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Think You Know Everything About 'American Idol'? Part 2
05.23.2005 8:37 PM EDT
Simon's mistakes, 'The Green Mile,' curfews, F-bombs and more 'Idol'
secrets.
As "Primetime Live" proved, nothing gets attention quite
like "American Idol" secrets.
"
You get it right and often you get it wrong, but that's what a
real-life audition process is." — Simon Cowell"),
but we do like to gather things "Idol" fans might not
know about the show.
Last year, for instance, we revealed that the producers decide
the order of the finalists each week and try to alternate male/female
and choose upbeat songs to go first and last. And that in the auditions,
preliminary judges narrow the field down first, and Randy Jackson,
Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell see only about 15 percent of the singers
(see "Think You Know Everything About 'American Idol'? Think
Again").
With another finale fast approaching, we thought it'd be a good
time to dish out some more secrets. So put on your copy of "Paulatics" and
read away:
Singers who auditioned for past "American Idol" seasons
and didn't make it to the finals remain eligible, although co-executive
producer Cecile Frot-Coutaz said the judges saw only about 10 repeat
offenders. "We had some who came back and made some progress
and were still not good enough, and we had some that came back
and they've taken all the constructive criticism and made it to
Hollywood," she said.Simon and Paula's big fight in the "Hollywood" rounds
was actually over a different contestant than the one shown standing
onstage during the broadcast. "Other than that, it was exactly
as it happened," Abdul said.After watching the earlier shows
again, Cowell admits he made some wrong decisions on who advanced. "The
fact that we make mistakes due to tiredness or whatever is part
of the human process you go through on the show," he explained. "Otherwise,
you'll just have computers acting as judges. You get it right and
often you get it wrong, but that's what a real-life audition process
is.
" After the final "Hollywood" round, the judges
had just one day to deliberate on who would advance to the final
24. "Simon had to leave the country that night, so we had
to make our final decisions that day," Abdul said.In choosing
the semifinalists, the three judges each got one vote and the producers
of the show got a fourth. Simon Cowell decided when it was a tie.The
producers nicknamed the long walk the contestants had to take to
hear their fate at the end of the "Hollywood" rounds "The
Green Mile," even though there was no green in sight. "It
was a reference to the movie," co-executive producer Ken Warwick
said, as if being eliminated was like facing the electric chai
While the judges heavily criticized 17-year-old Janay Castine,
one of the last semifinalists who was eliminated for singing Blu
Cantrell's slightly raunchy "Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!)," Castine
actually auditioned with that same song and said the judges loved
it. "They actually didn't show that part on TV, so I figured
why not show it to America?" Castine said. Oops!Before he
made the final 12 and then quit the show, Mario Vazquez recorded
vocals for flamenco guitarist Cesar's album Worlds of Change. It
did not, however, make him ineligible to compete. "The only
rule is that they are no longer represented or have a recording
contract," co-executive producer Nigel Lythgoe said.For the
first time, the contestants lived in apartments with one or two
roommates as opposed to being together in one house.
But there
was a shared living room where they often ate together and watched
the West Coast airings of the Tuesday shows. "We had security
there and stuff, so we would all just have a good time," Lindsay
Cardinale said.While competing on the show, contestants had to
abide by a curfew of 10 p.m. on evenings before live shows and
11 p.m. all other nights. That included the 29-year-olds.
The contestants
have Internet access at the apartments, and some do check "Idol" chat
rooms. "The first time I looked, the stuff written about me
was so hideous I never went on it again," Mikalah Gordon recalled. "It
was heart-wrenching."On the Wednesday show in which Gordon
was eliminated, the singer was seen (not heard) on TV mouthing
the F-word when Ryan Seacrest went to commercial just before announcing
the votes. "I didn't think that I said it, but I got off that
stage and they were like, 'Mikalah, you said the F-word onstage.'
... I mean, people say it, and if I did, then I just happened to
say it on national TV. I mean, the phone number guy makes mistakes,
I make mistakes, what are you going to do?"Throughout the
finals, the show's hairstylist, Dean Banowetz, has urged Bo to
trim his hair. He has never obliged.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1502813/20050523/index.jhtml?headlines=true
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