ABC/Eric McCandless
This season on American Idol, Bobby Bones returns as the in-house mentor for contestants as they make their way through the season. He’ll join judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, Luke Bryan and long-time American Idol host Ryan Seacrest as part of the cast of the show.
In an interview with ABC 6, Bones opened up about what it was like to film Hollywood week during a pandemic.
“In the past, when these contestants would need a hand on their shoulder to be talked to because they’re going through a rough situation at home or on the show, that’s what I would do,” the star said. “I would put my hand on their shoulder. I’d give them a hug. Cant’ do that obviously.”
He added, “The only difference for me is I stand six feet away. I really didn’t hang out with them. I try to create bonds before we went on camera and after we went on camera.”
Bones Had the Same Issue as Luke Bryan Does
Luke Bryan also previously opened up about filming American Idol during a pandemic, and he said the most heartbreaking part was not being able to hug contestants.
Luke Bryan recently opened up to People about the hardest part of filming the show this time around.
“The interesting thing is just trying to navigate all of the new rules of COVID-19,” Bryan said. “One tricky thing is a lot of times during the audition process, contestants will get very, very emotional and it will be an emotional situation for them.”
He added, “The fact that me and Lionel and Katy can’t walk out there and do the human element – hug and show support and love, is very, very tough.”
Bryan said that he feels it’s very important to be able to support contestants when they get emotional during the audition process.
“I think that’s one thing you’ll see as a viewer of me and Lionel and Katie,” he shared. “When someone is hurting and they’re motional, you want to console them and hug them and love on them to help them through. The fact that sometimes we can’t go put our arms around them is pretty heartbreaking.”
Hollywood Week Will Last for Two Episodes
Hollywood Week for season 4 of American Idol will include two episodes. The first is the genre challenge, where the contestants each choose a genre and a song from that genre in order to impress the judges. The next episode will be the duet challenge where two singers will be paired up in order to perform a duet.
The Hollywood Week episodes air on Sunday, March 21 and Monday, March 22, officially bringing the show back to a two-day-a-week format for the rest of the season.
Hollywood Week is followed by the final judgment round, which has traditionally been filmed in some exotic location; last season, all of the contestants went to Hawaii for the week and performed with a band in front of a live audience.
This year, it’s unlikely that that kind of trip was possible. The judges will still make the decisions about who moves on to the top 24 after seeing the contestants perform with a band, however.
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