'American Idol': Contestants will perform in Vegas after Hollywood week, Top 12 may start tweeting
American Idol is going to Las Vegas. Roughly 60 contestants auditioning for the upcoming season of Idol will be performing Beatles songs on the same stage in the Las Vegas Mirage hotel that Cirque du Soliel performs its Beatles-themed show LOVE, an Idol insider confirms to EW. The contestants — winnowed down from the initial 325 potential superstars who made it to Hollywood week — will only be performing for judges Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler, and not a live audience. The Vegas round will likely happen within the next week, perhaps by this weekend. (The Hollywood Reporter first reported the possibility of a Vegas trip.)
EW has also confirmed that, once the show finds its Top 12 finalists, Idol producers are seriously mulling increasing the coverage of the contestants inside the fabled Idol house. The insider points out that with likely more minors than ever in the Top 12, thanks to the new lower 15-years-old age requirement, several parents and/or guardians will likely be living in the Idol house as well, and that could make for some compelling television. (What is more unclear, and may be for quite some time, is where that “house” will be located in Los Angeles.) Another possibility: Giving each Top 12 contestant their own Twitter account, an experiment attempted last season with the Top 24, but eventually abandoned. Nothing has yet been set in stone, but it’s all part of an effort to make the contestants more accessible and relatable to Idol audiences. Fox has no comment on the reports.
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