| Season One | |
| |
| Began | 12th June 2011 |
| Ended | 21st August 2011 |
| Season Guide | |
| Previous N/A |
Next Season Two |
Season One is the first season of The Glee Project. There were 12 contenders competing across 10 episodes for the chance to win a seven-episode guest-starring role on Glee. They will also get the chance to go on tour with the Glee Cast.
Contest Process[]
Each episode of The Glee Project is given an overall theme and covers events that have taken place in about the time span of a week.
Homework assignment
- Contenders are given a "homework assignment" that entails learning and practicing segments of a chosen song. At the beginning of each episode, contender perform their respective parts of the song in front of a mystery guest judge from the Glee cast. The contende that completes the homework best is given a one-on-one session with the guest star and a principal part in the music video.
Music video (group performance)
- Contenders then create a music video "inspired by the performances on Glee. In preparation for the music video, contenders record parts of a song in a professional studio with vocal producer Nikki (née Hassman) Anders. They also learn choreography from Zach Woodlee and/or Brooke Lipton, his assistant. The entire process is overseen by Glee's casting director Robert Ulrich.
Callbacks
- During callbacks, the bottom three are revealed. They are critiqued by Robert Ulrich and Zach Woodlee (in Ep. 8 replaced by Nikki Anders) about their performances. They are then assigned a song that they will perform in hopes of being "saved."
Last chance recital
- The bottom three of the week perform their assigned songs in front of Ryan Murphy himself. With input from Woodlee and Ulrich, a decision is made and one of the bottom three is eliminated.
Final callbacks
- Unlike most reality competition shows, contenders are not directly informed of their elimination. Rather, the bottom three are notified when "the list is up" and discover their fate as they find their name on the list. Following the final callbacks, the eliminated contenders sings lead on a segment of "Keep Holding On" by Avril Lavigne with the rest of the contenders as backup.
Contenders[]
| Contenders | Age | Hometown | Result | Date Eliminated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samuel Larsen | 19 | Los Angeles, California | WIN | N/A |
| Damian McGinty Jr. | 18 | Derry, Northern Ireland | WIN | N/A |
| Lindsay Pearce | 19 | Modesto, California | RUNNER-UP | N/A |
| Alex Newell | 18 | Lynn, Massachusetts | RUNNER-UP | N/A |
| Hannah McIalwain | 19 | Asheville, North Carolina | OUT | 7 August 2011 |
| Cameron Mitchell | 21 | Fort Worth, Texas | QUIT | 31 July 2011 |
| Marissa von Bleicken | 19 | New York, New York | OUT | 24 July 2011 |
| Matheus Fernandes | 19 | São Paulo, Brazil | OUT | 17 July 2011 |
| McKynleigh Abraham | 19 | Paducah, Kentucky | OUT | 10 July 2011 |
| Emily Vasquez | 22 | New York, New York | OUT | 26 June 2011 |
| Ellis Wylie | 18 | Greyslake, Illinois | OUT | 19 June 2011 |
| Bryce Ross-Johnson | 22 | Westlake Village, California | OUT | 12 June 2011 |
Contender Progress[]
| Episode | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samuel | IN | IN | IN | WIN | IN | HIGH | WIN | RISK | RISK | WON |
| Damian | RISK | LOW | RISK | HIGH | RISK | IN | SAVED | IN | RISK | WON |
| Lindsay | IN | IN | LOW | IN | RISK | IN | IN | RISK | WIN | RUNNER UP |
| Alex | IN | WIN | IN | RISK | RISK | RISK | RISK | HIGH | RISK | RUNNER UP |
| Hannah | LOW | LOW | IN | IN | RISK | LOW | HIGH | OUT | ||
| Cameron | IN | IN | RISK | LOW | RISK | RISK | QUIT | |||
| Marissa | LOW | IN | IN | IN | WIN | OUT | ||||
| Matheus | WIN | RISK | WIN | RISK | OUT | |||||
| McKynleigh | LOW | RISK | IN | OUT | ||||||
| Emily | IN | LOW | OUT | |||||||
| Ellis | RISK | OUT | ||||||||
| Bryce | OUT | |||||||||
IN The contender was called back.
LOW The contender was cited as needing improvement but was not at risk of elimination.
WIN The contender won the homework assignment.
WIN The contender won the homework assignment and was first on the callback list.
WIN The contender won the homework assignment but was at risk of elimination.
HIGH The contender was first on the callback list and not at risk of elimination.
RISK The contender had to do a Last Chance Performance and was at risk of being eliminated.
RISK The contender had to do a Last Chance Performance but was not at risk of being eliminated.
OUT The contender won the homework assignment but was eliminated.
OUT The contender was eliminated.
QUIT The contender quit the competition.
WON The contender won the competition.
RUNNER UP The contender is the Runner Up of the competition.
