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By Rose Wade

Eight-five down, seventy-two to go to get to that magical top 24 contestants.

This episode dives right into the drama that is group night in Hollywood. Mary 'Big Personality' Powers, Alex Lambert, and Margo May collect and call their group the 'Dreamers'. Before they spend any time practicing, they invite 2 other girls to join, which didn't seem like a good idea from the start. The just couldn't seem to get it together as a group, but got plenty of camera time because of it --- or maybe in spite of it. Mary was not only unphased by her group's attempt to squelch her bossy ways, but even the attempts of the American Idol staff didn't deter her from dictating how she thought things should go. Give it a rest, girl; you are there to sing, not change the world.

(Photo: Myabe the biggest disappointment of the evening, Mark Labriola, who had been 'one to watch', forgot the words and heads home after the group auditions. Click here to watch.)

Long story short, the three original members of the 'Dreamers' make it through, the two newcomers (I don't even remember their names) got a ticket home --- for being forgettable.

The 'Mighty Rangers' who bonded because they all auditioned in Denver originally, couldn't come together on the simple decision of staying up to rehearse or going to bed early, and split in two for that decision. In the end, three of the five get tickets home, including the cheeky Kimberly Kerbow who won't be anywhere close enough to Simon to buy him that Rogaine now. I had medium hopes for Mark Labriola, but as soon as his begging for another chance began, I was actually relieved to see him go. Seriously man, did you really think that would help after forgetting your words?

Two more groups, Neapolitan and Destiny's Wild, chose Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" and were soon stealing each others ideas and choreography, but after two completely different styled performances, all members of both groups squeaked through to the next round. I didn't think they all deserved to make it through, but that could be one of the reasons I'm not sitting at the desk sipping whatever out of the new Vitaminwater Zero cups.

I detest that I'm going to even pay her lip service now, but when Cat Nessle abandoned Phoenix and left the competition, I was surprised. To come all that way, and just toss it away because you 'might' look bad on stage? Grow a spine, take the shot. Her group seemed like they would have struggled with or without her, forgetting the words and making a mess of "Carry On Wayward Son". The absolute worst part of this performance was when Jermaine Sellars screeched out some ever-lasting notes, I'm pretty sure marine biologists in California were running for their medical kits thinking something in the ocean was dying, but the judges rewarded that garbage by putting him through.

Big Mike (Michael Lynche), Casey James, Charity Vance, Andrew Garcia, Katie Stevens, Haeley Vaughn, and J.B. Ahfua are all moving on after their various group performances. Those are names I'm pretty confident we will see over and over in the weeks to come.

Matt Lawrence, Amanda Shectman and the rest of their 'Big Dreams' group members completely toss their "Sweet Escape" performance and area all sent packing. Bummer about Matt, he had potential, but forgetting the words at this stage is inexcusable. Amanda didn't disappoint her acting coach, she played the drama queen role until the curtain came down upon her never-ending tears. One drama queen down, what will they do for ratings now.

So, 96 hopefuls started out the day in Hollywood and 71 will sleep there again tonight. If you can remember what a vinyl record sounds like when someone pulls the needle across it while it's playing, that is the sound that went through my head when I heard as many as 71 went through, too. Now we're forced to listen to some of those better-in-the-shower -than-in-public singers again next episode until we hit that magical number of 24. I find myself looking forward to the top 10, can't we just skip ahead?