Watching Singapore Idol Live at the Mediacorp Theatre

Rating:
Since I so thoroughly enjoy judge Jacintha's comments at Singapore Idol, I decided to hop on over to the Mediacorp Theatre at Cairnhill road for some more of her philosophic musings and watch the "last 5" results show live!

How to get tickets to Singapore Idol's results show
I got my tickets through Ton, cousin of my friend Fritz (who is a HUGE fan of SI) but as I soon discovered, you can just show up at the studio by 7:15pm (even without tickets) and they'll inevitably let you in to fill up the empty seats.
We got there by 7pm and were in our balcony seats a couple of minutes later. However the whole section was soon asked to relocate downstairs near the stage to make the place look full. Even after the show started, I could still spy some empty seats.

Who watches the show live
The audience was made up mostly by screaming female tweens and teenieboppers (some even in their school uniform!). If it weren't for that big blue logo up on screen, you could've thought that it was Nickelodeon. But this didn't stop us twenty-something corporate slaves from joining in the fun.

So i grabbed a Hady poster that they were passing around and proceeded to cheer along with the electrified crowd. I wouldn't have imagined that one day i'd be on the other side of the TV and in a weird way I guess people were watching me at home instead of the other way around.

Behind the scenes
But what you don't see at home are the quirky things that make live TV "look" fun. What they don't show is see the radio personality who works the crowd prior to beginning the show and during commercial breaks so that when the camera begins rolling, everyone is shouting and you at home are wishing that you're with us, too!

What they don't show are the Mediacorp cheerleaders distributing leaflets with the 'lyrics' of the chants:
H-A-D-Y! What do you get?
ha-dy!
WHAT DO YOU GET?
HA-DY!

What they don't show are the ex-idol contestants Nurul (who was booted during the last show), Gayle, Emilee and Mathilda who I sat about two seats away from.
They don't show on TV how Nurul cups her hands across her mouth, shrinks into her seat as a video montage of their antics are shown up the big screen. You don't see how her moist eyes betray that sense of tragedy, that sense of loss, that starstruck-ness and tragedy of "that could have been me!"

Contrast this with Gayle and Emilee who were both blasé and Mathilda who reveled in her stardom, gamely signing autographs and posing for photos and I think that you've got the recipe for compelling TV. But hey, what do I know...

Conclusion
Three pawikan points for watching the show live. It's a great way to spend a Thursday night. I went into the studio jaded and bored but went out chattering and smiling-- it's hard not to get infected by the audience's excitement. (BTW, it's hard to get a cab and the MRT station isn't near so make sure you're first out of the exit to avoid the crowd.)

Minus points for the nazi, power-tripping floor director who was terrorizing the teens near the stage (Move here! Move there! Step back! Don't sit there! blah blah...) and by zealously threatening to take away their phone cameras for violating the no photography rule.

C'mon man, get a life and let us enjoy the show.