Things are heating up in the "Hunger Games"-like "Idol Arena."
On Sunday's episode of "American Idol," Katy Perry, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie kicked off "Hollywood Week" by being tasked with cutting at least 80 singers from the contestant pool.
One by one, the 143 remaining contestants gave their all on stage in a battle to the death. Though some crumbled under the pressure, others – including 15-year-old Triston Harper, mortician Kennedy Reid and college student Justice Murphy – thrived in the spotlight.
This left the judges with a conundrum. “We have to have an emergency meeting (with) the ABC network because we have a problem," Richie said as the performances were underway. "There’s no way on Earth... half of this class cannot go. It’s just impossible.”
Here are the night's highlights (and lowlights) — and who made it through to the "Showstoppers" round.
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Madaí Chakell – who, if you recall, earned two yeses from Perry and Richie for singing "I Kissed A Girl" and "Happy Birthday" – was, unfortunately, one of the contestants who was feeling the heat during "Hollywood Week."
Shortly after launching into Ariana Grande's "Tattooed Heart," Madaí cut the song due to an instrumental issue.
“Hold on. Hey, can we start over? I wasn’t feeling that one. Sorry y’all," she said. When it still didn't sound how she wanted, Madaí stopped her performance again. “OK, we’re going to do this acapella because that’s not flowing the way we practiced," she told the audience.
Ouch. To the pianist's credit, she wasn't wrong because she sounded better without the distraction of the piano.
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She might not have garnered much support from her comrades with this stunt, but it showed she took her one shot seriously.
Things started breaking down further when Bryan – the sole dissenter during her audition – asked whether Madaí was “feeling OK” and if her voice was “a hundred percent.” She went off on the judge in an interview later.
“My pianist completely flipped the script on what we practiced," she said. “They also tried to play the card (of) ‘Oh, is your voice OK?’ What do you think? I was shaky because look at what y’all just did!”
She added, “Is your voice OK, Luke? I haven’t heard you sing. Obviously, I can sing.”
After the show's producers made a good-faith effort to give her a second opportunity, Madaí got through a full performance of "Tattooed Heart." However, the judges didn't know what to do after she seemingly threw away her second shot by singing the last word, “heart,” with a Southern twang.
Bryan asked, “Why the ‘heart’ that way?”
She replied in a British accent: “You know, you said something before like I don’t know who I am quite yet. So I wanted to show you I can be everyone and everything; isn’t that what an American idol is?”
After she walked off the stage, Bryan told his colleagues, “Maybe we’ll do American humble at some point!” adding, “Probably not winning the audience with that one.”
There was nary a dry eye when Kaibrienne "KB" Richins challenged herself to perform a "risky" song "that brings up so much emotion."
“As a little girl, I went through things that I don’t think a little girl should have to go through, things that I haven’t really dealt with," she explained.
As she belted out Jessie Murph's "How Could You," KB choked her way through the song's title lyrics, persevering with the help of her fellow contestants' applause. The 20-year-old came back stronger the second time when she accused her tormentor, "How could you?"
During her performance, it became apparent that the platinum ticket holders – Abi Carter, Julia Gagnon and Odell Bunton Jr. – were unwell, as they were shown holding each other's hands for support as tears streamed down their faces.
On the subject of these platinum ticket winners: The show really made sure they were targets for the nearly 150 contestants by having them sit in their own exclusive VIP section on set.
The judges could only pick a not at all arbitrary 56 contestants to advance to the "Showstoppers" round.
They brought out the 143 hopefuls in more manageably sized groups before dividing each in half, with one group being safe and the other going home.
Here are some of the contestants who are moving forward:
Episode 6 marked the end of the road for these contestants:
The judges' decision split up the Matthews sisters as well as friends Kayko and Abby Blake.
The "Idol Arena" survivors were the "best of the best" – but only for now, because more than half of them will be eliminated during Monday's episode.
The "American Idol" pool will soon be whittled down to 24.
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