U hear what Ryan Seacrest said about Prince on AI? I heard this from a co-worker tonight. We both work at a TV station. I commented about Prince and Amazon sales (that have been posted on another thread) and she says well, did you hear with Ryan Secreast had to say about Prince?

As we all know, we weren't sure if Prince was going to be on the show since the clock was ticking toward the final minutes. Then Prince pops on stage with no notice, does Lolita and Satisfied with The Twinz, and they are all gone in a flash.

Well, according to comments Ryan said on an entertainment magazine (maybe Access Hollywood?) he said that five minutes of the live finale were up in the air up until the last second. Staffers and stagehands were srambling, that is what Ryan said what he said right before Prince came on. Ryan didn't even know for sure.

"That does it for all of the guest stars this evening. No more surprises; that was fun huh? Did you enjoy that ladies and gentlmen? Good stuff. Now we move into the big part of the show, the results portion. Your American Idol this year. Who is it going to be? One more time let me hear you loud here in Hollywood!"

According to what Ryan Seacrest found out, Prince was no where in sight, and then his limo pulled up at the last moment. Basically Prince got out of the limo, American Idol staffers clammored over Prince saying "you have to go on now." And Prince takes his time and casually walks from the limo through the backstage and right to the main stage floor. I guess the instrumental tape/DAT was given to the AI staffers as well, and the music started right that second.

Then after Prince and The Twinz were finished, Prince walks off stage and through the backstage and back into the limo. That's why Ryan Seacrest only mentioned Prince's name at the end of the two-song set. He was amazed as everyone else.

Bing. Bang. Boom. I'm done. So Prince.

I guess if Prince was not going to show, and since the American Idol staffers were getting quite antsy, AI would have had to stretch out an extra five minutes at the end of the show, in addition to the four minutes when the winner was announced.

Five minutes of live television is hard to fill when you have nothing to fill it with, other than what has been said before.

Imagine if Prince was outside and had not gotten out of the limo. Things at the end of AI would have been much different and the past 24 hours on this board and others would all be wondering why Prince didn't do Idol. But that's not the case, and it's amazing what four-some minutes of exposure on live TV can do for a megasuper star such as Prince. And an estimated 43 million / 200 million worldwide did not hurt too. Just look at Amazon.com.

See AI sticky http://www.prince.org/msg/7/190202