Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about TV and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the TV urban legends featured so far.
TV URBAN LEGEND: In Season 5, American Idol skipped Austin, Texas and just pretended that auditions in other cities were their Austin auditions.
One thing you have to get out of the way right off the bat is how, exactly, American Idol auditions work.
Often, the audition process has to be arranged around the schedules of the judges (presumably mostly Simon Cowell’s schedule, as he seems to be a bit busier than the other judges), so when you see the judges judging contestants, it is not even necessarily the same day as when the big group shots happen outside.
The way auditions work is that the main judges don’t even get to see contestants until they have been seen by a group of 10-12 American Idol producers. Simon, Randy and Paula only see about 100 or so contestants any given time.
A nice aspect about this system is that it is easy to break things up that way. If the judges are not available, you can screen out the 100 or so contestants and have them return the next week when the judges are available and have them audition in front of the judges then. On television, with editing, there’s no way of telling the difference.
Of course, sometimes, when you do this, things get in the way – stuff like, oh, I don’t know, a massive hurricane?
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