Early favorites Jacee Badeaux, Brett Loewenstern, Lauren Alaina survive, while other hopefuls went down in flames. By Gil Kaufman Steven Tyler, Jenniger Lopez and Randy Jackson at “American Idol” Hollywood Week Photo: Michael Becker / FOX Group night on “American Idol” is notoriously brutal. It’s full of attitude, fighting, ragged nerves and exhaustion. And that’s just from the audience at home watching the ridiculous diva behavior onscreen. But after pulling an all-nighter, a number of this year’s picks to click, including teens Jacee Badeaux and Lauren Alaina, as well Chris Medina, James Durbin, Brett Loewenstern and Chelsee Oaks, survived to sing another day, while some early favorites went down in flames, unable to handle the pressure. On Wednesday night’s (February 16) show, producers figured they’d up the ante this year on the contestants by telling them, after they’d already formed their groups, that they must be comprised of a mix of singers from day one and day two of last week’s Hollywood eliminations . That sent the 168 remaining wannabes scrambling to rework their sets. The first two segments were devoted to showing the high school lunchroom nightmare of singers desperate to find someone’s group to join and facing heart-crushing rejection at every turn. Then, with just 10 hours to perfect their songs amid the din of nearly 170 voices roaring at once, contestants grabbed any space they could, from bathrooms to parking garages, and got to work. The pressure almost claimed the fragile Ashley Sullivan, who came close to leaving the show, while 15-year-old Jacee Badeaux was booted from his group in the middle of the night and several other singers either got dumped or bailed on their ensembles at the 11th hour. On the verge of breaking up because they couldn’t find a day-two person, redheaded bullied belter Brett Loewenstern ‘s quartet was saved when they picked up Badeaux. When the singers finally got a chance to, well, sing, there were plenty of new or little-seen faces who shone. Among them were New Jersey auditioner and makeup artist Pia Toscano, 22, who did her sultry best on Bruno Mars’ “Grenade” in a trio that got the day started off right with yeses all around. Male diva Jordan Dorsey bailed on his group to join up with Robbie Rosen and sing a doo-wop version of the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back,” setting up an intense rivalry with his old cohorts, but getting sweet revenge by moving on. His old pals, though, survived the breakup as well by nailing Cee Lo Green’s “Forget You.” Nobody wanted to be in a group with overconfident Tiffany Rios the night before, so the judges allowed her an exception to form a duo with tattooed blonde Jessica Yantz. “It was really bad,” Randy Jackson said, though, after the pair made a hot mess of Beyonc