Here are the SHOCKING results from tonight’s The Glee Project. I’ll be adding a recap and videos later tonight.
Cameron QUITS the show, because he was having an increasingly difficult time with the assignments. Not surprisingly, “Sexuality” did him in.
Damien was the person Ryan wanted to send home. Even though it had become clear that Cameron was all wrong for Glee, Ryan wanted him to stay anyway.
UPDATE: Full recap with videos below
Mark Salling and Ashley Fink, who play Puck and Lauren on Glee, help the kids tackle “Sexuality”, this week’s theme on The Glee Project. The homework assignment finds the remaining 6 contestants flirting and coming on to each other PG Glee style to Madonna’s “Like A virgin”.
Cameron is still uncomfortable with the sex stuff. Hannah is too. “I’m a kuala bear! I’m not sexual”. She pairs up with Damien for the assignment, who she just might have a little crush on (who doesn’t?)
Cameron is back with Lyndsay, and he’s trying to be brave. Hannah always pushes on, even when she’s scared. I like that about her. Cameron looks super uncomfortable when Alex gets sexy with him. They all look kind of silly taking turns macking on each other.
Mark and Ashley pick Samuel as the winner. Ashley liked him because he was comfortable whether he was with a girl or boy. Lyndsay rolls her eyes. She thinks he’s getting by on one “look”, a cheap-looking smoulder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfoQUyfJG_Y
The music video project this week is “Teenage Dream”. The kids are paired up. Alex is with Samuel. Their storyline, between a gay couple, takes place in a recording studio. Lyndsay and Damien play cheerleader and football player getting flirty in the bedroom. Hannah with Cameron have a lovers food fight in the kitchen. Hannah is bummed she didn’t get paired with her secret crush, Damien. Cameron doesn’t expect his encounter with Hannah to be sexual and he’s a little relieved.
Choreographer, Brooke, blocks the group’s moves. Cameron is still whining about how he feels guilty kissing girls that aren’t his girlfriend. Samuel suddenly pulls out the Christian card. He was raised Christian and his devout mother wouldn’t approve of Sam playing gay. Ugh.
Vocals are next. The kids have to sing a lot this week. Nikki the vocal coach is happy with Samuel. Alex’s whiny voice? Not so much. Hannah is stretching past her range. Nikki is loving Damien and thinks he’s made progress. Lyndsay is struggling. Not sure why, she sounded OK to me. Cameron lays down his track, and Nikki loves it. He talks about how difficult the sexuality assignment is, because he believes that sex is only for after marriage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pEpSALdS5Q
Alex is nervous about performing with Samuel, he doesn’t want to cross the line with him. Sam gets past his fears, and commits to the part. Sorry mom! Alex is being a little over the top. Robert, the casting director, thinks he should dial the flamboyance back a bit.
When Damien and Lyndsay film their video, Robert worries that Lyndsay is overpowering her partner. Damien seems to need more direction than the others. The producers want him to step it up. Although the producers are impressed with Lyndsay’s acting, but Nikki finds some of her musical theater mannerisms troublesome. Poor Hannah is jealous that Lyndsay kissed Damien during their video shoot.
Cameron and Hannah’s shoot goes well, until Cameron is asked to kiss her. He decides that a kiss will cross the line and refuses. I’m sorry. But Cameron is ridiculous. He doesn’t get that he’s playing a character.
Untitled from MJ Santilli on Vimeo.
It’s time for the Bottom 3 reveal. Everyone did a great job, says Robert, but 3 still have to sing in front of Ryan. Hannah and Samuel are declared safe right away.
Cameron is in the bottom 3 because he refused to kiss Hannah, and Robert feels it affected his performance. Cameron is proud that he stuck up for what he believed in. Alex is in the bottom 3 because of his flamboyance? Isn’t that Alex pretty much on a weekly basis?
That leaves Lyndsay and Damien. It was a tough decision. The producers weren’t sure whether Damien wasn’t stepping up to the challenge, or whether Lyndsay was overpowering the scene because she was so in character. They decide to put Lyndsay on the call back list. Damien is in the bottom 3
Since all 3 have been in the bottom before, the producers decide to have them sing as if they were auditioning for New Directions. Alex is assigned “I Will Survive”, Cameron is given “Blackbird”, and Damien will sing “Danny Boy”.
