American Idol Week 5: Hollywood Week Ends

Thursday, February 16, 2006

American Idol wraps up Hollywood week this week with two episodes that aired on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. By the end of Wednesday's show, we knew who our top twelve were. However, we had a bit of a journey to get there. let's first review the events on Tuesday night. That was when we had our group auditions, followed briefly by final acapella auditions by the forty-four left in the competition at that point. That would be their last performance before the judges made their final cuts in the chair round.

Tuesday night wasn't so much about the performances though. It was what happened behind the scenes that got the most attention by American Idol. The contestants were given one night in order to get together into groups and put together a choreographed performance of a song. there was conflict almost from the get-go. Singers switching groups, singers not wanting to practice (instead favoring sleep) and personality conflicts seemed to pop up the most in this round of the competition. Some just don't work well in groups, and it is this part of the audition that shows this. However, I'm not all that sure why they have a group performance. Most American Idol contestants go on to form solo careers. They don't form groups.

A majority of the focus on Tuesday's show was on the Brittenum twins. They seem to be everywhere, and people either loved them or hated them. I think I might have laughed out loud when they called their behavior on American Idol up to that point as completely angelic. These two certainly liked to stir the pot. When the second twin auditioned during the group round, he actually left the competition because he thought his brother had not passed on to the next round. Once he learned that wasn't the case, he had to suck it up and ask the judges to allow him back him. They did, but they made him and his brother sweat it out a bit before telling him so. However, Wednesday night we learned that the twins had been eliminated due to their legal troubles. No more twins! Bye bye!

Wednesday night we had the final cut before America is allowed to vote. From now on it isn't up to the judges, but the American voting public that watches American Idol. During the chair round, we were allowed to see each of the remaining contestants go up and learn if they made the cut. There was a focus on some, and those were some of the familiar faces we've been seeing since their first auditions when the series premiered a month ago.

In my mind, we have some amazing talent. However, some in the top twelve, especially on the girls side, are new faces to me. I don't recall seeing them very much in previous auditions, but they are talented. On the girls side, I'm still rooting for Katharine McPhee, Kellie Pickler, Paris Bennett and Lisa Tucker. On the boys side, I am rooting for Ace Young and Chris Daughtry. I know only one of them can win, but I think these six have the ability to make the top ten in any case. Tune in next week to see the top twelve perform on Tuesday and Wednesday with the first elimination by voting to air on Thursday.

These are America's Top 24:

BOYS: Ace Young, Bobby Bennett, Bucky Covington, Chris Daughtry, David Radford, Elliott Yamin, Gedeon McKinney, Jose Penala, Kevin Covais, Patrick Hall, Taylor Hicks, William Makar

GIRLS: Ayla Brown, Becky O'Donahue, Brenna Gethers, Heather Cox, Katharine McPhee, Kellie Pickler, Kinnik Sky, Lisa Tucker, Mandisa Hundley, Melissa McGhee, Paris Bennett, Stephanie Scott