USA Today was allowed to follow American Idol producer Ken Warwick during his busy show day last Tuesday. The diary begins at 11 am when the kids gather to rehearse their numbers, and ends at 5 pm when the live show begins.
A few interesting tidbits:
- Warwick knew by the 3rd singer the previous week that the show was running behind schedule and asked the judges to shorten their comments. They didn’t like it much. “They don’t respond really to telling them to shut up, ” he said.
- By noon, Warwick had the “solution” to the time overrun problem–that only two judges would critique each contestant. The judges are told when they arrive at air time. Later, he’s called away to attend to a “meltdown”–that’s Paula freaking out when she hears the news. “All the judges weren’t madly happy, ” said Warwick. Paula thought the format was changing permanently.”I went and explained it, ” Warwick said. “She’s OK now.”
- The first iteration of the judge pairings had Simon critiquing each contestant paired up with a rotating judge. (They should have stuck with that plan.)
- There was a big to-do about the Tarantino package containing footage that could upset a sponsor. The package was eventually edited. Hilariously, the producers didn’t allow the name of Tarantino’s move “Inglourious Basterds” to be said on the air. “Family show” says Warwick. But they allowed Flo-rida to sing about oral sex? Alrighty then.
- Sacha Baron Cohen may be on the finale, but Warwick is worried he’ll say something offensive on live TV. Oh, I hope so.
- Matt Giraud decided that day to play piano on “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman”. Warwick complained that Bandzilla was drowning out Allison Iraheta’s performance of “Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” during rehearsal.
Do check it out HERE. It’s a good read. Plus, Warwick pimps comments on a few Idols that accompany a picture gallery HERE. He says he’d listen to an album by Matt Giraud (that doesn’t surprise me. If he hadn’t choked, they’d be pimping him more). He gushes over Allison Iraheta’s vocal maturity, says that Danny Gokey’s sheltered upbringing makes it tough for him to choose songs, and calls Adam Lambert “Out of this world…”