SAVED The contender was originally eliminated but was saved by someone who withdrew from the competition
Callback order[]
| Order | Episodes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | ||
| 1 | Matheus | Alex | Matheus | Damian | Marissa | Samuel | Hannah | Alex | Damian | Samuel | |
| 2 | Alex | Cameron | Hannah | Marissa | Samuel | Lindsay | Samuel | Damian | Alex | Damian | |
| 3 | Cameron | Marissa | McKynleigh | Lindsay | Lindsay | Damian | Lindsay | Lindsay | Lindsay | Lindsay | |
| 4 | Lindsay | Samuel | Marissa | Samuel | Hannah | Hannah | Alex | Samuel | Samuel | Alex | |
| 5 | Emily | Lindsay | Alex | Hannah | Damian | Alex | Damian | Hannah | |||
| 6 | Samuel | Emily | Samuel | Cameron | Cameron | Cameron | Cameron | ||||
| 7 | Marissa | Hannah | Lindsay | Alex | Alex | Marissa | |||||
| 8 | McKynleigh | Damian | Damian | Matheus | Matheus | ||||||
| 9 | Hannah | Matheus | Cameron | McKynleigh | |||||||
| 10 | Ellis | McKynleigh | Emily | ||||||||
| 11 | Damian | Ellis | |||||||||
| 12 | Bryce | ||||||||||
- OUT The contender was eliminated
- QUIT The contender quit the competition
- SAVED The contender was originally eliminated but was saved due to a contender quitting
- WON The contender won the homework assignment
- WON/OUT The contender won the homework assignment and was eliminated
- RUNNER-UP The contender was a runner-up
- WINNER The contender won the competition
Episodes[]
| Info | |||||||||
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Darren Criss is the guest mentor in the first episode of the first season of The Glee Project. The twelve contenders sing Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours) as their homework song and Matheus is the lucky winner. The group sing Firework as their main song and the bottom three are picked out - Damian (he faded into the background), Ellis (childish) and Bryce (attitude problems). Ellis sings Big Spender, Bryce sings Just the Way You Are and Damian sings Jessie's Girl and accidentally messes up the lyrics. In the end, Bryce is eliminated. He sings Keep Holding On before leaving the competition. Originally aired on 12 June 2011. | |||||||||
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Musical theatre legend Idina Menzel mentors the eleven contenders as they sing Bad Romance; Alex is the winner of the homework assignment. The group are ecstatic to be performing We're Not Gonna Take It. They are given crazy costumes and some are smeared with face paint. After the filming, the bottom three are chosen: Ellis(negativity), Matheus (out of character) and McKynleigh (not connecting). Matheus sings Gives You Hell, Ellis sings Mack the Knife and McKynleigh sings Piece of My Heart. Ellis is eliminated and sings Keep Holding On before leaving the competition. Originally aired 19 June 2011. | |||||||||
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Vulnerability | ||||||||
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The theme is Vulnerability and some of the contenders feel immediately uncomfortable, but the mood lightens when Dot-Marie Jones comes to mentor the homework assignment Please Don't Leave Me. Dot critiques the group, including a comment to Lindsay that causes Emily to mock her, then chooses Matheus as the winner. The group perform Tears For Fears' Mad World, wearing sandwich boards showing their vulnerabilities. The bottom three are Emily (out of character), Cameron (not vulnerable) and Damian (also not vulnerable). The last chance performances are Your Song (Cameron), Grenade (Emily) and Are You Lonesome Tonight? (Damian). Emily is eliminated and performs Keep Holding On before leaving the competition. Originally aired 26 June 2011. | |||||||||
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Dance-ability | ||||||||
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Professional dancer Harry Shum Jr. mentors the performance Hey, Soul Sister and, even though they're not the best dancers in the world, wow Harry with their confidence. The group are delighted to be performing MC Hammer's classic hit U Can't Touch This. It comes with complicated choreography which a certain member of the group struggles with. The bottom three are McKynleigh, Alex and Matheus. The mentors don’t like Alex’s attitude, and Matheus isn’t much better. Meanwhile, they feel McKyneligh isn’t fully committing to her performances. For their Last Chance Performance songs, the mentors choose Last Name by Carrie Underwood for McKynleigh, Down by Jay Sean for Matheus, and Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You for Alex. Despite her unanimously acclaimed performance, the mentors decide to send McKynleigh home. | |||||||||
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Pairability | ||||||||
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The contenders sing Need You Now as homework assignment, Darren chooses Marissa as the winner. The pairs for the music videos are: Alex and Hannah, Damian and Matheus, Marissa and Samuel, Lindsay and Cameron. The directors tells Marissa and Lindsay (not shown in the episode) to give their partners a surprise kiss. Samuel doesn't mind Marissa's kiss, but Cameron is disconcerted by Lindsay's kiss. He felt like he cheated and called his mother. Unlike previous Last Chance Preformences, three pairs are forced to sing duets in front of Ryan Murphy to keep the theme of the week. Marissa and Samuel are saved and don't have to do last chance performance. The pairs are the same as the music videos. Lindsay and Cameron have to sing River Deep - Mountain High by Ike and Tina Turner, Hannah and Alex sing Valerie by the Zutons and Damian and Matheus sing These Boots Are Made For Walkin'. The bottom three were Matheus, Alex and Cameron. In the end Matheus is eliminated. | |||||||||
