Photo: Becker/FOX

And then there were 72 — after Group Night’s brutal performances and eliminations (starring Bikini Girl’s excuses and Nathaniel Marshall’s emoting) the crop of season eight American Idol hopefuls has been reduced from 103,000 to six dozen. For Hollywood Week’s final test, contestants sang either with backup vocalists and the band or accompanying themselves on their own instruments. After waiting for hours in holding rooms with no food and little sleep (any interrogator/terrorist/cult knows how to weaken its subjects), the singers got the (mostly) good news: only one batch was eliminated — the one containing Jason Castro’s little bro and plucky hard-luck story Leneshe Young. Wonder when those wildcard picks are going to return … But now a few big questions remain: how will the show’s ratings fare after the departure of the walking bra ad known as Bikini Girl? Are there more gay contestants in the competition than ever before? And when will Idol end our long national nightmare and get rid of this Tatiana Del Toro thing?

Tomorrow night the singers will be sliced down to the final 36. Here’s a quick rundown:

Ones to Watch:

• Dueling pianist Matt Giraud absolutely destroys “Georgia on My Mind.” If John Mayer could sing, we imagine he’d want to sound like this.

• Anoop Desai sang Bobby Brown’s “My Prerogative.” Need we say more?

• Danny Gokey’s first line of “I Hope You Dance” inspired Paula Abdul to do an air lasso.

• Surprise! Roughneck Michael Sarver performs well under pressure.

Meh:

• With his mop of dark hair, nail polish and eyeliner, Adam Lambert looks like a refuge from My Chemical Romance’s Black Parade. Which made Cher’s “Believe” a bizarre song choice.

• Blind Scott MacIntyre was a bit off-key on Daughtry’s “Home,” but won us back with this comment: “I just found out Paula gave me a standing ovation, I didn’t see that.”

• Kristin MacNamara warred with Nancy Wilson last week and took out the rest of her aggression on Kelly Clarkson’s “Because of You,” revealing her true talent: opening her mouth really wide.

Ones to Wipe From Your Memory With Bleach:

• Seriously, when is this Tatiana Del Toro character going to vamoose? After oversinging by miles, she declares, “I think I did awesome” and twirls. Her hyperventilating and whimpering while the judges announced the results didn’t endear her to her fellow singers, either.

• The less said about Nathaniel Marshall’s overwrought acoustic version of Rihanna’s “Disturbia” the better. Ri-Ri has had a hard enough week.

• Kaitlin Loyd chewed gum during her performance of Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You.”

Thanks for the Memories:

• Norman Gentle, you have not let us down. The sparkly shirt/khaki shorts combo returns for a “Georgia On My Mind” that began on the piano — as in, he was sitting on it like a torch singer. As Kanye West says, why can’t we just let him be great?

Check out all our American Idol recaps here.