‘American Idol’: Group Round Is Hell For Jacee Badeaux

Robbie Daw | February 17, 2011 5:56 am

“Get ready for group round—if you can handle the pressure,” warned Ryan Seacrest at the beginning of last night’s episode of American Idol. And he wasn’t bluffing! This notorious evening never gets less harsh, even though we’re now well into Season 10. The contestants were thrown a bit of a curve ball this time around, as they were told their groups must consist of members from both day one and day two of last week’s Hollywood elimination round. There were tears. There was tension. And then there were The Minors. Read on! The groups didn’t form easily, and there were various complex and intricate shufflings of contestants within them down to the 11th hour. Or at least that’s what the producers chose to focus on in the first quarter of last night’s two-hour episode.

Also, while we were told by Seacrest that our hopefuls had a list of 20 songs to choose from for their singing-and-dancing performance, it seemed at times as if Bruno Mars’ “Just The Way You Are” or Cee Lo Green’s “Forget You” were the only tunes anyone cared for.

And then there was the melodrama. The pressure of having cameras trained on her full time was clearly hammering on New Jersey native Ashley Sullivan, who we saw break off from practicing with her group The Hits and curl up against the wall on the floor. There was some tension when, bawling, she sadly told her group she couldn’t handle it and decided to quit the show. However, Sullivan’s boyfriend had a heart-to-heart with her outside, and convinced her that she should follow through with her dream—or at least that having a girlfriend who was seen as a quitter by millions of viewers wasn’t going to do much to up his cool factor back in the Garden State.

The next sad sack was 15-year-old Jacee Badeaux, who was at first partnered up with Monique De Los Santos, Frances Coontz and Clint Jun Gamboa. But along came country-crooning teen Scotty McCreery needing a group to join (having already rejected an offer from overly-confident Tiffany Rios and Jessica Yantz, a twosome that, in the end, was never able to find a third member). And so a heartbreaking swap-out was made with Jacee. Okay, that’s sugar-coating it a bit—Gamboa simply decided to kick Badeaux out, execution-style.

With only a few hours left to rehearse, heartbroken Jacee was at last welcomed into the group Sugar Mama And The Babies, consisting of Brett Loewenstern, Denise Jackson, Stevie Cain and Natalie Hanson.

The Standouts: Only a few groups truly had just the right combination of talent to completely wow judges Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson. Two of them were rivals Four Plus One and 440. Drama ensued earlier in the episode when Jordan Dorsey bailed on the former group (because he didn’t think their talent pool was up to his standards) to join the latter. When all was said and done, both aced it on stage.

The Hits (Ashley Sullivan’s group) wound up being equally impressive with their take on Blu Cantrell’s “Hit ‘Em Up Style (Oops!),” and Randy dubbed the girls the best harmonized act of them all.

But it was The Minors—under-18 contestants Keonna Evans, Jalen Harris, Sarina Joie-Crowe, Felix Ramsey and Deandre Brackensick—who brought the judges to their feet and elicited a standing ovation after blowing everyone away with a rousing performance of Queen’s “Somebody To Love” (thanks, in part, to the strict coaching of their “mom-agers,” who were all along for the ride).

“Freddy Mercury’s up there smiling at you guys,” Steven Tyler said to the elated teens.

All the members of Sugar Mama And The Babies, who only rounded out their group with Jacee Badeaux hours before, were also safe, despite the teenager never having heard their song choice—Duffy’s “Mercy”—before.

They were followed by Clint Jun Gamboa and Scotty McReery’s group. Before they launched into the Temptations’ “Get Ready,” the members were grilled by the judges about why they gave Jacee his walking papers the night before. Luckily they all had the talent chops to make up for their not-so-friendly actions.

Who Got The Axe: Say goodbye to Rob Bolin, the ex of Chelsee Oaks—both of whom we first met during the Nashville auditions. The onetime couple joined up with Jacqueline Dunford (herself now separated from her beau Nick, since he got cut last week) to form Three’s Company. But Bolin couldn’t remember the lyrics to Cee Lo’s ironically-titled (in this case) “Forget You.” Nor could he dance to save his life. And so he was cut.

Also out are Kevin Campos, Jorge Gabriel, Tiffany Rios, Jessica Yantz, Alyson Jados, Emma Henry, Matt Dillard, Paris Tassin—the mom who connected with J.Lo in New Orleans—and Aaron Gutierrez, who’s brother Mark is still in the competition.

Tonight: As if group round wasn’t painful enough, the judges must now whittle down the remaining 100 contestants to 50 before they all head of to Las Vegas next week.