7 things you didn't see on TV during the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

In early November some heavenly Angels clad in jewel-encrusted lingerie gathered in front of some mere mortals to walk in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

The show, which was filmed at Pier 94 in New York City, also attracted a high caliber of musical acts, including Halsey, Bebe Rexha, Rita Ora, The Chainsmokers, Kelsea Ballerini (who, by the way, could practically have been one of the walking models) and show-enders, The Struts. While the likes of Gigi Hadid, Adriana Lima, and Behati Prinsloo strutted their stuff on the catwalk, photographers frantically snapped pics, celebrities and glamorous socialites in the crowd cheered for their significant others and pals, and pop stars strategically maneuvered around the stage to prevent colliding with models…

But you saw all that on TV. Here are a few things EW witnessed when we attended the filming of the show back in November that didn’t make it to the small screen on Sunday night.

1. As the crowd took to their seats, champagne flutes in hand, Laverne Cox found hers and proceeded to seat-dance and sing along to Britney Spears’ “You Drive Me Crazy” before the show began. She also snapped a quick selfie, while Trevor Noah and The Weeknd chatted beside her, but when Leela James opened the show with a goosebumps-inducing, spot-lit rendition of The Greatest Showman‘s “This Is Me,” everyone promptly shut up.

3. And when they started walking, some models got a better response from the crowd than others. The Weeknd got to his feet every time girlfriend Bella Hadid walked, while Behati Prinsloo and Adam Levine blew each other kisses, but the greatest response was saved for Adriana Lima who made her final walk at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show this year. You could even hear the other models cheering backstage. When it came to performers, applause for Shawn Mendes was the loudest by far.

4. When the models make it to the end of runway, to have a million photos taken by the waiting photographers and blow a kiss directly into the camera, they know exactly where to stop and pose thanks to a little heart light projected on the ground. Also, the ceiling is mirrored — hey, if I looked like a VS Angel, I’d want mirrors constantly on hand to check myself out at any and all given times too.

5. A bunch of set design changes go down during the commercial break. Okay, so that’s probably fairly obvious, but a couple of technicians did have to wrestle with huge buckets of water that were strategically placed under the fake rain showers to catch all the droplets. One of the shower contraptions took a minute to turn fully off after the number was over, but in the end, the technicians won out.

6. Ahead of her performance, Bebe Rexha stood on her designated spot in the middle of the catwalk and danced along to Gwen Stefani’s “I’m Just a Girl” before the cameras started rolling again.

7. Yes, the girls really are as beautiful as they appear on television. As much as you want to think they’re airbrushed to perfection, I was pretty close and saw nary a blemish on any of their bodies. Sigh.