Tonight’s episode marked the beginning of the five days of hell in Hollywood with 172 people set to show their stuff at the famed Orpheum Theatre. There is no room for error here – contestants must bring their A game or go home. Day one featured the 114 female contestants and by the end of the day it was whittled down to 58; nearly half of the females were sent home.
The show started off with a bit of a bust as contestants were taken backstage in groups of six and then each went onstage to perform a quick 30-second solo. Jory Steinberg, a favorite from the New York City auditions, was the first up. While she thought she did a great job the judges appeared to disagree sending the entire first group of six home. Other casualties from day one were Ashlynn Carr, Porcelana Patino, and Sarah Burgess who snuck out of the house to attend her initial audition.
The second day featured the males. Brian Miller, a 19 year-old from Placentia, CA, was first up – after his performance Randy Jackson commented on the fact that the day already started off better than the day before. That has to be a good sign for the males. When day two was finished 34 of the 58 males made it on to the next round in Hollywood including fan favorites Chris Sligh, Nick Pedro, and Sundance Head.
The third day was the infamous group day. The 92 contestants were able to form their own groups and pick a song from a choice of nine. Some groups quickly teamed up while others straggled around trying to find a home. At the beginning of day 3 Simon Cowell harshly reminded the contestants “do not forget the words.” As with every season of Idol there were those that would inevitably forget their words; those that did were mostly sent home.
The episode ended with the infamous rooms – the contestants were split into three rooms with only two rooms receiving the good news. Sanjaya Malakar and his sister Shyamali Malakar were separated as were BFFs Antonella Barba and Amanda Coluccio. Two rooms filled with 40 contestants were given the great news. When the two rooms merged into one to celebrate Barba quickly noticed that Coluccio was not there. Sanjaya Malakar was in no mood to celebrate when he didn’t see his sister come in and quickly ran downstairs to console her. In a touching brother/sister moment they embraced as tears ran down their cheeks.
Tomorrow night the 40 contestants will be cut down to 24 – the top 12 male and top 12 female contestants. It will be exciting to see how those line up with the predictions made by those in the know at Idolforums.com .
Check back tomorrow for more specific information about tonight’s show including the fantastic performance by Chris Sligh, Blake Lewis, Rudy Cardenas, and Tom Lowe.