| AI 5 Hollywood Week - Day Three |
| At the end of day two the remaining ninety-nine are put into groups and given their songs which they have to arrange and choreograph ready for tomorrow. Most don't get back to their hotel until around 11pm. Some like Paris Bennett decide it's time for sleeping but others decide to practice into the night. |
 | Terrell Brittenum and Anthony Hansen stay up until 5:30am! However Terrell is hopping mad because 2 of his group, Jose "Sway" Penala and Elliott Yamin, don't show. He blasts Sway over the phone "If you don't want to rehearse, then we could just call it quits now and I'll just tell Simon that you guys don't want to rehearse because you're sleepy!" Terrell is still confident, and he promises Anthony "...You just let me do all the talking, and I promise you we'll get through till the next part" |
| 28-year-old Nick Whitten from Anderson, SC, is grouped with Brenna Gethers and Marcy Smith. Unfortunately his bandmates just don't get on. During their pre-bedtime practice of "Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch" the girls argue over the choreography and their tensions spill over to the morning. |  |
| Brenna is conspicuously absent as Marcy and Nick practice alone near the breakfast area. She's enjoying breakfast alongside Elliott Yamin, and she blames the no-show on her band members "No-one ever... informed me to practice. So my strategy here is to do the steps to the best of my ability and out-sing 'em." Marcy thinks Brenna is "a show all for herself". Brenna seems to agree, "You know, a diamond is formed in a little bit of dirty-looking coal. So if they're the coal to my diamond baby, bling-bling and shine on." |
 | First up is Paris Bennett's group singing "Emotions" by the Bee Gees and Samantha Sang. She's accompanied by 17-year-old Hanna Freeman from Sandersville, GA, and Stephanie "Stevie" Scott from Fair Oaks, CA. Paris isn't on top form and Simon tells the group "it's a fairly pitiful performance from the 3 of you". Although only Hanna fails to make the cut, Simon makes it clear to Stephanie that he wouldn't have put her through, "You are one lucky girl... so you've got to thank those two". |
| Terrell Brittenum's group 'The Idolphonics' are second on stage, and considering their rehearsal problems they put on a good show singing a gender tweaked version of "It's in his kiss". |
 | Terrell keeps his promise to Sway. He tells the judges how Sway and Elliott had slept through the rehearsals. Elliott naturally doesn't appreciate Terrell "trying to trash" himself and Sway. Terrell doesn't earn any props from Randy either. Randy declares Elliott's performance the best! We actually enjoyed Terrell's the most, but the only compliment he receives from the judges is the fact that they put him through. |
 | Terrell doesn't keep his promise to Anthony though, the 22-year-old from Chicago is the only member of the group to be dropped. Afterwards Terrell quickly realigns his allegiance within the group and decides that the weakest link was Anthony!... "I think we held it together as much as we could. You know, we had somebody that was tone deaf in the group that made it hard for everybody to keep the pitch." |
| Idol's young 'Rat-Pack' is comprised of crooners Kevin Covais, 16, Josh Jordan 21, David Radford, 17 and William Makar 16. They each do a brilliant job singing "Fly Me To The Moon" and they all fly 'over the moon' when they get the thumbs-up from the panel. |
| Terrell's twin Derrell Brittennum gives a knockout performance of Sugar Pie Honey Bunch, before shocking everyone in The Orpheum by knocking himself out of the contest! He tells the judges "I would like to thank you guys for the opportunity, but my spirit has been broken. I'm not going to crap on my... my... my talent because I know I have it. I did the American Idol because I was told that this was not the place for a person like me and my brother, and I beg to differ. This is the end of the road for me. I'm going home, and me and my brother want to get our album finished of the music that we want to do, and we'll see you guys at the top." |
| The reason for Derrell's outburst is that he had heard the judges doing some straight talking to his brother when he was on stage and he assumed that Terrell had been cut. Derrell's naughty schoolboy face is a picture when Terrell tells him "You shouldn't have done that... You got to go in there and apologize." |  |
 | The Idol videotech wizards patch together a seamless version of Band of Gold from a few different auditions. The featured singers include Mandisa Hundley, Brooke Barrettsmith and 25-year-old Sarah Enouen from Austin, TX. They all knock it out of the box and they each make it to the next round. |
| Tyra Schwartz is a familiar face. She was featured auditioning in Greensboro the same week that she split up with her "cheating boyfriend". Tyra has a few more break-ups in Hollywood! First she decides to split from her original group "Epiphany" and join up with teen band "The Try Hards". |
She tries to organize The Try Hards, but they get Tyra'd out pretty quickly. They aren't trying hard enough for Tyra anyhow, so she breaks up with them and asks Epiphany to take her back! Epiphany don't seem overjoyed. 24-year-old Celeste Scalone, from Sherman Oaks, CA, points out that "It's really inconvenient, and not fair to us, or your other group, but...". Tyra tries to explain why she left The Try Hards. Nicole Turk, already has her take on that, "You got on everybody's nerves!" |  |
| It's lucky for Tyra that Epiphany do take her back because The Try Hards mess up badly on stage. Tyra takes time out to critique them, "They forgot all the words. They didn't sing the backgrounds. They were just standing there." Tyra doesn't mention that her sudden departure from The Try Hards might have left the girls under-rehearsed. |
 | One of The Try Hards is Leah Barrettsmith, who passed to Hollywood along with her elder sister Brooke. Big sis cries her heart out when Leah and her groupmates are cut. We know just how upset Brooke gets because the Idol cameras track the sisters all the way into the restroom and even take a camera shot from above their booth! Just where can an Idol contestant go for a bit of privacy nowadays? !! |
At this stage Ryan Seacrest interrupts proceedings to re-introduce Derrell and Terrell to the judges. Ironically Derrell is the twin who sang "Ain't to proud to beg" back in Chicago. Here in Hollywood he is about to prove it! |
In a dramatic Hollywood moment he tells the panel... "Well first of all, I'm begging, really, for your forgiveness. But it's my brother and I felt if he was mistreated in any way..." "But what are you saying about yourself?" interjects Simon.
