I went on-set on Idol last time I was in L.A., but even if I hadn't... You can just look on Twitter for spoilers during filming.

I'm here for my Queen .. I'mma watch it all

and having Nicki there could also be fun . she's a fierce gorl she'll make me laugh probably

The spoilers before the show is aired on the East Coast are always about the setlist and stuff like that, never about the actual show. Also, I recall during Season 8 one episode lasted more than it should have and the people that tivo'd it, missed Adam Lambert singing "Mad World" (although he wasn't sent home). I recall Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell being very worried about it during the episode. Was it because the producers knew it would go overtime? What time was it when you went to the "taping"?

I remember during Season 7 also when Brooke White forgot the lines to her song and she asked the band to start the song from the start to which Paula said "you can't ever do that during a live show".

Besides, the contestants do their rehearsals in front of the audience before the actual show, so that's why I thought they had footage of the "performance" ready as soon as the last contestant performed. But every Idol fan knows it's not footage from the same performance that aired in full because it doesn't sound exactly the same. Did you witness last year's contestants perform twice their songs?

This was in 2010, and I didn't see any rehearsals.

They started filming the main show - in-front of the judges - at around 3pm L.A. time. That would have been 6pm in New York, so 2 hours before broadcast, giving the producers enough time to edit it together.

I watched the episode back later that night, and noted loads of things cut. One contestant was criticised by Simon for being stiff, and she argued the producers changed her song only an hour before the show started filming because they couldn't get the rights to the song she originally rehearsed for. They cut this entire exchange out, and not even Simon's stiff comments were broadcast.

So everything I thought I knew about the show was a lie

But thanks for clearing it up. I didn't know the producers were shady enough to cut entire exchanges with the judges. Thankfully we still have the live results but even then the contestans always lip sync their group performances

Idol does a full dress rehearsal for the performance shows and they used to have an audience attend (that was a big source of spoilers in years past), but the performances are generally broadcast live (remember the mess when Paula started judging a contestant on a song he hadn't sung yet, because she had notes on his rehearsal performance from earlier in the day). Sometimes in past seasons they did tape the semifinal rounds but I don't even think they did that for Season 11. Steven got bleeped out a few times but the censors were on the job and he basically kept his language under control once the show went live.

Mariah and Nicki, though, I can see them irritating each other and it leading to another explosion of drama on live TV. I think the producers loved the theory of that, but the reaction to this feud between them so far, from the long-time AI fans, a lot of the responses to it have gone to this, well, "interesting" place of thinly-disguised racial "commentary" that probably makes the producers and FOX very uncomfortable. So now they are trying to make nice with this statement that they support everyone and the show is still about finding talent above all else.

I like how no one is posting anymore hmmm...

They clearly did that **** to get those ratings. Just read between the lines.

I don't think it was faked at all