Last Friday, July 15, the Season 10 "American Idol" cast headed back to Los Angeles, the city where all their through-to-Hollywood dreams came true, to play one of their biggest dates on the Idols Live Tour: at the Nokia Theater, where the finale took place not so long ago. There, before the big show, I had the chance to catch up with them to discuss their on-the-road adventures.

Part 1 of Reality Rocks' interview series features the first five contestants, from Scotty McCreery through Jacob Lusk. Highlights of our chats: Scotty and Lauren dished about the music videos they just shot; Lauren showed off her Bedazzler'd orthopedic boot and discussed her recent ankle injury; Scotty amusingly revealed that Lauren's mom is his temporary guardian on the tour (does that mean he and Lauren are brother and sister now???); James Durbin showed off hs brand-new tattoo, which he got inked the night before; and Jacob talked about getting pranked on the tour bus...and how he plans to retaliate!

Check

On July 15, the Idols Live Tour swung through Los Angeles's Nokia Theater, the very same venue where less than two months earlier Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina battled it out for the Season 10 "American Idol" title. How ironic it was, then, that the show was so easily stolen by several of the contestants who placed lower than Scotty and Lauren on "Idol" this year. That's not to take away from Scotty and Lauren's performances, of course. Scotty was a total pro, commanding the sold-out crowd's attention like a seasoned hat act, indicating that he has a big country career ahead of him. And Lauren was a real trooper, working the stage in a Bedazzler'd orthopedic boot (due to a third-degree ankle sprain she suffered last week), singing through her pain, and even giving most of the group-number choreography a good try. But so many of the other Idols--even Naima Adedapo and Paul McDonald, who frustratingly only sang one solo each, or the surprisingly underestimated (and surprisingly

This week on "So You Think You Can Dance," Ryan and Alexander went home, and really, this was the right call by America and the judges. It seemed like their time to go. But that didn't make their elimination any less bittersweet, especially since Ryan was so obviously distraught, onstage and off. In fact, backstage she was seen being consoled by sweet guest judge Jesse Tyler Ferguson, looking positively crushed.

After Ryan composed herself, she and Alexander talked to reporters on Thursday night. The pair tried to be optimistic, speaking of their gratitude for the "SYTYCD" opportunity and giving shoutouts to their respective partners, Ricky and Sasha, who made it into the top 10 and will continue on the show. But their sadness was still palpable. Sigh. I wish them both well.

Watch Ryan and Alexander's post-results show interview, to get their perspective on their "SYTYCD" journeys.

Follow me on Twitter

Follow Yahoo! Music:

Kara DioGuardi may have been polarizing on "American Idol"--she's still trying to live down the failed "No Boundaries" song she wrote for Kris Allen, and any number of factual gaffes she made during her critiques--but in the end, I liked her. She had real music industry experience. She didn't sugar-coat her remarks, or even saccharine-coat them. Once she was gone and the "Idol" panel got all cuddly and ineffective, I missed her. So when Kara landed her own post-"Idol" show on Bravo, "Platinum Hit," a sort of "Project Runway"-style reality competition for aspiring songwriters, I looked forward to it. But apparently I was the only one, as it now appears that Kara was even more polarizing than I'd assumed.

"Platinum Hit" is quite possibly the biggest flop in recent Bravo TV history. When it premiered on May 30, it did not even make the top 100 list of cable programs for the night, with only 823,000 viewers tuning in. Ratings kept steeply declining from there, and after five episodes aired