With the top five women and top five men vocalists finally decided, Wednesday night’s American Idol began the competition proper. But when the house lights came on, judge Nicki Minaj was MIA.
"We are coming to you live and on time," host Ryan Seacrest said before telling the cheering audience to “keep that energy going for three of your four judges who are here tonight."
After three weeks in Las Vegas, American Idol returned to its home turf of Los Angeles on Thursday, just in time for the first live show of season 12. You saw the big results reveal, but what didn't make the broadcast? Read on …
After weeks of highs and lows in which the girls outsang the guys, prompting predictions that a female winner might finally prevail this year, American Idol has revealed the top 10 finalists for season 12.
For the first time this week, the two gender-divided performance nights in Vegas were open to viewer voting. The show returned to L.A. for Thursday's results round, with Ryan Seacrest announcing that almost 39 million votes had been cast to determine the lineup.
Say goodbye to Vegas, boys, and hello to Hollywood! For real this time -- not that NORAD-like structure in the seemingly always-overcast Northridge, Calif. No, this was it. The Top 20 and last stop until America decides the touring 10.
Still, some of us found ourselves asking, where’s the sizzle? This was Sin City, after all. Why such doom and gloom in the guys’ song choices? Did someone’s grandparent die? Were they all unceremoniously dumped by their significant others in the same week? Are they feeling lonely? Homesick? Not knowing if they want the world to see them because they don’t think that they’d understand?
During rehearsals for American Idol at the Mirage Hotel’s Love Theatre, home to Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles show Love in Las Vegas, season 12's top 10 guys took some time backstage to hang with The Hollywood Reporter. Among the topics discussed: their road to the finals, influences and brushes with Idols past.
During rehearsals for American Idol at the Mirage Hotel’s Love Theatre, home to Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles show Love in Las Vegas, season 12's top 10 girls took some time backstage to hang withThe Hollywood Reporter. Among the topics discussed: their lifelong passions for music and Idol, influences and what it's like to be recognized in public.
American Idol revealed the top 20 semifinalists in Vegas on Thursday night, but not before cutting loose another five male singers during the fourth and final sudden death round.
HERE COMES THE JUDGE: Even though the show has been on the air for 12 seasons, it’s still a rare event for an American Idol judge to have a single on the Billboard charts as an artist during their tenure on the series.
When Zoanette Johnson first auditioned for American Idol with a wacky cover of the national anthem and a demand to be invited to the White House, befuddled viewers were shocked to see she earned a golden ticket.
She then stunned audiences with a frenzied improvised song behind a drum kit during Hollywood Week.
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:
Between rehearsals, elimination shows, photo shoots, make-up and hair sessions and media interviews, American Idol judges Randy Jackson, Nicki Minaj, Keith Urban and Mariah Carey all have schedules that keep them going every waking hour, as does host Ryan Seacrest.
Someday we will all look back on American Idol season 12 as the year when the always-brutal competition show took it one step further with the introduction of the Hunger Games-esque "sudden death" rounds.
Aspiring ventriloquist Halie Hilburn famously tried to make it to Hollywood on American Idol season 12 with her beloved puppet Oscar, but ditched her pal at the request of judge Keith Urban, who said her sidekick was "holding her back."
