AI Season 10, 02-23-11, Vegas Eliminations

I'm not sure if tonight was a single episode that was two hours long, or if it was two episodes that were an hour long apiece (since they played the whole opening bit twice), but I'm going to treat it as one episode.

Tonight, we're in Las Vegas, performing The Beatles at The Mirage where Cirque du Soleil does their Beatles themed show, Love. I will resist the urge to link to an explanation of who The Beatles are, since I assume you already know (as opposed to many of the AI kids... sigh...)

The chosen 50 (or 61) are barely given enough time to celebrate, before being told that they're hopping a bus for Vegas, and new group performances in less than 24 hours. I am dismayed at how many of them have never heard a Beatles song (though what I assume is that they don't know they've been hearing Beatles music their entire lives, since The Fab 4 are pretty impossible to escape).

We're treated to a sneak peek at the rehearsals from hell, with a drill-sergeant coach, and a less than receptiveThia Megia, who has perfected the dead-eyed, serial killer look. Lauren also gets the full brunt of the coaching disapproval for using a cheat sheet for the lyrics. This is going to be really interesting.

JLo looks like the hottest secretary in the history of secretaries in a prim white blouse and very red lipstick. Steven Tyler is wearing a print shirt, with a vest and a scarf. Randy is in a black leather jacket.

James Durbin and Stefano sing Get Back. James is wearing his usual bandanna and butt scarf. He's okay, but this is nothing out of the ordinary. Stefano sounds pretty blah.

Pia and Karen sing Can't Buy Me Love, and neither sounds good.

Jacob Lusk, Hayley, and Naima sing Long and Winding Road, and only Naima sounds good. Send Jacob directly to Broadway, do not pass Go.

Rachel and someone else sing Elinor Rigby, and both sound awful.

Laruen Turner is OK on Let it Be.

Tim Halperin (who?) and Julie both play keyboard on Something, and both sound okay.

Unfortunately, Lakeisha Lewis, heretofore unheard, sounds pretty blah, along with Jerome Bell, on I Saw Her Standing There. Only Tatynisia, wearing a spandex jumpsuit with a leather bodice, sounds okay on this.

Some guy named Paul, with a very quiet voice, sings Blackbird with some girl named Kendra. This is strange, and it's totally the wrong song for Kendra. Paul is okay at best, though his constant smile is a bit unnerving.

Clint, with less round glasses than usual, sounds fine on Help. John Wayne Shultz sounds okay as well.

Oh my, unstable Ashley is getting married. For real. This cannot end well. Bridegroom David: run while you have the chance. RUN!!!

Day 2- JLo is in sparkly silver spangles, Steven Tyler is in a floaty red print shirt. Randy is in a red cardigan.

We see Thia and Melinda sing Here Comes the Sun, and it's about as bad as the coach predicted it would be.

Ashley (with a new last name and wearing the same outfit that she got married in) and Sophia sing We Can Work it Out. The Good: Ashley didn't have a psychotic break on stage. The Bad: everything else.

Lauren, Denise, and Scotty sing Hello Goodbye. It's tough for Lauren to sing something other than Aerosmith. Scotty sounds all right. The others, not so much.

Carson and Caleb sing something, but it's so horrible that I forget to write down the title.

Casey Abrams and Chris Medina take a big risk by singing while bouncing on a bed. Seriously. I think this was a big mistake.

The last performing group- Robbie, Aaron (who?), and Jordan (of the Diva behavior in Hollywood), sing Got To Get You Into My Life. Robbie and Aaron sound good. I'm meh on Jordan. I know that the props all around the stage are left from the Cirque du Soleil show, but I'm at a loss as to where a lighted cross fits into any of The Beatles music. It's distracting.

Okay, so we're down to the first set of eliminations- winnowing the 61 to 40. For sure, Thia, Scotty, Jordan, Ashthon, Robbie, and Lauren are safe. It's confusing as to whether the others with them onstage are going home or not, though it's made clear that Carson, Caleb, Denise, Melinda and newly married Ashley are done for.

As for the rest of the Top 40, your guess is as good as mine.

So, instead of segueing into the second hour of the show, we get the opening credits all over again, so this may actually be a new episode, playing directly after the first. Whatever.

Though we're in Las Vegas, we're still going to get the Walk of Terror to The Chair. This time, we're set up in a warehouse, with a very long, lighted walk to the judges for the Top 24 Eliminations. JLo is wearing a green, one-shouldered concoction. She has Jessica Rabbit hair. Steven Tyler is wearing a transparent, leopard print shirt, and he either has a long earring, or he has beads in his hair. Randy is in all black.

First up is Naima. She's wearing a blue spangly prom dress, and has a big flower in her new extensions. We get a clip of her final solo, that let your hair down song. She's in the Top 24.

Hollie Cavanaugh, in very very high heels, gets a No, though JLo has a really hard time telling her so.

Lakeisha Lewis, the big girl we never got to hear (until tonight) gets a no. So do Alex and Ryan, neither of whom we've seen, so we don't care.

Clint Jun Gamboa annoys me, and his overblown Georgia shows just what a genius Casey is, gets a yes.

Hayley Reinhart, of the growly God Bless the Child, and another growly, incomprehensible solo, gets a yes.

Young D'Andre, with the great hair and the Stage Mama, gets a No.

Paul McDonald is the one with the quiet voice. He wore a white suit splattered with glitter roses (on the jacket AND the pants) for his last solo, and gets a yes.

Ashthon Jones has a huge voice. She's wearing a one-shouldered tunic and very high heels. She gets a yes.

Chris Medina is up next. I assume that he's going to make it from all of the air-time he and his critically injured fiance have gotten. But JLo looks very sad, and ... oh... it's a no. And while Chris takes it very well, JLo is crying, and she's crying seriously, with the snurfly nose and puffy eyes and everything. And, what the hell? I'm crying too. What has this show done to me?

From dreading this season, I'm not only invested in the kids, I actually like the judges, and I'm sad that beautiful Jennifer Lopez is sad. As for the rest of the Top 24- we'll find that out tomorrow night. I can't wait.

There is no hope for me.