The start of Hollywood in American Idol Season 9 Episode 9 marked the start of Ellen DeGeneres’ judging on the show. She turned out to not be too bad. Not that she had a lot to live up to. Tonight is group day, which has proved to be the downfall of many people, particularly those who are just there to have fun.
85 people have been cut so far. 96 remain.
The first challenge is to find a group and agree on a song. I can tell already this is going to be a completely chaotic episode jumping from one place to another without much focus.
The Dreamers starts off as a threesome of Mary Powers, Alex Lambert, and Margo May. They invite Hope Johnson and Erin Hunley to join them.
The Mighty Rangers all auditioned in Denver: Maddie Penrose, Danny Jones, Mark Labriola, Tori Kelly, and Kim Kerbo.
Phoenix includes Jermaine Sellers, Kat, Ben Honeycutt, Jeff Goldford, and Moorea Masa, who made it to Hollywood last year and was in Danny Gokey’s group.
The original Dreamers aren’t too happy with their new group members, and they’re considering dropping them.
Paige Miles and Thaddeus Johnson join Jessica Cunningham and Liz Rooney to form the quartet Neopolitan.
Destiny’s Wild keeps getting tossed out of every room because they’re obnoxiously loud. Their group consists of Siobhan Magnus, Jereb Leaver, Theri (no last name), and Todrick Hall. They park themselves right next to Neopolitan, who are then forced to start shouting as well.
The Dreamers have decided to work together now. Having dragged their feet, now they have to play catch up.
Big Mike Lynche’s wife is about to deliver their first child. She’s gonna have to go it alone, and wants him to be there singing.
Back to the drama with The Dreamers. Mary wants to take control of everything. She’s even getting on the nerves of keyboard player Michael Orland.
Big Mike gets a call from his wife, and he goes through labor over the phone with her. It’s a girl.
Some people are missing something: the words.
Charity Vance, Ashley Rodriguez, and Michelle Delamor are the first group to perform. They’re all through.
Big Mike’s group Team Awesome also consists of Seth Rollins, Tim Urban, and Michael Castro. Michael Lynche and Tim Urban step forward and will advance to the next round.
Neopolitan is next. They sing the same song as Destiny’s Wild, who claim that they stole their apparently original idea of singing a cappella. Simon thought that was very good. All of Neopolitan advances.
Destiny’s Wild is up next. Ellen tells them their performance was weird. Nonetheless, they, too, all advance.
Denver’s Mighty Rangers get off to a good start. Until Mark and Kimberly forget the words. Tori Kelly and Maddie Penrose advance. The people who stayed up to rehearse continue, while those who went to bed earlier got booted.
Phoenix loses one of their group members, who decided to bail at the last minute, afraid they will humiliate themselves. Simon tells Moorea it’s rubbish that they went through anything hard up there. Jeff Goldford and Jermaine Sellers advance to the last day.
Big Dreams includes Matt Lawrence, Amanda Shechtman, and two other people who Simon doesn’t want to hear. It’s the end of the line.
Leah Lorenti, Carmen Turner, Kimberly Carver, and Dave Pittman have been cut.
Janell Wheeler, Jermaine Purifory, and Casey James all advance.
Andrew Garcia, Katie Stevens, and JB Ahfua follow suit.
The Dreamers have been arguing all night and day. Margo May very quickly bombs. Mary Powers, Hope Johnson, and Alex Lambert advance.
71 people have survived the day.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of American Idol 9 Episode 11, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on Fox.