BigShady and I made it into the AI audience yesterday to cheer Kat on in her performance of "Something." Beforehand, for most of the afternoon, we stood in line worrying we wouldn't get in (which is what happened last year when I went.) At one point, Melissa phoned to say "meet up with Dennis," who was also there -- he got there four hours before us. Dennis was nice. After several hours of waiting in line, we finally made it to the studio entrance where a show employee handed us a shiny, laminated blue ticket. "Does this mean we're in?" I asked. "You're in!" I spontaneously broke into a few bars of, "I've got a golden ticket," hoping people would understood. Once we got the studeio inside, we looked and looked for our seats but realized they were nonexistent. No joke. Our tickets were for section F, row 9, but section F ended at row 8. No matter how hard the ushers and we looked, there was no such row. We thought for sure they'd boot us out saying, “Oops, sorry for the mistake.” But it worked out and we ended up getting better seats, four rows behind the mosh pit (three rows behind Jim Carrey). You can see BigShady and me for a split second behind Jim Carrey's right elephant ear when he leans to the left, haha.

Most of the audience had pre-printed tickets which clearly stated there would be a special performance by Katharine McPhee, but no one on the show seemed to know that. The whole time, they kept making it seem like the guest performer was some big secret. The warm-up emcee said he would't divulge the name (which we already knew). At one point, he peeked over at the sheet music resting on the piano and said, “I know what she'll be singing tonight.” (Tell us! Tell us!) "But I'm not going to tell you."

Up above, I saw several violinists tuning up in the orchestra and wondered if they were getting ready to accompany Katharine on some beautiful ballad. Boy, did they.

Before Katharine went on, I overheard a nearby security guard say to another: "They're in the hallway, where the talent is." The Talent! Kat! Whoop-whoop. (Where is the hallway and how can I get there?)

During the pre-taped “listener call-in” portion, Ryan was goofing around and at one point divulged, “Hey, Kat McPhee will be on the show tonight.” Again, most of us already knew this, but the producer? stage manager? shook her head and admonished Ryan, telling him the performer was supposed to be a surprise. The stage manager/producer, by the way, is this woman dressed all in stage black with black beret like the one in Kat's Love Story music vid. The woman runs a really tight ship, and considering she pulls off a live show every week, does a really good job. Incidentally, it was her black-gloved hand you saw handing Ryan the mic for David's exit song when Ryan says, "Well, that was well-choreographed."

Regarding Kat's performance, to be honest, what you saw was what we saw: sheer magnificence. Kat really did own the stage. She has this amazingly powerful voice that, like during the Leno rehearsal, always threatens to blow out the speakers during her power notes. While she performed, the judges watched in rapt attention -- even Simon, who kept his head down for both David H's and Kristy Lee's performances (Syesha's he watched). Paula watched with a big smile on her face. I couldn't see Randy's face, but he was definitely watching, too. I ended up sitting next to Randy's daughter, by the way, who was there with her teenage friends going crazy over David Archuleta. They also couldn't stop saying how beautiful Kat was.

After the mini-interview with Ryan, Kat leaned over the mosh pit and shook hands, waved, winked, and smiled at lucky viewers in the pit. After what seemed like a long time, Kat walked over to the judges' stand -- I'm pretty sure David Foster was by her side. I was curious to see how the judges would interact with her, especially Simon since he recently made that stupid “credible artist” remark. Kat and Randy had their arms around each other pretty much the entire time; Paula and Kat were nice and friendly; but Simon…he kinda seemed like he didn't know what to do with himself (Kat rocked it; Simon, you know what you said – will another apology be forthcoming??). Not that Simon purposely looked away or anything, but they didn't embrace -- I think maybe they briefly shook hands -- and Kat never made her way over to Simon's side of the judges' stand.

After that, I hoped Kat would exit out the side floor entrance, which meant she would cross in front of us on our side of the studio but no such luck. She exited back across the rear of the stage and, poof, she was gone like the magical singing goddess that she is.

Thanks so much for the detailed report! You painted such a clear picture that I almost could feel myself there with you! I'm so happy that such dedicated and devoted fans were able to experience the magic that Katharine and David made together!

Who cares what Simon thinks and how he reacted anyway?? Unkind words do have a way of coming back to haunt!!! He was just lucky that such an etheral performance by Katharine was done with pure love and no malice whatsoever towards any of the AI family!

Thanks from me too!

Thanks! You answered my burning questions, did the "judges" pay attention to her when she was singing and...how did they treat her. I'm not surprised at all with Randy since they just recorded Real Love together not so long ago...  Way to go Kat...I am and will always be a PROUD fan!!      

Thanks, Steve. That's really nice of you to say.  I always feel kind of funny writing these recaps. If you enjoyed hearing some of the behind-the-scenes details that makes me happy.

Richard Rushfield, a Los Angeles Times Staff Writer and long-suffering Idol watcher, wrote an article about Wednesday's broadcast that just appeared in my email. In it he briefly but poignantly makes this comment about our remarkable Katharine.....

"And perhaps most significantly, tonight these fledgling poppets (the AI7 contestants)got the chance to study close up the raw star power and magnetism exuded by the greatest contestant in "American Idol" history, Miss Katharine McPhee. Those who took careful notes will be certain to benefit from this one more outbreak of McPheever across the Idoldome."

WOW..... brief as this is, Rushfield sure got it right!!!!!!!!

Article: http://www.calendarlive.com:80/tv/cl-et-idoltracker14mar14,0,4606968.story

super recap vadiathanks for your uplifting review that makes me almost feel I was there

Glowmama, you got lucky again.  Thanks for sharing the BIG night with your Kat fans.  Now tell me, did you and Mark get to meet her later.  You would deserve this after leading the Orange Glow army at her homecoming. 

You're really sweet to say that, Minnie.  No, we didn't get to meet Kat and, as great as that would have been, honestly, I'm just so glad we could be there to stir up the crowd with as much applause and cheering as we could muster.  She deserved it!!!!

If only I'd thought to look behind Horton the Jim Carrey!

Well, I think Jim Carrey's elephant suit schtick probably repelled me from looking around his immediate space that night--but it's great you were at least a little bit on TV, Nancy. Kudos to you and Mark for taking the time to get in there and see that amazing TV event firsthand. I've missed seeing these descriptive Kat events from you and the others.

And when you can be privy to seeing the behind-the-scenes events (especially when body language tells all)--it really creates an interesting picture of Kat's relationship with the judges. Even though Kat and Simon weren't talking, I still get the impression that they respect one another. As far as we know, they may have acted warm to one another backstage once everybody was out of the studio. When he's around people, he never shows his warm side. Then you see pictures of him after the show acting like a teddy bear.

If anything, he may have a "show me" type of attitude about Kat that she'll obviously be proving about a year from now. Once she has a successful album with DF, then you'll probably get some quote from Simon saying something positive. As conceited as the man is, he still isn't afraid to admit more often than we think that he's sometimes wrong.

Somebody will just have to break it to him slowly, though, that it's probably more than sometimes...