"I'm saying that I wouldn't wanna resign from the show."
"Let me ask this lot?" The British judge turns to face the contestants in the audience, "You wanna keep him in?" The reaction is mixed, and Randy Jackson declares a split decision. Derrell continues... "I'll tell you what. This is what I'll do. I believe that me and my brother has exemplified what it is to be a true Americal Idol before even hitting the stage." Simon pulls rank... "Right, okay, now you can listen to me. I am fed up of your hissy attitude..." Derrell looks shocked when some of the audience applaud! Simon continues... "You resigned publicly, in front of them. I think this lot here are sick to death of you." and he tells Derrell "I'll decide, with Paula and Randy, whether we want you back in this competition in 30 minutes. I don't wanna hear any more from you." |
| When Epiphany make their appearance onstage they give one of the best performances of the day. All the girls perform well but 28-year-old Shontai Kinnik Sky from Duluth, GA, and 22-year-old Nicole Turk from Atlanta, GA, are exceptional. The judges seem to have an incling of what's gone on behind the scenes because they first announce that Celeste, Shontai and Nicole are through, and then after making Tyra sweat just a bit they add her to the list. |  |
| Brenna, Marcy and Nick also do a good job of masking their tensions as they perform on stage. Brenna doesn't out-sing Marcy like she'd planned, but she does her best to outperform her, even throwing a butt-slap into the number. Nick gets a cheeky kiss delivered by both girls on the final beat. The panel clearly enjoy the number, although Paula does pick up on Marcy's slight mess-up with the lyrics. Marcy complains about having a "long night" and says she's found the group a difficult one, due to "personality issues". |
| Brenna butts in..."That would be me. I guess I'm the Simon of the group. That's okay though." |
| "I love that you admitted that!" cries Paula approvingly. |
| Brenna's comedic personality is winning the judges over " This is American 'Idol', not American 'Idol', with an L, not an S or a Z. It's not American 'Idols'! And in this business, as we all know, there are some people that you just cannot get along with. You can't... nobody likes Donald Trump, nobody likes Simon Cowell, nobody likes Martha Stewart, but they rollin' in the dough! It's as simple as that, and I wanna be like them!" |
| Simon can't help but laugh, and when decision time comes he tells Nick "You have probably had the worst 24 hours of your life, we're going to put you through..." He also puts the girls through, prompting Brenna to give Marcy a quick hug and a pretend face-lick! |
| When the Brittenum's return to the stage to hear the panel's decision Simon keeps things short, "We spoke about it after you left. We'd like to invite you both to stay. See you later. Thank you." The decision is applauded as the brothers walk off stage silently. |
| The final act on stage gets it's own bass-voiced Hollywood trailer! It begins with a shot of a turkey! Unfortunately the main feature "Brokenote Mountain' turns out to be a bit of a turkey too! "The Cryin' Cowboy", Garet Layne Johnson from Wyoming is the leading man, with supporting roles played by Michael Evans, Matthew Buckstein and the turkey. |
 | The 3 cowboys have chosen 'Do Wah Diddy Diddy' as their number. 28-year-old Denver cowboy Michael is first on lead vocals. His tuning and timing are a bit off the mark, as are everybody's dance steps! Burbank's Matthew Buckstein, 24, fares slightly better when it's his turn to lead. For a moment we're thinking the guys might pull this back! |
Sadly, when young Garet takes over he breaks every note on Brokenote mountain, even the broken ones! This disaster movie needs certifying, or at least the panel do for putting poor Garet through this! |
The hopeful Idols in the audience love the performance. Probably they're thinking their competition has just got 3 cowboys smaller. When the guys finish they seem to know what to expect. Simon tells them they'll regret "trying to be bad comedians". Michael assures him they "weren't trying to be comedians at all". |
| Simon's verdict: "It was like some ghastly party where three workmates have got drunk and attempted to entertain an audience who aren't interested. For that reason, you are all going home." |
They may have performed bad, but there's definitely something good about the 3 cowboys, and that's their spirit. In a touching scene they round 'emselves up in The Orpheum foyer and despite being bucked off their Idol bronco, Matthew and Michael have nothing but praise for Garet. Michael calls him "an inspiration" and Matthew calls him "our little brother... he's 18, he's been working so hard at this, he's come so far". Naturally this sets the Cryin' Cowboy's sprinklers off again. Unfortunately this is not 'nice guy' Idol, but if it were these 3 cowboys would surely make the final 24! |
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