I had thought that breaking the Hollywood round of "American Idol" into two weeks would be a good thing. After Tuesday's show, I'm not so sure.

The gimmick du jour was separating the 72 remaining contestants into four separate "holding rooms" to await their fate. These chair-less hotel conference rooms, with their ugly floral patterns and harsh fluorescent lights, were made even more depressing by the sad faces of the condemned.

But earlier in the day, each contestant had taken to the stage again (this time with music either from a band or their own instrument), with no comments from the judges. As usual, only a few complete performances were shown, while others got a snippet of air time or none at all.

Some of the current favorites — Anoop "Noop Dawg" Desai (pictured above), Danny Gokey and Lil Rounds — simply enhanced their resumes with yet more stellar performances. Other top contenders, such as the alleged "ringer" Joanna Pacitti, faltered. And rising higher in the ranks of the favorites was piano player Matt Giraud of Kalamazoo, Mich., who got a standing ovation from three of the judges (you know which one abstained).

By evening, the judges are shown moving Polaroid pictures of the contestants around on a table as they sorted out the four groups, one by one. And at one point they moved the annoying Tatiana Del Toro from one group to another, no doubt to inflict as much of Del Toro's insufferable whining on as many people as possible. Truth be told, though, Del Toro's performance clip was actually pretty good. If they could only edit out her offstage antics, we'd be golden.

But back to the manufactured drama. Footage showed Nate Marshall explaining what we viewers saw from a thousand miles away, and I paraphrase: "Gee, some of the people in this room forgot the words or otherwise sucked, and now I'm grouped with these people. Does that mean I suck too?" Well, Nate, I haven't seen enough of you singing to make that call. Be that as it may, sucking does not always mean you get the boot, so buck up. In fact, the more tortured faces you make, the better chance you might make it through. Here come the judges to make the call for the first of the four rooms ...

In walk Kara DioGuardi, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson (Simon Cowell had to jet off to Britain, no doubt to rake in a few more million bucks to help furnish his mega-mansion in Barbados, but I digress). Paula was wearing some kind of necklace that looked like one of those metal-art pieces that doubles as a wind chime. I was strangely hypnotized. At least until Jackson started going on and on about how hard a decision it was, and that it was tough week for you guys, and that you did your best. BUT YOU'RE ALL IN! They should have taken it a step further and waited until after they were packing their bags for the airport to tell them. Oh yeah, that would have been good. Or maybe just before the point where they're back home deciding whether to jump off a bridge.

The second room was a different story. You kind of know this was the room of doom when you realize the people in it are either unknown or unspectacular, such as Michael Castro, Leneshe Young and India Morrison.

The next room boasted some of the favorites, including Gokey, Desai, Rounds and Scott MacIntyre. The judges brought out the torture rack with this group too, which was kind of laughable given the talent. Of course they all made it to Wednesday's Top-36 selection show.

And then there was the final group, featuring the lovely Ms. Del Toro. With the judges really laying on the "sorry-you-guys" melodramatics, Del Toro began pleading like someone with a complete lack of any self respect. I think the judges caved in and allowed the group to advance simply to get her to stop.

Stay tuned for even more Hollywood-style insincerity in Wednesday's special two-hour show. Will your favorites make it to the Top 36?