We weren’t so thrilled to get this coveted e-mail invite to watch American Idol live.
Didi Benami is out of the competition and she will not be in the audience on either Tuesday, April 6th or Wednesday, April 7th! At least we don’t think so.
We decided we won’t be flying twenty-five hundred miles from Massachusetts to Los Angeles just to see Tim Urban butcher a Lennon/McCartney song. The current airfare from Boston to LA roundtrip we checked is $400 per person. There’s four of us. We have to stay there a day or two and we would need hotel, car rental and we have to eat! GO figure the expenses on that one.
BUT seriously, we wouldn’t have think twice if Didi Benami will be there competing in the Top 9 instead of Tim Urban. Big sigh.
We wanted to share this little ‘process’ to anyone curious or interested on getting into the live show of American Idol.
How to get American Idol Tickets:
Tickets are FREE but impossible to get. To get invite tickets to a live show in American Idol is like winning the lottery! Your chances are very slim and or it just doesn’t happen to you or anybody you know. We have no connections whatsoever to American Idol so we had to follow the process given to ordinary people like you and me. Imagine our shock when we received an email that we could get in!!!!!
- You need to be on a wait list to get an admission ticket.
- To submit your name and other information for inclusion, go here.
- Make sure you read all the blurbs!
- Wait for a miracle to happen!
- Wait some more… maybe next season.
- If by some stars aligning in your favor, you get an invitation, you are allowed to bring in up to three guests, FOUR in total!
- THE BIG CATCH: You can not choose a date. You can not say, oh we want to watch the Finale or the Idols Give Back show.
- You use it or you lose it! If you decide not to accept the invitation for the date given, do nothing. You already lost the once in a lifetime opportunity.
- If you want to watch at a later date: You can re-submit your information again and be on the wait list. Repeat/ Read steps 1 to 8.
- Good luck with that!
The thing is because of the nature of the show, it is live and happens every week- there is very little time given for you to prepare. You can not plan ahead. If you live halfway across the world, you have to be ready to fly in an instant. You just have to drop whatever it is you’re doing and fly to Los Angeles!
In our case, we received the invite exactly on Sunday, April 4, 2010 1:04:08 PM and they want us to decide if we want to watch either the Dress rehearsals or Performance night (April 6) or the Results show (April 7). If we want to make it to the dress rehearsal show which is what we were targeting at, we would have to fly to LA the next day- today(!) to make it to the show on time at noon.
We blew this chance and maybe we won’t get another chance but we don’t feel all that bad really. The show they wanted us to watch does not excite us, even with Rihanna as guest if we wanted to watch the results show. She tours all the time, we can watch her here in Boston.
Having Didi this week would have really made us go!! or The top 4, Idols Give back, OR The FINALE!! Those instances we think we can justify swiping our credit cards with plane tickets and becoming glitzy for a day in Hollywood. But just to watch the Top 9 without Didi, is like throwing away our hard earned cash. We can’t self-talk our way into that. Guess, we have no other recourse but to wait for the Summer tour to see and hopefully meet Didi!
The elusive Email Invitation
Below is the letter we received from On Camera Audiences, the one who handles the invites (with links removed of course).
YOU MAY ONLY REQUEST CHECK-IN VOUCHERS TO ONE SHOW! REQUESTING FOR MORE THAN ONE SHOW WILL RESULT IN THE CANCELLATION OF ALL VOUCHERS.
THIS CHECK-IN VOUCHER HAS NO MONETARY VALUE TO ITS HOLDER AND MAY NOT BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED UNDER PENALTY OF LAW; ANY SUCH ATTEMPTED OR ACTUAL SALE OR TRANSFER OF THE CHECK-IN VOUCHER INVALIDATES IT AND IS GROUNDS FOR SEIZURE OF THE VOUCHER. IF YOU HAVE ALREADY ATTENDED A TAPING OF AMERICAN IDOL THIS SEASON YOU ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO RETURN AGAIN THIS SEASON.
Due to your place on the waiting list, we are notifying you of seat availability to three tapings of American Idol this week, Tuesday, April 6th and Wednesday, April 7th.
Tuesday we have two tapings; the first is a full dress rehearsal which is a taping of the entire show including all performances and Ryan Seacrest. The only thing you don’t see in the rehearsal is the judge’s comments.
The second taping on Tuesday is the LIVE performance show. On Wednesday we are taping the LIVE results show with special guest performances by Rihanna and two surprise performers! Please remember vouchers are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Thank you and enjoy the show.
PLEASE NOTE: All vouchers are free. Due to the immense popularity of the show, there is a system in place to ensure that as many fans as possible get a fair chance to see the show. Therefore you will only have this one opportunity and then you will be removed from the wait list. We are unable to make special accommodations. Therefore, if you click on the following link and are sent back to the waiting list because the shows are already full or if you are receiving this email and are unable to attend this date, we suggest you rejoin the wait list any time after Wednesday, April 7th so that we may contact you again as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding.
Please use only one of the links below and make sure to enter your information correctly and choose the correct number of vouchers. (If you click on the links too late, there may not be a spot left for you and it would say: “Sorry, this event has been filled.” You would have to try and be on the wait list again .
Click below for Tuesday’s dress rehearsal taping (12:45 PM arrival- 3 PM finish):
Click below for Tuesday’s live performance taping (3:30 PM arrival- 7 PM finish):
Click below for Wednesday’s live results taping with guest performers (3:15 PM arrival- 7 PM finish):
This is the image of the invite link, after clicking on the submit form button, they would have sent us a confirmation email that serves also as our tickets to the show.
