AMERICAN IDOL: Hollywood: Over 300 contestants made it to Hollywood and only 70 will survive. The Hollywood round begins Wednesday, Feb, 8 (8:00-9:00 PM ET PT ) and Thursday, Feb. 9 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Pictured: Contestants at the Hollywood round. The provided caption provides no identifying info. CR: Michael Becker / FOX.

Was this “American Idol” or “Contagion, Part II”?

The hour featured two doses crying, three doses whining and four doses regurgitation.

Patient Zero, the editors decide, is “Tent Girl” Amy Brumfield. A lot of kids get sick and she appears to be the one to blame as others have trouble keeping their dinners down.

And we find out what happens to Symone Baker, who  is fine. It was dehydration and fortunately, she didn’t seriously hurt herself falling off the stage.  As earlier bloggers noted, the producers wouldn’t have created such a cliffhanger if she were seriously injured.

[Before we get to the action, I also finally caught Monday's "The Voice" three days later and saw Jamar Rogers (season 10 of  "Idol"), who gets the sob story big time. He actually used to live in Atlanta for a time and was a huge fan of Cee Lo, saying he saw him at Music Midtown. Cool local reference!

As for ratings, "Idol" drew 19 million last night and a 6.1 rating 18-49. That's down 20% from 24 mil a year ago for the fourth Wednesday and a 8.4 rating 18-49, down 27 percent.  In other words, the comparable dropoffs will continue unabated unless something odd happens.

In comparison, NBC's "The Voice" on Monday drew its 6.6 rating, beating "Idol" in 18-49 ratings while "NCIS" with 20.8 million this past Tuesday easily beat "Idol" in total viewers.]

Anyway, we start the night with Symone Baker, who quickly regains consciousness, drinks a Coke and is taken to the hospital to get checked. Symone is put through because honestly, she deserved it.

We hear that neither Ethan Jones, whose father was in alcohol rehab, and the indistinguishably dull Lauren Mink are cut.  Jeremy Rosado makes it through.

We move to group round! 185 make it to the next round. Almost half are going to be cut the next round.

The twist: day one and day two people have to intermix in groups. Cop Alisha Bernhardt and Amy “Tent Girl” Brumfeld (who is getting sick with the flu – perhaps from living in a tent) are have trouble finding groups. “Everybody is afraid I’ll get them sick,” Tent Girl said. Can’t blame them! She starts crying. “Inside is suffocating me,” she said. Which makes sense if she spends all her time outside.

Several others are trying to cobble together groups based on songs. Some are being picky, including Brianna-Marie Bell. There seem to be a lot of 1970s songs on the playlist. Alisha wants to sing “Joy to the World.” People keep thinking it’s the Christmas song, not the Three Dog Night song. Two others are trying to get folks to join them to sing Boston’s “More Than a Feeling.” Alisha loses her two group members because she refuses to sing Boston.

We hear snippets of Blu Cantrell. Brielle Von Hugel made it past group round last year with Pia Toscano. She’s back. She becomes leader of her group.

Symone returns after being dehydrated and finds a group.

It appears Tent Girl’s bug has spread quickly. We see someone throw up. Another guy has kidney stone issues. Richie Law, a dude with a cowboy hat is trying to teach the others choreography (including Mr. Cheerful Heejun Han.) “That kid is crazy,” Heejun said. “I don’t know how they do it in cowboy town. It’s not how we bring it down.” Whiner doesn’t even bother to know Richie’s name.

Christian has caught the bug and is throwing up. He returns from a break and someone hugs him. Why do these kids keep touching the sick ones? Cop Alisha is struggling with “Stuck Like Glue.”  Christian can barely stand up. Heejun keeps on whining. Richie, who acts like Mr. Know It All, calls it a night eventually.

Jennifer is part of a group that wants to go to sleep. Brianna, the picky one, leaves, but comes back, not wanting to abandon her teammate. Jennifer helps Brianna learn lyrics.  They leave at 5:11 a.m. (I’d be the one opting for sleep over rehearsing exhausted.)

Anyway, we get no real singing this week, just the build-up to next Wednesday. Presumably, we’ll get more fainting!

And over on CBS, Astro of “X Factor” is on “Person of Interest” in a rather meaty role.

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By Rodney Ho, Radio & TV Talk