Trivia / The Glee Project

• Creator Backlash: Several former contenders have spoken out about their treatment on the show, especially those from season one when the show had quite the Troubled Production.
  • Ellis spoke out against her treatment on the show multiple times on her personal tumblr, notably production's attempts to pigeonhole her as a Genki Girl and pressuring her into kissing an extra during a video shoot. Though it's been long enough she can laugh about it now, for a long time she refused to even acknowledge people asking her about it.
  • Cameron Mitchell was especially put off by production scheming to have Lindsay kiss him during a video shoot since he was in a relationship at the time. When he expressed discomfort about the situation to production they proceeded to pull it again in a later episode, which was what eventually prompted him to walk away from the show (a decision editing ascribed to his religious beliefs).
  • Speaking of Lindsay Pearce, she has no kind words for the show either. During "Vulnerability" she shared a story about her sexual assault, but the producers and editors both paired it down into her feeling "fake" because of her pretty looks - and then criticized her for not opening up more. Then there were the kissing scenes with Cameron and Damian, both of which she was pressured to do so by the director Erik White, and the first one led to Cameron's above comments. She was then saddened that she received the villain edit during the show, and was disliked by so many fans because of it that even a decade later she is still receiving hate mail due to her time there.
  • Damian McGinty expressed disappointment at the show constantly playing up his Irish culture, specifically citing having to sing "Danny Boy" as a weak moment because he felt pigeonholed. While he's glad that he won, those feelings continued into the show proper where the same thing happened to him.
  • Abraham Lim in the second season was hurt by what he felt was pressure to be more androgynous during the show due to his own baggage regarding presentation and sexuality, and still feels they went too far in trying to make him "open up".
• Enforced Method Acting: Marissa's and Lindsay's surprise kisses for Samuel and Cameron, respectively.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: It's not available to stream anywhere officially, likely because of rights issues between Oxygen and Fox.
• Oh, Crap, There Are Fanfics of Us!:
  • Cameron has mentioned seeing the fanfics of him and his fellow contestants pop up during the show's heyday and says he's "enamoured that someone could write a whole fantasy realm of stories about [him]".
  • Harper also found fanfics pairing her with other guys, which she and the rest of the cast found hilarious because she had come out as gay to them by that point.
  • Tyler once tweeted about finding a fanfiction where they pulled a Heroic Sacrifice saving their fellow contestants from a house fire.
• Romance on the Set:
  • Charlie and Aylin in season 2, though partway through they choose to put it on hold and focus on the competition. They resumed their relationship after the show finished.
  • Dani and Ali, also from season 2, though their romance wasn't even hinted at during the show's run since Dani left in week two and Ali made it to the finale.
• Shipper on Deck: A tongue-in-cheek version, as the cast themselves also do this. Ironically, Cameron ships Damsay, while Lindsay is considered one of the biggest Dameron supporters out there.
• Troubled Production: As the cast and some crew have detailed in interviews years after the show, there were a lot of problems happening behind the scenes that didn't make it to air.
  • The show almost didn't happen at all, and when it was greenlit production was rushed and they didn't have a huge budget. Because of this, the contestants in the first season had to live on an unused Jewish day camp composed of several disconnected rooms (instead of a single building the way it was edited to appear) and were often exposed to the elements - they received warnings about ticks and coyotes from producers, had to use outhouse bathrooms with no roofs, and during the first few weeks nearly everyone was getting sick.
  • The second season contestants had a refurbished soundstage from The Real World. While they did have more living spaces and a kitchen area, it wasn't designed for extended use and lots of furniture was falling apart by the end.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The show was originally announced during the first season of Glee, and the show had a myspace page where contestants could submit auditions as early as 2010, but lack of funding from Fox made it seem like it was a no-go. Then Oxygen got a syndication deal for Glee the following year, with one of the stipulations being a reality show along with it, causing production for the first season to be rushed into effect.
  • One of the auditionees for the first season was Lizzo, but she didn't make the cut.
  • Eliminated contestants would sing a snippet of "Keep Holding On" by Avril Lavigne before leaving; however the original song pitched for this was "I'm Going Home" from The Rocky Horror Show.
  • Samuel had initially auditioned for of Sam Evans on Glee, so one wonders which of the other first season auditionees could have made it to the final twelve if he'd gotten that role to begin with.
  • Many fans speculate about who would have won if Cameron hadn't quit and Damian had gone home.
  • During Harper's first and only time performing for Ryan, she came out as gay to him and the judges in a bid to stay. However all footage of this was cut from the final episode - which Harper is grateful for as she was not ready to go public with her sexuality at the time.
  • Though production on all sides wanted to make a third season, ultimately there were financial issues that prevented it from going forward.
• You Might Remember Me from...: Everyone remembers Dani from America's Got Talent.

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