This is A-I … behind the scenes.

At least that’s the way Oprah billed it on her Monday show. The wonderful folks at A-I, led by Ryan Seacrest, allowed Oprah’s crew access “behind the scenes” prior to last week’s production.
Seacrest led the tour, revealing, well, what he wanted to reveal.
The highlights:
– Paula, Randy, Kara and Ryan all have dressing rooms backstage; Simon dresses in a camper in the parking lot. Why? “Well, we like to picnic before the show during the production meeting,” Simon said while chomping on a piece of celery.
– Ryan gargles with Scope prior to going on-stage.
– Kelly Clarkson, the first A-I winner, who performed during the show last week said, “We called it ‘Ghetto Idol’ because there was no live audience for us then until we got down to the final five.”
– Randy Jackson carried not a “man-bag” but what he called a “dude’s-bag” on-stage containing, among others things, a second pair of shoes.
– Ryan admitted when he comes on-stage the contestants try to “stare him down” to gain a hint if they are going to be eliminated or not.
– Ryan said the worst part was telling them that they are eliminated. “It’s live and it’s a real human moment,” Seacrest admitted. “Like it was last week when I had to tell Jasmine Murray she was eliminated.”
– Ryan said that the new “save” rule was first tried on the French version of the show.
– Oprah asked Ryan who he thought would win. “Well, there are Danny and Adam and Allison and Chris…” And he never did say.
– Oprah proclaimed A-I to be a world-wide phenom of a show including one called Afghan Star. It was then that Seacrest busted out into, “And this is Afghan Idol!”
– And the big news of the night is that Ryan and the executive producer of the show are the only two folks prior to the show who know who is going to be eliminated. No surprise there. But watch Seacrest a little closer on Wednesday and see if you get any indication from him on who is about to be eliminated.