'Platinum Hit' Recap: 'Somebody Is Lying'

Platinum Hit - Season One Episode 7]

Six contestants remain and right after last week's elimination, Jewel showed up with the group's next challenge. First she made each contestant write their names and put it in a hat. Each would be a team:

Team 1: Jes & Scotty
Team 2: Nick & Johnny
Team 3: Brian & Sonyae

Jewel then announced the Hook Challenge: Create as many hooks as you can in two hours. They would find out why in the morning. Jes and Scotty decided to bounce off ideas, whereas Nick and Johnny wrote their hooks without even bouncing ideas off of each other. Jes considered a Ke$ha style song. Brian was good at making melodies while Sonyae could write lyrics quickly. Or that was the plan when an hour passed and there were no lyrics. Sonyae complained about Brian's anxious nature breaking her vibe. In studio one, Johnny and Nick stopped when Nick didn't know what the word "ruin" meant. Then he tried to figure out if Peru had ruins. By the end of two hours, Jes and Scotty had nine hooks and Nick and Sonyae only had one. In the morning, the groups got a message about pitching their ideas. Johnny was worried that since he and Nick never listened to their hooks, their pitch session would be a disaster.

The contestants walked into a real studio and were greeted by Evan "Kidd" Bogart, part of The Writing Camp. He suggested that the songwriters may work with him one day in the future. Each group came in and had to match one of their hooks to a genre he was looking for. He asked Scotty and Jes for a "Male, Up-tempo R&B song" and Scotty flipped a song that was more female. Evan suggested that the song would fit a singer like Justin Bieber. For Brian and Sonyae, Evan asked if they had a Strong Female Voice. They adjusted their only song and while Evan was nodding no, he liked the song and thought it would fit Beyonce. Johnny and Nick were both a mix bag of emotions when meeting Evan which was probably a horrible first impression. Evan then introduced Gavin DeGraw to the pitching session. Gavin was looking for a tough soulful male song that would fit his style. Johnny went first and Gavin liked the rhythmic style of Johnny's pitch. Gavin thanked the team and left. Nick just rolled his eyes and walked away. He was upset that he never got to pitch a song.

Jewel arrived and they had to turn the song they pitched into a full song to fit the artist that Evan suggested.

Nick & Johnny - "Long Day Sunrise" - Gavin DeGraw
Scotty & Jes - Love You Down - Justin Bieber
Sonyae & Brian - Stranger to Love - Beyonce

Jewel announced that they had an hour on day one and six on day two. Nick and Johnny now were forced to work together and he wanted his best to work together. Johnny claimed that his story was about trying to have a sunrise last forever. Sonyae had trouble with the concept of 20/20 vision, but then suggested pulling from Beyoncé’s life with Jay-Z. Scotty wanted to make sure that the song was a good combination of Justin Bieber and Usher. He was worried that Jes wouldn't match the urban style.

Johnny and Nick had no progress when day one ended. The other two groups felt like they made good headway. The next day, the teams started working immediately. In Studio 3, Sonyae wanted to figure out more lyrics. Brian wanted to make sure that there were many levels of instruments in the track. Sonyae left the room to make sure that the lyrics were amazing. Jes tried to pitch a lyric, but her lyrics were too whack to Scotty. Johnny and Nick continued to have issues and Johnny tried to steer the boat himself. Nick grew tired of the whole situation and Johnny was quite passive aggressive. Nick didn't believe in the song and stormed off.

At the end of the day, both Scotty and Jes and Sonyae and Brian had a strong song that they believed in. After the time was up, Nick started to flip out on Johnny about the drama. He claimed that it was only Johnny that had problems during their past six weeks. I'm pretty sure that Nick had issues with both Jackie and Sonyae at points as well. In the apartments, Nick was convinced that he was going home because he contributed nothing. Brian didn't believe Nick's story at all. Nick hoped that maybe the judges would see that Nick still had more potential. In Johnny's apartment, Johnny complained to Jes about babysitting Nick the whole time and not being able to focus on his song.

The contestants arrived to judging and along with Jewel, Kara, and Keith was special guest Evan "Kidd" Bogart. Scotty and Jess began first and they felt like their song would be the next step from Justin's first album. The song had an interesting play on Justin's fame before the first verse. The song had a nice R&B feeling that was just right for Top 40.

Sonyae and Brian decided to try an "R&B/Rock" hybrid. The song had a similar style to something OneRepublic may have pitched to Beyoncé. Sonyae did a good job trying to make it sound like Beyoncé with the phrasing. Johnny and Nick were last and only Johnny went up. He performed the song with as much gruff as Gavin would have. The lyrics were quite cliché about the weather issues in the first verse. The chorus was catchy enough, but could have been better substance if Nick at least provided vocals. The judges thanked all the contestants and they waited in the back. Nick took the opportunity to complain that Johnny wrote a horrible song. Johnny pointed out that he's had more wins and top hook challenges and deserves to stay on potential alone.

All three teams were summoned to the stage and Jewel asked all of them how the songwriting process was. Scotty & Jes talked about bouncing off ideas really well. Brian & Sonyae talked about being on the same page. As for Nick and Johnny, Johnny admitted that the process was a train wreck. The winning song this week was Brian & Sonyae. They liked the "tortured soul" of both Brian and Sonyae. The song had beautiful lyrics. They were both safe and headed to the back to wait for the results.

The losing song was by Nick and Johnny. Scotty and Jes had a Bieber-esque style. There were some nice moments and some minor misses. The judges were a bit divided by the group’s use of the word "assets." It was cheeky, but may have been held too long. They needed to further work the song to make it really shine.

Johnny and Nick were the bottom two. Jewel pointed out the chances of either departing was still 50/50. Nick admitted that all questions should be forwarded to Johnny. Johnny admitted that it was the hardest time to babysit Nick. The lyrics had nothing Gavin DeGraw could sink his teeth into. The melody was bad and Nick tried his best to introduce his melody. He sang part of his suggested melody and Kara thought it was better. Nick started to down talk Johnny and Kara was disappointed that Johnny didn't think of Gavin. All the judges were so disappointed by Johnny's whole song. Johnny claimed he was desperate to finish the song without Nick's help. Kara called both of them out for their egos. Jewel was embarrassed by the two. They were so disappointed that neither could be grown-up about the situation. The two were dismissed so the judges could deliberate.

After the commercial, Johnny and Nick returned to the judges. Both Johnny and Nick were guilty of a poor performance. Kara was disappointed by both of them. Jewel announced that Nick was safe and Johnny was eliminated. Nick, like a little 5-year-old, excitedly ran around and told the other four how they underestimated him. Brian had the biggest amount of shock on his face as if he wanted to smack the smug right off of Nick. The judges pointed out that Johnny could have won the whole contest if he just wrote a decent song this week. I bet even if he wrote a generic, lackluster song, Nick would have been eliminated. Johnny was surprised and knew he was writing his best during this competition. He hugged all the contestants and gave Jes a big hug.

Next Week: Songs about empowerment. Jes gets angry at Nick.