Melanie Denos learned a lesson in how TV works - and how being pretty isn't always enough - outside EnergySolutions Arena on Tuesday morning.

Denos (at left), a 17-year-old from Bluffdale, Utah, was among the 4,000-plus people who auditioned for "American Idol" - and she seemed to have guaranteed herself at least a second or two of TV time before the auditions even started.

When Fox producers were setting up a crowd scene, during which hundreds of screaming auditioners cheer for the camera, Denos was in a prime position: Standing on the corner of the bottom stair outside the arena, the tip of the wedge of humanity being captured by the jib-mounted camera swooping overhead (pictured at right).

After a few preliminary passes, TV esthetics came crashing down. A production assistant moved Denos from the front spot, and two other young women were moved in front of her. Now the corner position (as the picture at top shows) was held by a taller, leggier blonde - 16-year-old Lauren Sater of Sacramento, Calif. - wearing a short skirt and high heels. When the Salt Lake City auditions air on "Idol" next winter, it will be Sater, not Denos, who will be the first smiling auditioner America sees.

That's showbiz.

(Crowd photos by Al Hartmann/The Salt Lake Tribune; Denos photo taken by me.)

Labels: American Idol, Reality show