From Felicia Barton’s Facebook Fan Page: Felicia’s husband, Loren Barton explains what happened Wednesday night as he and his wife watched “The Chair” episode with a crowd of people at their church.
As it turns out, Felicia found out she was back in the competition at about the same time the rest of us did. Now the question is…when did they tell Joanna Pacitti?
And then we got the call!!! Sure enough, right smack in the middle of the 150 viewers that were gathered at Freedom to watch the show, Ken Warwick (executive producer for Idol) called Felicia cell phone. She ran into the girl bathroom to take the call, and she was bouncing off the walls when Ken told her to pack her bags, because she was now in the top 36!!!! He also told her not to tell a soul until they made it public the next day. So we had to finish out the night as if she never got the call!
Of course, we awoke this morning to a media firestorm…with Felicia at the center of it! And now it time for her to go back to Hollywood and take the competition by storm! It going to be the ultimate underdog story when she becomes the next American Idol!!!
What we didn’t see: Felicia was part of a “singoff” with a 16-year old girl (Stevie Wright? Allison Iraheta? Taylor Vaifanua? Jasmine Murray?)
Last night, we were at Freedom Fellowship Idol viewing party with about 150 other excited, wonderful people. As the show began, I could see Felicia eyes watering up as she sat, prepared to relive her Great Disappointment. It had been almost a month now, since she received the big …No from the judges and we flew home, rejected. Trust me…our emotions and thoughts ran the gamut, as we tried desperately to process what had just occurred. What they didnt show on last night episode is that Felicia was actually in a ‹sing-off with a 16 year old girl! Felicia sang …No One by Alicia Keys, and she said she felt like it was her best performance ever, and then she listened from the hallway as the other girl give, what she felt, was a very average performance.
So you can understand Felicia response of , Really…are you sure? when the judges told her that it was the end of the road.
I love hearing the behind the scenes stuff that sheds light on the editing and shenanigans of the producers. I’ll bet they filmed a bunch of those phony “singoffs” with the idea to air the most dramatic bits. Also, the producers couldn’t air singoffs that ran counter to the predetermined outcome. I mean, there’s no way the judges were deciding this stuff on the spot. The singoffs were purely for the cameras.
More behind-the-scenes updates from Felicia’s husband, here and here. Interesting stuff.
