David Cook fans who attended a taping Thursday night in Los Angeles, for the Carrie Underwood holiday special, set to air on FOX December 7, brought back a few fun spoilers:
- David Cook performed “Lie” from his self titled album. Apparently, it’s Carrie’s favorite song on the album.
- David and Carrie dueted on the Van Halen song, “Why Can’t This Be Love”. The performance included a “wicked” guitar solo from David.
- David and Carrie did a really “awkward and dorky” skit before their duet. David thanked Carrie for “letting him come to pimp his album,” Carrie said, her producers made her invite him. LULZ!
- Songs were performed twice.
- Carrie hand-selected her guests, including, Kristin Chenoweth, Christina Applegate, Sons Of Sylvia (The Clark Brothers), Dolly Parton and Brad Paisley
- Neil Patrick Harris is the voice of Ace (Carrie’s dog) in the Ace sketch
- -Sons of Sylvia sang “Blue Christmas”
- Carrie sang a collection of 50’s songs with Kristen Chenoweth and Christina Applegate
- Carrie performed “Cowboy Casanova”, “Mama’s Song” and “Songs Like This”
- Carrie’s mom makes an appearance before “Mama’s Song”. She’s carried in by two dancers and sings “Stand By Your Man” (terribly)
- Tabitha and Napoleon, from SYTYCD choreographed for Carrie, (“Songs Like This”)
- As did Tyce Diorio for “Mama’s Song”
- Carrie was dressed as Dolly in one of her skits, including “chest enhancements”
- Crying girl was in the audience
- David did a Q&A with the audience during a down time.
- Bo Bice was in the audience!
- Dolly and Brad will be taping on Friday
The special is produced by Nigel Lythgoe and Adam Shankman, and it appears that Rickey Minor and the band were in the house.
Fans, worried about the state of David’s facial hair caused him to tweet, @TheDavidCook I did not shave. Odd I have to tweet that. Absurdity is afoot…
Ha.
Were you at the taping? Post your deets in comments, and I’ll add it to this post…
Hmm, it seems that no one’s back from the second day of taping yet. Nothing on twitter, Pulse, or the Carrie forums. Maybe they’re running late and wrapping things up?
They just now got done.
Vinman posted on Pulse that Carrie performed 3 more new songs: Change, Temporary Home, What Can I Say (with Sons of Sylvia).
Carrie also did Before He Cheats, Jesus Take the Wheel and O Holy Night. Cowboy Casanova dance number. Duet with Dolly Parton. Her duet part with Brad Paisley.
Carrie and Dolly’s duet song was… “I Will Always Love You”! Oh, wow!
I got home a little while ago from night 2 taping. I’m kind of tired and but I’ll put some highlights in here and post more tomorrow if I left out anything important!
Carrie was amazing. I think between both nights I’ve heard 5 songs from the new album. What strikes me is that several of the songs fall into a rock-ballad category, not unlike the rock-ballad/countryish songs on David Cook’s album (i.e. Lie & Avalanche). In a way, I can see those songs on each other’s albums… like her rock-ballads and his sofer stuff meet in the same place. Being the diehard Cook fan I am, I’m thrilled and plan to buy her album. I am fast becoming a huge Carrie fan. That said, her album is still a country album, but it also seems like it might be a true crossover album.
I had another hair raising moment when Carrie sang “O Holy Night.” Chills. (the other hair raising moment was last night was when Cook sang “Lie”)
For the first number tonight, Carrie sang with Sons of Sylvia (formerly the Clark Bros). They performed a Christmas song last night, but tonight’s song was “What Can I Say” from Carrie’s new album. She said they collaborated with her on that song – I assume that means they sang with her on the album. Anyway, it knocked my socks off.
Carrie sang a holiday medley which was done in parts… they’ll assemble it together in post production. First was Jesus Take the Wheel, then a holiday song (and I just cannot remember which one), and then “O Holy Night.”
Dolly Parton was a true superstar. Seasoned, warm, engaging. Great chemistry with Carrie. Their duet was “Here You Come Again” and they killed it. Flawless. Dolly sang “I Will Always Love You” solo.
