The American Idol Debate

Let me preface what I'm sure is about to become a long winded post by saying that Fighting Nun and I are not avid fans and we only ever watch the show for the parade of dillusionment that marches in front of the judges and therefore onto our tv so there might be some things that an avid fan of the show might know off-hand that we have no clue about. So if the resulting diatribe seems as if we don't know what we're talking about in regards to American Idol, that's because... we don't.

So, remember last night, almost at the very close of the episode, they had the parade of deluded contestants 'sing' Don't Cha and it was generally very painful, but you had to give it up to some of those people because they didn't bail out. They should've, but they didn't. Even the uncomfortable-looking, collar-shirted-wearing, eyebrow-tweeze-needing, unfortunate-haircut-having, guy who lives in Utah put in the extra effort, for reasons that were inexplicable to us. So Fighting Nun raised the question if that was filmed before or after the audition of each and every one of these people, which I had no good answer for. Fighting Nun theororized that said 'singing' happened after their auditions, which had him convinced that said contestants had to have been paid to make another appearance after having been thoroughly demoralized by a pasty English guy and an over-the-hill has-been who is obviously self-medicating.

To which I countered that these poor poor souls couldn't have possbily been paid because any and all money related to contestant relations was obviously being put to Paula's ever increasing bar tab (although I heard this morning that she doesn't drink, which I want to call bullshit on but the theory that she's mixing hardcore anti-depressants into whatever happens to be in her strategically placed coca-cola cup is still viable) so they can't possibly be paying the contestants. That arguement seemed to subdue Fighting Nun enough but he wasn't swayed that the Don't Cha montage was filmed on a different day than the contestant's auditions. Which I can't refute. Apparantly the afforementioned Needs-a-Tweeze guy was wearing a different collored shirt in the musical montage than he wore for his audition. Leaving out the possible hypothesis that Needs-a-Tweeze required a costume change from one collared shirt to another collared shirt, we can only assume that the auditions and musical numbers performed by the hearing challenged were taped on different days.

But that seems odd to me because they were in the interview room, the room I once thought was only used for the sole purpose of allowing the banished contestants a place where they could vent and explain to the world how they were misunderstood and that they had true *talent* and Simon, that poor mean bastard and the other judges just didn't *see* it. So I automatically assumed they were asked to sing their little hearts out to the tune of Don't Cha once their auditions were conducted. Am I wrong about that? Does the room of a thousand shattered dreams have a duel purpose as a makeshift Kareoke room of badness? Because if so, that room just went up in my estimation.

But our question still stands. When were the contestants asked to their best Pussycat Dolls impression? Before or after their auditions? Inquiring minds want to know. We demand, you supply. If you read this blog and actually have an answer, please answer the question in the comments, or e-mail me. I'm curious. Otherwise, this'll just be an unanswered rant floating out in the eather. Also, if you can enlighten us if any of the contestants get paid for their participation or if the money does indeed go to medicating Paula, I'd appreciate that insight too.
Thanks.