What
Do

American
Idol
Contestants
Do
When
They’re
Not
Performing
on
the
Show?

They
stay
quite
busy. 

Season
two
winner


Ruben
Studdard
remembered
how
packed
his
schedule
was
with
song
selection,
preparation,
vocal
coaching,
and
filming
for
show
packages
and
commercials.

“Thursday
we
got
the
songs,”
he
recalled
on
a

2023
interview
with

West
Byrd. “Friday
we
chose
the
songs.
Friday-Saturday
we
taped
commercials.
Sunday
we
made
final
selections.
Then
Sunday
night-Monday
night
we
went
to
the
studio
to
make
sure
everything
was
right
for
the
track.
And
then
Tuesday
morning
we
would
do
a
dry
run
of
the
show,
like
top
to
bottom.
So
when
you
see
the
package
when
people
are
like, ‘You
should
vote
for
X,
Y,
Z’
that’s
already
been
taped
Tuesday
morning.”

Then,
of
course,
there’s
the
actual
show. “Wednesday
is
the
elimination,
and
then
it
starts
all
over,”
Ruben
added. “And
it
gets
even
tougher
when
the
group
gets
smaller
because
the
work
is
the
same.”

Jena
Irene
Asciutto has
shared
a
similar
sentiment.

“As
the
weeks
went
on
and
people
were
eliminated,
the
people
left
were
responsible
for
filling
that
episode
of
time,”
the
season
13
runner-up
told


Business
Insider. “So
we
were
needed
for
more
things.
And
I
think
at
like
top
eight
was
when
we
started
doing
Ford
commercials
every
Sunday.”