Um, remember when the mortifying performances of way-too-confident hopefuls was the most talked-about thing during the early episodes of American Idol? The latest round of American Idol auditions traded in laughs for potentially very serious drama when Katy Perry seemingly collapsed after reporting a gas leak.
A new promo for the next episode of American Idol, premiered on People, shows judges Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie, and Perry getting ready to watch their next round of performers. As they wait in the audition room, Perry sniffs the air and asks: “Do you guys smell gas? It’s pretty intense.”
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In the clip, Bryan also notes the smell: “We’re getting heavy propane,” he tells the American Idol producers.
Firetrucks are then seen at the auditions as producers evacuate those waiting for their audition. One person, seemingly just about to start her song, asks: “Am I still auditioning?”
The clip makes it appear as though Perry collapsed to the ground due to the leak:
“I’m not feeling good,” she says as she falls over on camera.
It’s a pretty shocking moment — though whether Perry fell due to something involving the gas leak, or a completely separate situation, is unclear.
This is Perry’s third season as judge of American Idol, which was revived on ABC following a 15-season run on Fox. She’s had many memorable — and occasionally controversial — moments on the series, from splitting her pants on camera to pulling a prank on contestants that resulted in one of them crying.
In 2018, Perry famously kissed American Idol hopeful Benjamin Glaze — who claimed he had not kissed anyone before and could not unless he was in a relationship — without his consent, leading to blowback on social media. Fans also accused Perry of shading Taylor Swift (whom she has since publicly made up with, even appearing in Swift’s video for “You Need To Calm Down”) when she replied to a contestant who said he “loved” Swift with, “I love her as a songwriter as well.”
With Perry as a judge on American Idol, the long-running reality competition is never boring — which is all the more reason to hope she recovered quickly from that fall.