‘The Glee Project’ returns to Oxygen for 2nd season

THE GLEE PROJECT. 10 p.m. Tuesday, Oxygen.

"THE GLEE Project" made me a little crazy last summer. Though not nearly as crazy as "Glee" does most weeks.

The only televised singing contest I still get worked up about returns to Oxygen Tuesday with all the fun and frustration that marked its first round, in which a dozen talented performers competed for a story arc on Fox's "Glee."

In the end, because "Glee" creator Ryan Murphy said so, there were two first-prize winners, Damian McGinty and Samuel Larsen, and two runners-up won smaller roles. McGinty, a fan favorite from Northern Ireland, even ended up with more than the contracted-for seven episodes.

Of the 14 people competing in Tuesday's premiere, only one will be left standing at the end.

Because Murphy says so. Unless, of course, he changes his mind.

Here's what we learned on last summer's vacation: "The Glee Project" may be more realistic about show business than "Glee" itself is about high school glee clubs.

So while each week three singers chosen by menschy "Glee" casting director Robert Ulrich, choreographer Zach Woodlee and vocal coach Nikki Anders do a "last chance" performance before Murphy, that performance probably has little to do with whether anyone stays or goes.

Because as Murphy explains Tuesday, it's not really a singing contest as much as "an inspiration contest." And the person the singers need to inspire is Murphy.

So unlike, say, the Olympics, in which your backstory may get you an NBC feature but only ability is likely to get the gold, who the contestants are may be at least as important as how they sing and dance. (Based on past performance, I'd suggest looks also matter more than Murphy likes to admit.)

"Glee" being a show that places a premium on diversity, this summer's group includes a blind singer, someone in a wheelchair, a transgender boy and a boyish girl. There's also a flirtatious "Turkish Muslim" who notes approvingly that they've cast a lot of "hot guys" and a contestant on the autism spectrum who describes himself as "a little left of center."

In other words, the unusual one is the country singer who's never listened to Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" all the way through.

Can I just say how happy I am about Peter Dinklage's face?

Few things in "Game of Thrones," HBO's ambitious adaptation of George R.R. Martin's fantasy series have worried me as much as how producers might handle the disfiguring injury of Dinklage's character, Tyrion Lannister.

These were the guys, after all, who hadn't flinched in Season 1 when it came time to behead Ned Stark (Sean Bean). And while there's been a bit of rewriting along the way, they haven't done a lot of flinching since.

So though it seemed during last week's episode that Tyrion's injuries stopped a few centimeters short of those inflicted in the book by Martin — who lopped off most of the character's nose — I was relieved to see the bandages come off in Sunday's Season 2 finale.

Because scars can be sexy. Missing facial features? Maybe not so much. n