The latest on Idols 6, including a recap of last night's second Theatre Week episode, Sunday (15 August 2010):Coverage of Theatre Week started last Tuesday (10 August at 19h00) with a shock for the 96 hopefuls who arrived at Sun City. Everyone performed for the judges as soon as they arrived and almost 40 of them were sent home before they got to check into their hotel rooms.
For the 57 who remained there was no time to celebrate as they went on to face one of the most notoriously difficult evenings in the Idols process: Groups.
They were told to organise themselves into groups and to prepare a performance of one of the songs on the list that they had prepared for the week.
The groups could be any size - their choice of groups was entirely up to them. They only had this one night to establish their groups, choose a song, work out a routine and rehearse.
In addition to finding their ideal group and choosing the right song, they also had to decide if they wanted to be accompanied by Idols Musical Director Johan Laas on keyboards, or if they wanted to provide their own accompaniment.
Bongi Mthombeni (23, from Thembisa) immediately decided to accompany himself, and his talent and enthusiasm drew the attention of Freddie Moss (21, from Randburg), Jamie-Lee Sexton (23, from Linden) and Riziki Tresor (23, from Durban).
It wasn’t such smooth sailing for everyone though. Berenike Segal (19, from Cape Town) battled a migraine and halfway through the night Charné Hugo (18, from Cape Town) and Prime Zulu (19 KwaMashu) hadn’t found groups yet.
To increase the pressure on groups, no-one received feedback from the judges after each performance. Instead they had to perform and then wait to hear their feedback i.e. if they'd been chosen to stay or go. Randall had also previously warned that the judges had no specific number of finslists in mind so their performance was the only deciding factor.
Everyone spent a day performing - some were good, some were rubbish and in between, an off-stage drama struck when the paramedics had to be called for Charné, who had collapsed. She was disagnosed with a migraine attack, received treatment and was later able to re-join the show.
Charné Hugo (front) with her group Berenike Segal (left) and Antoinette Moolman (right) before the migraine struck. She caught it from Berenike, who'd been attacked by it the night before.
The judges then deliberated who should stay versus go. Everyone was divided into four different rooms and, as per usual on the show, they had no idea which room was which until the judging panel visited each room to give them a thumbs-up or thumbs-down.
In the end 30 contestants survived. Their celebration was short-lived though as they were immediately issued a fresh list of songs and told to divide themselves into duos.
Working through the night once more - this time with Vocal Coach Malie Kelly - they needed to prepare for the third and final test of Theatre Week: Duets.
Zintle Mokoena and S'Posh Petshwa
Jamie-Lee Sexton and Freddie Moss
The winners of this phase will go through to become the season's finalists, who will be revealed on Tuesday (17 August, 2010) night's episode: Episode 3 of Theatre Week.
Idols 6 is on M-Net and M-Net HD on Sundays at 17h30; and on Tuesdays at 19h00.