Dish Of Salt: Friday TV Dish (One-on-One With ‘Idol’ Eliminee Aaron Kelly)

It’s clear that Aaron Kelly was destined to be on “American Idol.” He won the American Idol Experience attraction at Walt Disney World in Orlando, which earned him a front of the line pass to the auditions this season. However, it was his time at Idol Camp in 2007 where he really proved his talent — and I have the footage to prove it! How I came across this gem in today’s Dish of Salt.

Aaron’s ‘Idol’ Surprise
I remember when he first made it into the Top 24, hearing that Aaron Kelly had attended Idol Camp in 2007 — a performing arts summer program put on by the producers of “Idol” and the companies behind the show, 19 Entertainment and Fremantle. I had forgotten about it until yesterday when someone sent an email around about it. Later on in the day (while I was prepping questions for my interview with Aaron), I recalled that Access Hollywood had done a story about the camp for our show. We had sent our producer Terri’s daughter to take part in a day at the camp. I wanted to use some of the footage in our weekend show to present visuals of the place and mention Aaron went there. So, I had our library pull the tapes. Just for a split second, I thought “There is no way we could have footage of Aaron at this camp, right?” Something like 700 kids attended the camp that summer. Just for the heck of it, I popped the tapes in. I scrolled through a few kids performing on a stage in front of other campers. They were pretty dreadful singers. Then the camera was panning through the faces in the crowd ,when I heard a male voice that sounded extremely familiar. Finally, the camera panned back to the stage and there he was! A 14-year-old Aaron! In a baseball cap! Mouth full of braces! Singing to the crowd! What are the odds that out of 700 kids we would have shot Aaron? Well, we did. I’m guessing he was pretty popular at this camp because at one point the camera was shooting girls getting teary eyed as he sang. The song he was singing was obviously a country tune, which I did not recognize. That’s because, as it turns out, Aaron had written the song himself. I found this out when I surprised Aaron this morning. “This was a song I wrote for my little sister,” Aaron told me after I surprised him with the footage this morning. His sister was still living with his biological mother and he wrote about that situation and how it made him feel. He hopes to record that song one day on an album.

The good news is that Aaron, when he saw the footage this morning, had fun with it, joking about his braces, the fact that he had acne and calling himself “chubby.” Well, a lot can change in three years, kiddo! Thanks for being good sport!

Check out my surprise for Aaron HERE.

View the footage of Aaron at Idol Camp HERE.

So what’s the first thing Aaron wants do when he returns home to Pennsylvania? Go see “Iron Man 2.” Typical teenager!

In Case You Missed It

NBC’s “Community” took a swipe at FOX’s “Glee” last night in a hilarious episode that had the study group competing in a paintball competition. Things turned ugly when the paintball prize was revealed — priority enrollment for the next semester, which apparently was a hot commodity at Greendale Community College. As the game went on the survivors were dwindled down to the study group and the glee club. “They say the glee club is luring stragglers with cheery renditions of cheap songs,” Troy (Donald Glover) says to Jeff (Joel McHale). “I’m all for winning but let’s not resort to cheap ploys.” Jeff replies and then proceeds to take his shirt off revealing some rather mighty guns (and I don’t mean the paintball kind!) on Joel. The episode is worth it just for the “arm” candy if you ask me. Also, Jeff and Britta finally consummate their season long flirtation.

Watch the full episode HERE.

Tune In/Tune Out

IN — White hot legendary comedienne Betty White finally makes her debut as the guest host on “Saturday Night Live” at the ripe old age of 88 this weekend. Need I say more?

OUT – Oxygen’s true crime series “Snapped” tells the story of average moms, wives and girlfriends who in a fit of rage “snap” and allegedly commit murder. This weekend’s episode tells the tale of Rhonda Glover and her millionaire husband, Jimmy Joste, who was found dead. It’s an interesting show, but I’m giving it a Tune Out because it’s Mother’s Day on Sunday and who really wants to see a show about a murderous mamas on that day? Oxygen, 9PM ET/PT.

DVR It/Dump It

DVR– If you have missed any episodes of “America’s Next Top Model” now is your chance to catch up. On Saturday, May 8th Oxygen presents “America’s Next Top Model Obsessed,” a marathon of back-to-back episodes of the current season. Viewers can watch all ten episodes leading up to the Season 14 finale. Oxygen, 11 AM to 9 PM ET/PT.

DUMP — If like me you are not into watching shows where people make fools of themselves by doing extreme types of stunts for laughs, then dump MTV’s “The Dudesons in America,” which premiered last night. It’s basically “Jackass” with four friends from Finland doing ridiculous stuff.

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