Only Cameron isn’t assigned a song that will turn him into a total stereotype. They don’t want Alex to be flamboyant, yet they give him an over-the-top girl song? “Danny Boy” has to be the most hackneyed “Irish” song imaginable. Giving Damien a Celtic tune could have been cool, but freaking “Danny Boy” is a turd of a song. The beautiful, classic, “Blackbird” is right in Cameron’s wheelhouse.
Untitled from MJ Santilli on Vimeo.
It’s time to sing in front of lying asshat Glee co-creator, Ryan Murphy, Casting director Robert Ulrich and choreographer, Zach Woodlee. Damien was the tricky one to put in the bottom, says Robert. He’s improved the most out of all the remaining contestants. Damien nervously takes the stage, and his performance is lackluster. He seems to have lost his mojo. Earlier, he said the competition was messing with his head, and it’s pretty obvious here.
Ryan didn’t think it was his best performance, and then goes on this long lecture about the Glee characters who are graduating, and how the Glee Project kids need to be able to fill their shoes. Wait. WHAT? Hasn’t Ryan been telling everyone who will listen that there will be only ONE winner of the competition for a 7-episode arc, and that the contestants WILL NOT be replacing graduating characters on Glee? Ryan basically tells Damien that he, sir, is no Finn Hudson. UGH. Once again I WANT TO PUNCH RYAN MURPHY IN THE FACE. SO. MUCH. HATE. The producers give Damien the stupidest song ever to sing, and when he doesn’t feel connected to it, Ryan is all “fake it”. GAH.
dam last from MJ Santilli on Vimeo.
Alex is next. Robert says he’s in the bottom because he was playing his scenes “a little flamboyant” (when hasn’t he?) After Alex was given direction, he toned it down. So what’s the problem now? Alex dishes out a divalicious performance of the disco classic “I Will Survive” and Ryan eats it right up, but wants to see another side of him. “I need you to get real, ” he says. Alex looks confused.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU38aSv0_pU
Ryan is coming to believe that Cameron is a singer, but maybe not an actor. And indeed, Cameron is nearly always fantastic in his last chance performances. Tonight is no exception. His rendition of “Blackbird” is beautifully rendered. After, Cameron talks about how hard it is to stick to his beliefs. Ryan says he wants to represent a religious faith based character on Glee, but wonders what will happen if Cameron has to kiss an actress? Ryan respects his convictions, but Cameron isn’t giving him any room to wiggle.
Cameron wonders if he should stay…and holy cow HE QUITS. “Maybe this isn’t for me, ” says Cameron. But, just like a little kid who is told no, Ryan suddenly wants the thing he can’t have. Geez Ryan. Cameron realizes that Glee and his conservative Christian values are NOT A GOOD FIT. LET HIM QUIT.
Ryan follows Cameron into the rehearsal room to talk him into staying. Cameron is crying. Ryan tells him he’s on the callback list. There’s a spot for him if he wants it.
camlast from MJ Santilli on Vimeo.
But Cameron has made his decision. He’s leaving. Ryan reveals that Cameron has saved Damien. He’s disappointed that Cameron is quitting, believing that he could have “touched so many people.”
When they hear the news, the girls start crying. Damien is touched when he learns that Cameron is leaving in his place.
Untitled from MJ Santilli on Vimeo.
Cameron quit because he realized he had a shot to win, and that if he did appear on Glee, he’d have to sign off on a whole slew of things that just did not fit in with his conservative Christian worldview. I think kissing girls on the show was the least of it, to be honest. It got to the point where Cameron’s childish kvetching irked the hell out of me, but I have to say, Cameron earned my respect when he manned up and left, even after Ryan asked him to stay.
Cameron is an extremely charismatic singer, and I think there’s a place for him in Christian music. Oh, and I’ll bet, if he hasn’t already, Kirk Cameron will be putting Cameron’s phone number on speed dial.