A couple of cute skits that some might find a little hoaky, but if edited right it could be some good holiday cheese. Only a third of the numbers were holiday related and decked out with Christmas/winter motifs. The rest were all straight numbers, not holiday related at all.
All in all, I think it will be a good special. It is mostly music and dancing. Oh… great number by former SYTYCD boys. Fremantle has really built a troupe… a true “company” in the theatrical sense. Their former SYTYCD winners and runners up are the in-house dancers and they use the show’s choreographers; Idol’s Ricky Minor & band are the in-house “orchestra,” and Nigel Lythgow, Adam Shankman & Ryan Seacrest are the resident directors/producers/hosts. This observation hit me tonight.
Scott, Thank you so much for the recaps!! Next best thing to being there.
Totally forgot to mention this. Yes. They shot this in the dressing rooms upstairs from the soundstage used for the special… and made it look like the Idol dressing rooms at TV City. It was a spoof of how Carrie “really” won AI. I won’t give too much away. Let’s just say they poked fun (bribery, threats, etc). Bo was in the segment along with Ryan, and they mixed in file footage from AI 4. I thought it was funny.
Thanks so much, Scott! It’s much appreciated.
Yup, Carrie sang this song with Sons of Sylvia on the album. “What Can I Say” is co-written by Carrie, David Hodges (Kelly Clarkson’s ex) and Steve McEwan.
Correction in my main post… I got the songs Dolly sang solo and the duet in reverse. The duet was I Will Always Love You, which is much more of wow-factor song for both of them. Man I was tired when I posted that. Why am I even up yet LOL!
The Brad Paisley part will work nicely. He recorded it Wednesday in front of an audience in Nashville. They put it on the giant screen on stage but made it look a satellite hook-up where she was talking to (& singing with), him live. Worked out well except for the first question where there was a 2 second delay in his answer, which they’ll fix when they edit & post the show. The rest of it timed out so well it could easily have fooled us into thinking it really was live. Audience at home will never know.
OK, done with my sudden burst of post ho’ing! Back to lurking.
I get my Dolly/Carrie duet!!!!! * Snoopy dance *
Thanks Scott! I am so so so happy that Carrie gets to duet with Dolly and spend a little time with her. Carrie has always idolized her but said she was too shy to go up and introduce herself when she sang for Dolly a few years ago at the Kennedy Center Honors. Now she gets to sing with her! What a year, Carrie sings with 2 country legends: Randy Travis and Dolly Parton. I’m so happy for her.
Any ideas what Carrie sang in her long distance duet with Brad? I can’t wait for that either because their voices complement each other’s so well and there can’t be enough Paisleywood duets for me. I’m excited to get a 4th one even though it’s not an in person duet.
So glad Carrie sang Temporary Home too.
There’s so many performances, now I’m nervous about what they’ll cut. I don’t think they’ll cut any of the duets or guest’s solos – the only guest solo that might be vulnerable is Sons Of Sylvia’s but it’s 1 of the few Christmas songs performed so probably not. I can see them cutting 1 of the Play On song performances since Carrie sang several ballads (Mama’s Song, Temporary Home, Change, and What Can I Say). I hope we get to see everything one way or another.
Nigel Lythgoe tweets:
http://twitter.com/dizzyfeet
Another Nigel tweet:
Vampire routine?! Haha!
Somone on LJ speculated about the show length and what might be cut. I’m not a member there but they counted out 16 songs at 5 min a piece which = 80 min. If it’s a 2 hour show something would have to be cut. However…. I counted 15 songs (that other poster thought there was a Paisley solo AND a Paisly-Carrie duet, but unless he recorded a solo song we didn’t see, there was only a duet). And I would alot 4 minutes per song, not 5. 15 songs x 4 minutes = 60 minutes. That means little will need to be cut if it’s a 2 hour special. One hour of music, about 20 minutes of intro, banter, skits and taped segments (they were all pretty short), and 30 to 40 minutes of commercials. If the skits & taped segments are longer than I estimate, I suppose one or two numbers could be cut. I agree that the guest spots won’t likely be cut, and that there are too few holiday numbers to loose one.