Photo: Becker/FOX
Season eight of American Idol kicked off with a tabloid-ready scandal: Bikini Girl. Katrina Darrell, the 20-year-old bathing-suit clad hopeful who deigned to kiss Ryan Seacrest and verbally joust with Kara DioGuardi. “I have nothing against bikini girl, it’s just more when people come into that room I want them to be serious — I want them to be there for the right reason,” DioGuardi tells Rolling Stone (without noting the exception the show seems to have made for the very un-serious Norman Gentle, who made the Top 36 last night). “But you know what? She’s a smart girl. She used what she had and got a lot of attention. No one said she was dumb, she’s just not a great singer. I guess when I see someone like bikini girl, I know how hard it is to be at the top of your game and what it takes.”
“I think she’s qualified as an entertainer performer,” adds Randy Jackson, “which we have a lot of those in the music business who are selling zillions of records — zillions!” But what about ratings? Idol clearly played up Bikini Girl’s thin storyline (wear bikini, make it to Hollywood) up until her elimination last week. Since this was the first week sans Bikini, where did Idol turn? Tatiana Del Toro.
Del Toro cried, whimpered, scampered, shouted and irritated the hell out of Simon Cowell (”Just try for once not to be annoying,” he said, not exactly sotto voce, during last night’s episode). Del Toro was the focus of the Group Night episode; she was the center of Tuesday’s dreadfully drawn-out “holding room” drama. But Idol may be making a wrong move by foisting the melodramatic singer on their audience — everyone may like to chuckle at a chick in a skimpy suit, but Del Toro seems to be turning people off in a major way. She’s not quite a Sanjaya-like trainwreck — but she’s already Votefortheworst.com’s prime pick.

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- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC.