The real reason behind the special 'American Idol' episode

After all the conspiracy theories brewed up to explain American Idol‘s phone number flub, the special elimination episode waved goodbye to Mikalah Gordon and ushered in the live Tuesday performance shows (up to this point, they were pre-taped on Mondays).

But more importantly, “producers also used the time to airbrush Ryan Seacrest‘s face and edit out accidentally shot footage of Paula‘s seizure-inducing clapping.” We almost swallowed our tongues with that one.