Last night, "American Idol" headed to Hollywood, but there was a twist this season: The boys and the girls were separated into two different categories, and only the male contestants performed this week. (Viewers won't get a chance to see the female Hollywood Week contestants perform until next Wednesday.) Another twist? The contestants weren't allowed to choose their teams for last night's group round, nor were they allowed to switch groups. My "The Day After" co-host Matt Whitfield and I weren't really feeling these format changes, and we have a hunch that many other "Idol" diehards out there were similarly disgruntled.
Equally disgruntling was the fact that so many of last night's boys had never had their initial auditions shown (a real editing disconnect, right there), and that many of last night's boys seemed to have poorer memory retention than a "Don't Forget The Lyrics" flunky. Simon Cowell would've never tolerated such amateur-hour antics (lyric-flubbing was always his biggest pet peeve on "Idol"), yet the NEW judges bizarrely put through many contestants who didn't even seem capable of recalling all the words to "Happy Birthday."
In general, it was a weird and disappointing episode, but thankfully, a few boys stood out. Watch me and Matt discuss the good, the bad, the forgetful, and the just plain forgettable, and feel feel to chime in with your own thoughts, too.