The executives behind Glee didn’t take a summer break with the cast, they were putting twelve potential cast members through summer school. The Glee Project (aired on the Oxygen cable channel) was a competition to find the new class of the FOX show. I honestly couldn’t watch the show faithfully because of my loyalty to the original cast – call me old-fashioned – but I did follow up on the contestants and their personalities to theorize how the new members would mesh with the current crop.

The competitors were given themed performances every week to see how well they could adapt to both singing and acting. Every week the best performer was given “one-on-one” coaching from a different member of the Glee cast.

My personal favorite contestant was Cameron Mitchell. Aside from the obvious dancing prowess, Cameron had the personality and the look for a solid new character. When he left the competition because some physical interactions didn’t sit well with his moral standards it confused and upset his fans and Glee creator/judge Ryan Murphy. (But seriously, who walks away from Glee?!). In doing this, Cameron saved (eventual winner) Damian McGinty from getting cut that week and keeping him in the competition.

The finale consisted of four competitors : the Irishman Damian McGinty, the indie rocker Samuel Larsen, a Kurt/Mercedes hybrid in Alex Newell, and the snarky Lindsay Pearce. The judges decided that Larsen and McGinty were the overall winners and would get featured in seven-episode-arcs during the upcoming season. Newell and Pearce didn’t leave empty-handed though. Murphy decided that he didn’t want to completely sever ties with the other two characters and gave them two guest star appearances as well.

Going into this season of Glee I already knew that my little “Gleek”-ing heart was going to be crushed by the finale due to some departures from the originals. I doubt that the new talent will make me forget that my world is being crushed but hopefully they are mediocre enough to at least numb the pain.