Is 'American Idol' Still a Singing Talent Show?

I have ten pages of notes on last night's 'American Idol' and yet not one true lasting thought on anyone's performance. Well, except for the piercing screams of James Durbin, which was the only thing loud enough to cut through the din of drama during the Hollywood Group performances. Sure, I guess people like catfights, but isn't there enough suspense in seeing whether our favorites will have a meltdown or a revelation? It was shocking how some contestants caved under pressure, and that was drama enough for me. I don't need to see how much of an a$# some of these people are behind the scenes in such detail. Let us just enjoy--or cringe at--the music. Or isn't this a singing competition anymore?

The Jordan Dorsey Drama
"American Idol" followed Jordan Dorsey as he auditioned people to see if they were good enough to stand next to him in the group round. Being b!#chier than Blair Waldorf lording over her minions in "Gossip Girl," Dorsey gave the "oh hell no" brush-off to several aspiring Dorsey-ites until he found enough people worthy. Then during practice, he ditched them all in favor of Robbie Rosen's group.

Former Dorsey acolyte Lauren Turner was not amused by Dorsey's turncoat routine, but she had no need to worry. She and fellow 440 singer Adrian Michael knocked their group number out of the park, got the audience dancing and are through to the next round. I only nabbed first names for their equally successful groupmates, but I believe they were Erika Schiff and Shane Golden.

For his part, after all that posturing, Jordan Dorsey sounded just so-so, but it was enough to get him to the next round. Robbie Rosen did a good job on his vocals, and their the 4 + 1 group all got through.

Scotty McCreary's "American Idol" Saga
I was just going to say McCreary didn't come off that well in the group rounds, but it turns out he's 16, so I guess we'll write it off to immaturity. McCreary had a tough time getting into a group due to his deep, distinctively country voice, but took his own disses and turned them on Brett Loewenstern by turning and walking away from him when the talented redhead tried to team up with him. He paid for that, however, with a run-in with resident crazy Tiffany Rios.

Later, McCreary expressed remorse to questioning "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson about "The Guaps" group decision to boot out little Jacee Badeaux. Drama aside, The Guaps did a nice job of highlighting McCreary's outstanding vocals, and showed he can sing more than one song. He's moving on to the next round.

Things Never Change for Brett Loewenstern
"American Idol" seemed to play up Brett's past as a bullied teen, showing several instances of him being ignored or treated poorly by fellow contestants. He also ended up in a group that nearly disbanded due to not having a "day 2" person. In a fortuitous turn of events, or just made to look that way, the discarded Jacee Badeaux was the answer to their prayers and the group stayed together.

Brett is a definite talent, though I don't think he actually sang his best in the group number. Little Jacee forgot his words, but made up a hilarious rhyming bit that went with the music and skated by on charm and sympathy. I'm not sure this kid is strong enough to make it further than the next round, but he should feel proud of himself for getting this far and really handling all the drama a lot more maturely than some of the older kids around him.

Three's a Crowd
I have no idea what happened on this "American Idol" journey to Rob Bolin. Determined to stick needles in his own eyes, Rob teamed up again with his ex Chelsee Oaks, who seems to get way too much enjoyment out of telling everyone how much she doesn't love him anymore. Dude must be a masochist, and "American Idol" had fun repeatedly showing the segment where he tried to romantically brush her hair off her face and she pulled away from him. Add to this Ms. Perfect Perky, Jacqueline Dunford, who didn't seem to be missing her boyfriend Nick Fink as much as Bolin was. Bolin got railroaded by the girls into focusing more on dance moves than vocals, and when it came time to perform, Bolin didn't appear to remember a single line of the song. This guy has supposedly sung in public before. How does a breakdown of this magnitude occur? Sure, getting lost on the lyrics is one thing, but not knowing a single word?

In an even more bizarre turn of events, Chelsee was barely passable and Jacqueline seemed to be doing something that only approximated singing--and yet they both moved on. Yes, Bolin didn't deserve to go to the next round, but neither did the other two.

Tiffany Rios
We all saw this coming. After burning bridges with her public diss of all the other "American Idol" contestants on the previous Hollywood round, Tiffany Rios found it impossible to get anyone to be in a group with her. Although, considering the two days of competition, hysterical nerves and hundreds of contestants, it seems a bit crazy that every single person there would remember who she was and shun her.