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Tenacity | ||||||||
| The theme of the week is Tenacity and McKinley High bully boy Max Adler comes in to mentor the performance of Bulletproof. The group start to perform but Max stops it half way through, saying there's not enough energy and advises them to 'do something they'd never done before'. The assignment starts again and Max approves after the contenders give their 'all' into it. The music video is a mash up - Under Pressure/Ice Ice Baby and the group are terrified at the news that they're going to be slushied. One contender struggles in the studio; some love the coldness of the slushies but one forces the camera to stop rolling. The bottom three are Cameron, Marissa and Alex. Cameron believes he will be the one going home because he's been in the bottom three the most. But no-one expects Marissa to be eliminated. | |||||||||
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Sexuality | ||||||||
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Several of the contenders are uncomfortable when the discover the theme of the week is Sexuality. There are given the homework assignment of Like A Virgin which involves some sexual movements, including an intimate moment between two contenders, as Ashley Fink (Lauren) and Mark Salling (Puck) mentor and choose Samuel as the winner. The group are happy to be performing Katy Perry's Teenage Dream, but some grins drop when they discover that they'll be shooting in pairs. Damian and Lindsay; Cameron and Hannah; and Samuel and Alex are pairs (which Samuel is uncomfortable with). Damian and Lindsay are in a bedroom as a jock and a cheerleader - their shoot ends with an un-scripted kiss that Hannah is jealous about. Samuel and Alex are in garage having a 'musical jam' session, and Cameron and Hannah are in a kitchen having a messy but flirty food fight. The bottom three are Damian, Cameron and Alex. Elimination takes a shock twist. Cameron finally follows his heart and quits the competition, knowing that he's a singer and not an actor. The originally eliminated contender, Damian, is saved for the following week. | |||||||||
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Believability | ||||||||
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They are given for homework assignment True Colors, originally by Cyndi Lauper. For the first time, they perform a whole song, and as a solo and not a group number. This week's mentor is Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina Cohen-Chang on Glee) who choses Hannah as the winner. They record with Nikki Anders, coreograph with Zach Woodlee, and film the music video with Erik White of the song "The Only Exception," originally by Paramore. The time of the reveal of the bottom 3 has come, and Hannah, Lindsay, and Samuel have a last chance performance in front of Ryan Murphy, singing: Hannah: Back to December,originally by Taylor Swift, Lindsay: Maybe This Time, from Cabaret, and Samuel: Animal, originally by Neon Trees, resulting Hannah the not called back. Note:This is the second time in the season the homework assignment winner goes home, the first being Marissa | |||||||||
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Generosity | ||||||||
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Glee-ality | ||||||||
| The final four, Lindsay, Alex, Damian, and Samuel savor their last homework assignment together, the most awaited "Don't Stop Believin." They surprisingly perform it in front of Ryan Murphy, their last mentor. As they perform, they are suddenly stopped by Ryan questioning them of the lack of choreography. He then says he "knows who to call," and to the final four contenders' surprise, it was their friends who got eliminated. As they re-perform their number, with the group, Ryan is happier with the performance. After the performance, Ryan does not say who is the winner of the homework assignment, because he believes that it is the last episode and that they should focus more on winning. The final performance of the original twelve was P!nk's Raise Your Glass . When the final four are called back at the auditorium to be told which songs to sing, Robert Ulrich said that they would be granted to choose their own song to sing for their final last chance performances. Lindsay chose Gimme Gimme, while Alex chose I Am Changing, and cross dresses to a girl. Samuel did Jolene, while Damian did Beyond the Sea. They were watched by all of their past mentors, and their other eliminated contenders. All did an impressive job, but waiting for the result was really pressuring for the final four. Only the judges Robert Ulrich, Ryan Murphy, Ian Brennan, and Zach Woodlee are left in the auditorium. When everyone comes back, they announce the results. The winners were Damian and Samuel, who won a 7 episode-arc, and the runner-ups were Lindsay and Alex, who won a 2 episode-arc. | |||||||||
Trivia[]
- This season was originally supposed to air in May 2011, however it ended up airing on June 12, 2011.
- This is the only season...
- to have two winners
- where both runner ups got a minimum 2 episode arc, whereas the second season only one of the runner ups got a 1 episode arc.
- where there are only 12 contenders.
