American Idol continues its “field trip” this week, originating at Las Vegas' Love Theatre inside the Mirage hotel on the nights when Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles show Love is dark. Among the Idol loyalists in the audience? The Hollywood Reporter, keeping eyes and ears peeled to bring you these eight behind-the-scenes things you didn't see on the broadcast:
1. Just before he took the Love stage, The Hollywood Reporter complimented warm-up guy Cory Almeida on his ability to scour the audience and pick out a gentleman to come up and dance and shake his booty. Tonight he pulls a great dancer out of the audience, but the man returns to his seat early, before Almeida gets to the booty-shaking part.
2. The Love theatre holds 1,500 people, about three times the capacity of Idol’s home stage at CBS Television City in Los Angeles That might explain why there was a very long line of people lined up outside the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas. Chris Fleury, a visitor from Orange County in California who was hoping to take his wife to the see Idol was told to not even bother waiting in the stand-by line, there was so little chance of showing up that day and being admitted to the show.
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3. Just before the show began, stage manager Spencer Emmons lined up the 10 female contestants but he seemed to be more precise than usual. Moments later, it was apparent why: the section of the stage they were standing on suddenly lowered and they disappeared below stage, in order to make a dramatic rise during when they were introduced on camera by Ryan Seacrest.
4. There were several shout-outs to contestants during the show, many from family members. The loudest shout-out was, “Mariah, we love you!” not from some enthusiastic young fans, but an entire row of middle-aged adults.
5. During commercial breaks, Seacrest didn’t relax or look ahead at the next segment. He spent most of his time at the judges’ desk, deep in conversation with the four panelists.
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6. After Keith Urban gave a shout-out to the band during one of his critiques, on the following commercial break producers did what's called a "pick-up shot" of Ray Chew’s musicians to give them their due in a later close-up.
7. On commercial breaks, Almeida talks to folks in the audieNce, including a lot of young children who are there with their parents. He talks to one young boy who says he is from Hawaii and asks him his name. The youngster shouts out, “Bronson!” I think, hmm, cool name. Suddenly, Almeida says to him, “Cool name!”
8. On another commercial break, one lucky audience member with a sign for Keith Urban is called down to the stage to give her favorite judge a hug. We know which part of the show she will always remember.
Twitter: @Idol_Worship