Tiffany also had a Bolin-esque meltdown, for after nailing the vocals in earlier rounds, failed spectacularly at staying in key during her producer-cleared duet with Jessica Yance. Yes, the harmonies were bad and Rios' hot pants terrifying, but it wasn't clear if Yance actually sounded all that bad. The only person willing to give Rios a break and join up with her, Yance learned that no good deed goes unpunished. After kindly urging Rios not to embarrass herself further by protesting their boot from the show, Yance gracefully left the stage. It's a shame she probably didn't get a fair chance to prove herself.

Another Ashley Sullivan Meltdown
This gal has been sobbing uncontrollably since the audition round. Honestly, I really wish "American Idol" would have kept the cameras farther away from her emotional breakdown. These weren't crocodile tears; she was really having trouble keeping it together. Huge kudos go to the kind members of her group, The Hits, who embraced Ashley with warm hugs when she wisely decided to suck it up and return. Ashley rewarded them by honestly turning in a quirkily engaging performance. Keeira Lyn Ford and the excellent Ashton Jones made it, along with Ashley, to the next round of "AI."

James Durbin vs. The Minors
This is another one of those "American Idol" moments that left me confused. James Durbin had a point when he expressed frustration at the 15 & 16 year old group The Minors, getting constant coaching and choreography lessons from their aggressive mothers. He was especially annoyed since they were both tackling Queen's "Somebody to Love." Maybe they were told to be, but the stage moms were fairly obnoxious, and I honestly didn't think any of the group sounded that good. I was waiting for the ax to fall, and inexplicably, the judges lavished tons of praise on the teens and sent them all through.

James Durbin's group was admittedly a mess, and he's got to be careful about not overusing the scream, but he swooped up into real notes and deserved his spot in the next round. Caleb Johnson performed well and will move on as well, but it was the end of the line for Emma Henry, Danny Pate and John Jordan.

Catching Up
Ten pages of notes, people. I do want to mention Denise Jackson, who had super fine vocals during the Sugar Mama and the Babies performance of "Mercy." Brett and Jacee got all the notice in the drama storyline, and it's a shame we didn't get to hear more of Denise instead.

No idea why Devyn Rush got booted and the still-not-great Chris Medina got pushed through during their group number, but it was nice to finally have one enchanting moment of discovery in little feisty blond Carson Higgins, who added some serious 'tude to "Forget You." I hope we get to see more of him.

My personal heartbreaker was the dismissal of quirky Emily Anne Reed, who auditioned with a '30s song and had a truly unique voice that I suspect didn't mesh well with a group. But we'll never know, since "American Idol" chose to make her a footnote rather than a feature. Thank goodness we got to see more of Dorsey being a jerk to people instead.

Clint Jun Gamboa and his giant glasses took a serious hit in karma points for initiating the whole "kick Jacee from the group," which was too bad because his vocals were stellar. Julie Zorilla once again seemed to get in on fashion choices rather than singing, though at least she wasn't horribly out of tune like some others who have moved on.

If you're still curious, head over to Gather for what looks to be a pretty comprehensive list of who's moving on.

What's It All About?
Previous Hollywood weeks have included drama and people behaving badly, but there always seemed to be at least a few golden moments where we really got to enjoy an excellent performance. I didn't feel anything like that in two hours of rapid-fire madness. There were only a few snippets of vocals that I wanted to hear more of, and a lot of people going through that apparently must have sounded a lot better in person than they did on TV. We can only guess that a lot of them are being set up to be cannon fodder that you won't feel bad about losing in the next round.

And if that's what we're thinking, what is the point of watching "American Idol?" There's hardly any investment for us in it anymore; there's no feeling of people trying their hardest and the best and brightest moving on to the next round. Sure, there's always been a few colossal mistakes in the judges' decisions, but this just feel more like heaps of calculation and manipulation rather than an error in judgment. What good is the drama in a show like "American Idol" when I'm wondering at every turn, "Did he really do that, or did they make him do it? Did they set this all up from the start? Is she a plant, or someone who was told to play up her 15 minutes because there was no way she was moving on?"

There are plenty of scripted "reality" TV programs out there, as well as completely scripted programs. If I want to watch people behaving in a certain way just to create drama, I'll watch an actual drama--it's a lot more entertaining. I watch "American Idol" to hear new talents sing, and the focus doesn't seem to be on that at all.

Watch "American Idol" every Wednesday and Thursday night at 8 pm ET. Check local listings as times are always subject to change.