“There’s a few things that we changed up. We sent over 200 people through to Hollywood, then we narrowed it down, of course, and then even further down to get to our Top 48. And those 48 guys and girls, we took them into the House of Blues in Los Angeles to put them in a live club setting where the band was set up, and they got up on stage to do a song each in front of the audience in that club, and we’d never done that before. For me, it was a very important part of the process, because in years past, we’ve seen them in these various audition environments, and then they go straight to the TV studio and they’re in front of a live audience. I really wanted to see what they’re like in front of a club setting. Can they perform? Do they know how to perform live? Do they know how to move and connect with an audience? So, that was a really telling environment to have them in, and I’m glad we got to do that. Then we narrowed it down from there, but that was a really helpful part to make sure we had a solid performance going into the live shows.”