//American Idol Recap: Hollywood Week – Auditions And Group Round//

Old favorites are sent packing. New favorites emerge. Constant annoyances prevail, then face pitfalls. So much is going on and American Idol’s most dramatic Hollywood week, like, EVER, is only two episodes in.

Tuesday night’s Hollywood week episode featured all 147 golden ticket holders getting back together to mix and mingle, then face the judges in the most intense part of the competition to become America’s hottest recording artist.

We’ll skim through Tuesday since everyone’s favorite part of Hollywood week, the group round, came the closest to delivering on Ryan Seacrest’s promise of drama, drama, and more drama.

Idol hopefuls lined the stage in small groups to sing a bit of any song they wanted acapella for the judges and their fellow contestants. Some met the challenge head on and became front-runners in our eyes like Anoop Desai, Adam Lambert, Jorge Nunez-Mendez, and  BFF duo Danny Gokey and Jamar Rogers. Others, who were considered front-runners in the audition phase, like the love of our Idol lives Jessica Paige Furney, cracked under the pressure.

And then there was Nick “Norman Gentle” Mitchell and Katrina “Bikini Girl” Darrell.

Second only to Joel Contreras aka the guy-pod, Norman Gentle is our favorite joke contestant of the season. He promised to tone down his Gentle ways when he got to Hollywood, but he so didn’t keep that promise. He hammed it up with a performance of the Dreamgirls showstopper “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” giving shout outs to the judges and Seacrest throughout. Surprisingly enough, he made it through to the next round because the judges saw, like we did, that Mr. Gentle actually has a good voice under all that Thanksgiving glazed-ham goodness.

The girl we despised enough not to even mention during the Phoenix audition round, Katrina Darrell also made it through to the group round even though female judges Kara and Paula tried their hardest to get Simon and Randy’s mind out of their bedroom fantasies and back into the competition. Her thin version of Faith Hill’s “Breathe” wouldn’t even be enough to get her a golden ticket, but you can’t tell that to the guys.

Oh and before we forget: We miss you, Dennis Brigham!! They DO suck as judges!

Ah group round. We’ve missed you so. Idol did a disservice to all viewers last season when the group round was ditched. This is the round where you get to find out just how much your favs want it and just how much of a biatch some of the contestants really are (Antonella Barba, anyone?).

There was no shortage of biatches and drama queens this season. It’s almost like they were making up for last season. I bet you can’t guess who started problems in their groups? Wait, you can? It’s that easy? We know. Of course! Bikini Girl and the oh-so-subtle Tatiana Del Toro were the big troublemakers of group day.

Katrina’s poor work ethic and need to schmooze with the cameras rubbed group member Rose Flack, the sweet-voiced hippie chick, the wrong way from the beginning. In fact, she rubbed all of the members in her group, The Divas, the wrong way. She decided to go to sleep rather than practice with her group. In the morning when they went to find her, she complained of being sick and too tired to show up. Figuring Bikini Girl had given up, the group headed to the theatre without her. But that wasn’t the last of BG. She showed up late hoping to rejoin her group. They let her back in, but Rose made the prediction that they’d be the group to get on stage and fall apart. She was right. But, sadly, and we hate to admit it, Rose fell apart more than Katrina did. She forgot her part in Duffy’s “Mercy” and danced awkwardly around the stage–hopefully as a distraction because if those were her real moves…. Everyone in the group, minus 16-year-old Jasmine Murray, were sent back home. A small celebration broke out as we watched BG walk off the stage to go home, not before she annoyed us one more time by calling everyone in her group fake. They’re fake for seeing through your disregard for the competition? Girl, bye!

Tatiana was in a group filled with a bunch of people we’ve never seen before or didn’t make enough of an impression for us to remember–DOH! They quickly realized just how annoying poor little Tati was. And they didn’t keep quiet about it. Tati felt the heat and went to find a new group.

She met up with Nathaniel Marshall, Nancy Wilson (teehee), and Kristen McNamara, Team Comprimise, to see if they’d let her in. Kristen had no problem with it, but Nancy was not about to let that go down. After awhile Tati made good with her “new” team, only to realize she wanted to make it work with her old group–without telling her new group. Nancy let her have it before accepting Team Comprimise would be remain a threesome.

Things didn’t go smoothly for Nancy’s team after Tati left. Kristen needed to “rest her voice” for an extended period of time when Nancy wanted to practice. Nathaniel refused to work with just Nancy and decided it would serve him better to cry like a baby about his dream being in their hands instead of at least practicing as a twosome while Kristen’s voice got its rest.

The bad blood continued on stage as they delivered one terrible performance of Duffy’s “Mercy.” No one rocked it. Nancy was a dry mess, Kristen was a shaky fright, and Nathaniel was an over-the-top, Danny Noriega-lite flop.

Even though they all sucked wet monkey teet, Nancy was the only one given her walking papers. A pissed Nancy didn’t go quietly. She brushed Nathaniel off of her when he tried to give her a comforting hug and muttered a few choice words to Kristen–both had to be bleeped out. Harsh!!

Tati’s group really got it together after the initial flap. Her group members still thought she was crazy but they dealt with it. They got on stage and pretty much rocked it. Every member got through. Tati celebrated with a blubbering speech thanking Jesus, the Lord, her group, and the guy holding the sound stick. Aww Tati!

Other groups didn’t get as much camera time, but notably casualties include David Osmond and Emily Wynn-Hughes. 

Hollywood week continues next Tuesday!!

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