Margo May was so far away from her notes she had to call them collect. The train wreck ended with a crestfallen Alex Lambert who could barely mumble through his frustration. What’s worse? After all that pain and hardship, they only cut 25 contestants. That’s right. 71 remain. We’ll see you next week! Now you can follow Foxes On Idol & RealityNewsOnline on Twitter and on Facebook! On Twitter, you can get up to the minute notifications on article postings and other reality TV news by following us. So head on over to RealityNewsOnline’s Twitter page! On Facebook, you can become a fan, join discussions, and more! If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent articles on Foxes On Idol & RealityNewsOnline:
Joseph can be contacted at jh.banks@yahoo.com. Be sure to sign up for the RealityNewsOnline/FoxesOnIdol e-mail update so you can stay informed about new articles on both sites! Also make sure to check out RealityNewsOnline for recaps and articles covering other reality TV shows. For even more news about American Idol, be sure to check SirLinksALot: American Idol! View Printable version of this article
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