Have you ever wondered what happens behind-the-scenes of a Canadian Idol taping? After covering more Idol shows than anyone else in the world, I know that whenever I am sitting in the audience on Mondays and Tuesdays, I am always wondering about what kind of activities are happening backstage. Is it a flurry of chaos? Are the contestants pacing around backstage or are they giving each other pep talks before they step onto a stage and go in front of millions of people? How much contact do they have with the special guests and mentors? Are they isolated so that they don’t feel any additional pressure?
These are not new questions. I know that Idol fans have wondered about the inner workings of Idols since the show’s initial premiere.
As you have come to expect, it was time for me to boldly go where no other Idol reporter has gone before. In my best Almost Famous impression, I had a backstage seat for the Final Four’s last performance and results show and I am here to share every juicy detail with you of what I saw in my stint as the proverbial fly on Idol’s wall.
And it gets better.
Not only did I get to report on everything Idol, but I also interviewed the Final Four, hours before they found out that Earl Stevenson was the next Idol to be eliminated from the competition.
Let’s get started.
MONDAY, AUGUST 25 2008
Final Four Performance Show
I arrived to the show a little earlier than usual. The show began taping at 7 PM and I was inside Toronto’s John Bassett Theatre at precisely 5:58 PM. I waited for my PR liaison to meet me and take me backstage. As I mulled around the theatre, I was lost in my thoughts about what I would see and getting the unbelievable opportunity to get a perspective on Idol that nobody really had before (at least from the print side of things).
After about 30 minutes, I was escorted backstage. En route, I passed the main Idol photographer as well as one of the security guards. When I got there, I was surprised to find a special seat set-up for me. The chair was in front of the control room (which featured a host of TV monitors and the main Idol braintrust) and behind one of the lighting boards. While I loved the seat, it was also a little intimidating for a multitude of reasons, starting with the fact that it isolated me and made me very visible (which I guess I knew going in considering I was the only outsider there which was the whole purpose of the assignment) but also because I knew that the chair would be home for the duration of the show.
Upon initially taking my seat at 6:40 PM, I saw a few make-up artists milling around, a producer or two and Earl Stevenson carrying a motorcycle helmet.
Ben Mulroney made his first appearance backstage at about 6:53 PM and immediately made a beeline over to ‘The Murtz Seat’ to shake my hand. I have said it before and I have no problem saying it again. The Canadian Idol host is a class act.
At 6:44 PM, the Sue Brophy show started on the main stage. It was weird because although I was backstage, it didn’t sound nearly as loud as it does when I am in the audience. Luckily, this wasn’t a bad thing.
Finally, with about five minutes to go before the show started… I saw three of the Idols. Directly in front of me stood Earl Stevenson, Theo Tams and Drew Wright.
Earl quickly had somebody run over to him and adjust his mic.
I have to say that with only seconds to go before Canadian Idol began, I was shocked by the lack of activity backstage as everything really seemed calm. I attributed this to the fact that the show had probably hit its stride (at least in terms of its production) and so it was really flying on auto-pilot by this point. I was just as sure that things would be incredibly more hectic the following night with Anne Murray and Jordin Sparks both scheduled to perform.
At 7 PM, the show started and Ben began by introducing the fact that Anne Murray helped coach the Idols this week. He also said that the final four would be singing two songs. One would be an Anne Murray tune and the other would be something of their own choosing. From my seat, it was hard to see the actual stage, but I was watching on one of the many monitors. An Anne Murray video package was then played.
At about 7:04 PM, I saw eTalk’s Zain Meghji arrive and he planted himself backstage. I presumed he was there to interview the contestants after the finished.
Mitch Macdonald was the first to take the stage and in his tribute video Murray gave him tips on breathing techniques. He chose “Cotton Jenny” (the Gordon Lightfoot version) as his first song. He looked the same, but sounded different. After he was finished and the show went to commercial, Ben came to the backstage area where he was requested to take a photo with one of the politicians that was in attendance.
Earl Stevenson was next and on my songlist, it said that he was going to do “Killing Me Softly” (the Fugees version). I was excited for this performance because I loved the song and I thought Earl would do a great job with it. In his video summary with Anne Murray, the legendary songstress told him that she saw his performance last week of “A Little Help From My Friends” and advised him that he had to know that there was an audience in front of him and that he had to perform to them. I thought that the advice was spot-on. When Earl started singing, I immediately realized that I hated the way that he chose to arrange the song, and while he sounded good… it was hard for me not to focus on the arrangement.
