American Idol has seen some major stars kickstart their careers on the singing competition series.
Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, and Chris Daughtry are just three names that went from American Idol to platinum musical careers.
Kelly has her own syndicated talk show now, on top of hosting gigs on singing competition shows like American Song Contest and coaching on The Voice.
On a recent episode of her talk show, Kelly learned that High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens almost followed her lead on American Idol.
Vanessa Hudgens almost auditioned for American Idol
Vanessa Hudgens was on The Kelly Clarkson Show and admitted that she almost auditioned for American Idol before her breakout role on High School Musical.
Knowing how great of a singer she is, she almost surely would have ended up with a golden ticket.
Vanessa said before she was even cast in High School Musical, she was considering auditioning for American Idol. She said it was all because of Kelly Clarkson’s success.
Kelly won American Idol in its first season in 2002.
“You were on American Idol, and you won. And I was like, ‘That’s it, I’m going on American Idol,'” Vanessa said. “And then that next week, I got an audition for High School Musical and booked it, so then I was like, well, never mind.”
Kelly joked that it all worked out in that case.
Vanessa mentioned that wanting to audition for American Idol ended up changing to her auditioning multiple times for High School Musical before she finally got the role.
That is when Kelly revealed a little-known secret from American Idol. There is not just one audition where a person comes in and tries to win a golden ticket.
There are several auditions on American Idol for contestants before they even reach the televised audition that people see, meaning Vanessa went through a similar experience with High School Musical as she could have with American Idol.
Vanessa Hudgens never needed American Idol
Vanessa Hudges has done well for herself thanks to High School Musical and she never needed a competition like American Idol to prove she belonged.
She has matched co-star Zac Efron with a great career in movies since her starring role.
She has stretched her acting chops with the R-rated drama Spring Breakers and turned in more wholesome roles in Netflix’s The Princess Switch trilogy.
Most recently she co-starred with Oscar-nominee Andrew Garfield in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s directorial debut Tick, Tick… Boom! She starred in the movie as Karessa Johnson, the close friend of Garfield’s Jonathan Larson.
American Idol airs on Sunday and Monday nights at 8/7c on ABC.