The girls, as it turned out, far outnumbered the boys who made it to Hollywood this season. Thus, there is a culling. Each girl gets thirty seconds to sing, and then the judges make cuts. The entire first line of contestants were cut. Can you imagine winning the Golden Ticket, flying out to Hollywood after months of anticipation, and being done five minutes into the first morning? Ouch. Shockingly, Canadian Jory Steinberg was amongst those cut in the first group. I thought she was the best of the line, but Simon didn’t find her memorable enough, I suppose. (She once had a multi-album contract, by the way.)

Perla made it through day one. She’s the obnoxiously overconfident — sorry, sassy — Shakira wannabe. She’s a little too bouncy for my tastes.

Rachel the Reservist whose husband is in Baghdad got cut. Bailey Brown edged through. Ashlyn Carr — the girl who got the second chance last week — got cut. Sara Burgess — the girl who went to “NYC” without telling her parents and then called Dad in front of the cameras with Ryan to tell him about her infraction — got cut.

All in all, 56 of the 114 girls got sent home in the first day.

The boys did a little better, but there were far fewer of them. 34 made it through, including the beatboxer and Nick, the kid who dropped out last season. Phil, the guy who missed the birth of his daughter to get a Golden Ticket made it through. As did the Castro/Jesus lookalike, and the guy named Sundance.

Since there were 172 contestants to start, that means 24 got cut out of 58. That’s a pretty significant blood-letting in both cases.

Then it was time for the groups, and all the usual drama over who does and doesn’t get along, who gets left out, and who parties all night.

Poor Bailey, for example, got stuck with the two Jersey Girls. And their group made the classic mistake of trying to work out routines and parts before ever learning the friggin’ words. It would come back to haunt one of them, at least.

Perla (nee Shakira) forgot her lyrics and went home. Bailey blanked completely and forgot every single lyric, then had a blow out with the two Jersey Girls who did make it through. They were obnoxious, unsurprisingly. On the bright side, Bailey is eligible to compete again next season. You’re not locked out until you make the final 24, I don’t believe. She’s young yet. She should come back, and next time learn her lyrics better.

Chris Sligh — the humorous afro-laden guy who Simon is high on — sailed on through with his group, which blew the roof off, complete with beatbox accompaniment. For more on Chris, check out his blog.

Which reminds me — If the contestants are smart, they’ll register domain names in their names NOW.

Sundance miraculously makes it through, despite forgetting lyrics. Simon thought Paula was too kind in that decision. We’ll see tonight. . .

Jesus/Castro goes home.

I believe the final tally was 56 contestants after this round, at which point each sings one bit of a song alone without judges comments before being grouped in three rooms and told their fates.

40 people make it through to tonight’s round, which will bring us to the final round of 24, who start singing for your votes next week.

One Jersey Girl made it through, but not the other. Sanjai made it through, but not his sister. (The judges always liked him more.)

Tonight at 9:00, the judges decide who to put in the Top 24. If I remember correctly, each will sing in front of the judges one more time before a dramatic walk to a judging chair decides their fate.

Sorry if this writeup is a bit scattershot. It’s tough keeping track of that many people, particularly when their names don’t flash up on screen that often. Remember the girl who recounted the story of her father’s failed murder/suicide? She got cut.

Hopefully, tonight will be a little easier to handle. . .

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 at 10:24 am and is filed under American Idol. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.