While Earl was performing, I saw Theo make a brief appearance backstage and he took a really deep breath. I noted this as a sign that he might be nervous, but I wasn’t quite sure. Right after that, somebody quickly rushed over to Theo and adjusted his mic.
During the commercial break, my PR liaison came by to check on me and I asked her if the stage was higher or lower than audience level. I totally expected it to be higher but when she offered to give me a sneak peek, I immediately took her up on it. I was shocked to learn that the stage was actually lower (because when you are in the audience, it actually looks a little higher or at least on the same level as the seats).
Drew Wright was up next and he sang “Hey Daddy (Hippo In My Bathtub).” While I was getting a better tour of the stage, I hadn’t noticed that Earl had left to change after he finished his song so I was surprised to see him in a new outfit. I also Mitch in a new outfit was well and when I looked over at him, I noticed that somebody was helping him fix his collar.
Theo’s first song was “You Don’t Know Me” (the Jann Arden version). Sass praised him on his phrasing. After he was finished, the camera cut to Drew Wright in the TD Comfort Zone.
During the next commercial, I noticed that Theo was drinking a ton of water after he was finished.
I have to say that what I found the most surprising about being backstage at the show so far was the total lack of activity behind-the-scenes. Outside of a few crew members and a periodic appearance by one of the Idols, there really wasn’t a lot going on.
Mitch Macdonald was up next with his second song choice which was “Between The Bars” by Elliot Smith. It was a great selection and I thought that Mitch did a really good job with it. During the performance, Drew Wright came out with his new outfit and, like the others, he also had some help from some of the Idol stylists in its adjustment.
Right after Mitch had finished his songs for the evening, he was escorted over to Meghji who interviewed him (before he even had a chance to catch his breath!)
During the next commercial break, Theo came out and had put on one of his signature scarves. After Sue Brophy came backstage and congratulated herself on how funny she was being this evening. She said “I am on fire today!”
The show resumed with Earl Stevenson’s second pick and like his first song, I really was excited because he had definitely made a good choice again with “The Joker” by The Steve Miller band. Off the top of the song, Earl changed the lyrics to say “some people call me ‘Big Earl'” and this was amusing. I definitely liked the performance and it was probably my favorite of the night Backstage, even Theo came out to watch Earl’s song.
The big gasp moment was definitely at the end of Earl’s song when judge Jake Gold said “for a moment, I felt like you didn’t really want to be here.” This seemed to surprised everyone backstage as well.
During the commercial break, Earl went straight over to Zain to do his post-performance interview.
Then it was time for Drew Wright. For his final choice of the evening, the Collingwood native decided to do John Mayer’s “Gravity.” It was an awesome song choice and I definitely believe that Drew is Canadian Idol’s most improved contestant. I don’t think the judges seemed to care for it, but I thought it was decent.
This actually led to the most shocking backstage moment for me on Monday, and it happened when Drew finished his song and right before he went to do his eTalk interview. The FIRST thing that Drew said backstage was “the stage rehearsal was better,” and it was in that moment that I knew that I had gotten a glimpse of a contestant’s true feelings after they had finished. It was something that I don’t think many non-Idol employees would get to see.
Theo Tams closed out the show with “Chariot” by Gavin DeGraw. As I joked to my publicity contacts when I got the evening’s songlist, I knew it wasn’t really an Idol show until somebody chose this song. My favorite part was undoubtedly when Theo got on top of the piano to sing. It’s funny, before this season of Canadian Idol, I never saw the piano as being an instrument that allowed a lot of creative liberty on stage. With Tams kicking the bench one week and this time getting on top of it, I don’t think I will ever listen to Bach the same way.
Backstage, everyone cheered pretty loudly when Theo was finished. I don’t know if this was a signal that Theo is the favorite or that they were just applauding that the show was over. Regardless, I found it to be an interesting footnote to the evening.
So there you have it, the first night of my backstage Idol experience was in the books.
Now it was time for Tuesday where I would be backstage, not only for the entire results show (which featured Anne Murray and Jordin Sparks), but I would also get to exclusively interview all the contestants before they heard the results.
Stay tuned.
