Samantha and Maria take on American Idol

While out of town 2 weeks ago I received a text from my friend Samantha asking if I'd like to go to a taping of American Idol with her-she had gotten her hands on some free tickets. Of course I said yes please! (I like doing things you can only do in LA.) Unknown to me when I said yes, the tickets were for us to be seat-fillers at the finale performance episode for this season.

In the past I watched A.I. However, I had only watched one other episode this season and was not impressed. But of course that did not matter, it was all about the LA experience.

The day of the show rolls around. Samantha and I head downtown in our "club casual" attire at 1:00 for a 5:00 taping. After walking around for 20 minutes we finally find the appropriate line for seat-fillers. Our instructions are to be flexible, if someone comes with a ticket for the seat we're sitting in, move to an empty seat near by, and don't bother the celebrities (okay maybe not the latter, but I'm sure some people needed to hear that).

Around 3:45 we finally enter the theatre and are placed sporadically throughout the first 5 rows. I'm in row 4, facing the stage to the left of the judge's table. They open the doors to the public at 4:00 and the flood gates open. No one comes to the section Samantha and I are in till at least 4:30. We have to move around a little bit but nothing major. We are still sitting in the fourth row.

At about 4:45 is when the important people start to roll up. In the front row of our section is the family of Lee DeWyze. Behind the fam was Angus T. Jones star of Two and Half Men. In the row right in front of us were some big time producers, at least we think, because everyone involved with the show knew who they were. Then comes Samantha and I's row. Two seats away from us was Sarah Chalke from Scrubs. She and I made eye contact and became BFF instantly! Ok, so that's not true, at least the BFF part. Remember how I mentioned our location to the producers? There were times that I was five feet away from Simon, Ellen, and Ryan. Throughout the whole show we were only twenty-five to thirty feet from the judges table.

The show goes on and we are never asked to move again. So Samantha and I continue to enjoy our free fourth row seats. The audience was definitely wild and crazy, just as they seem on television. And Ryan was just as handsome.

The experience was definitely something I will always remember, even if it was American Idol. If you haven't watched the episode yet, get your hands on it and try to find Samantha and I.