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After the first two weeks of this show, I was really hoping for something special when the potential contestants hit the much-anticipated Grease Academy. The result was really, really disappointing. Some old high school had a couple of Grease signs put up and everyone was shuttled in by bus. Then they practiced a bit and were put through the same paces as they had been for the last couple of weeks, but in smaller batches.

It's like the Hollywood Week of American Idol on a much, much smaller scale. It was also only an hour. Perhaps the producers thought that it would be more as well, then just went with what they had. Whatever the case, it wasn't good.

During the show, there was really very little of the practice that was shown. Matt, hoping to be Danny in this production, did have a meeting with David Ian where he was told that he had the potential but he needed to let himself go. I guess this was to distance any comparisons to Simon Cowell. After all, Cowell just tells you that you suck - he doesn't coddle you along and make you feel better about it.

Then there was a bit more of the practicing, and finally all of the hopefuls came into one big room where they started singing a horribly repetitive song. Over and over and over. The instruction was to keep going. It's like a battery commercial gone horribly awry.

As they were singing, the producers would come by and tell them if they made it or not. If they were to leave, they would be told so. Otherwise, they were to keep singing. On and on it went. Finally, we were left with 48 contestants which would go on to sing again, before being cut in half once more.

Finally, we're on to some actual performing. That's not to say that there hadn't been any performing, but the numbers are so huge - and they show so little at this point - that you can actually pick up very little as an observer. Groups hit the stage, and this is actually probably a bit more like Hollywood Week than anything else, but I still maintain that the whole Grease Academy was a bust, because it only took up perhaps half of this entire show.

After everyone sings, contestants are cut one more time, and we are left with those from which would be drawn the final Danny and Sandy: Allie Schulz, Ashley Spencer, Juliana Hansen, Kate Rockwell, Kathleen Monteleone, Laura Osnes, Austin Miller, Chad Doreck, Derek Keeling, Jason Celaya, Kevin Greene and Max Crumm

My early bet is on Kate Rockwell as Sandy and Austin Miller as Danny. Of course, we've seen very little of anyone, but there you are. They just seem to be the best thus far, and I've seen so little that I really don't even have a backup at this point. We're also promised a "surprise" next week, so I suspect some of those cut will return. But who?