American Idol
American singing competition / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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American Idol is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to April 7, 2016, for 15 seasons. It was on hiatus for two years until March 11, 2018, when a revival of the series began airing on ABC.
American Idol | |
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Also known as | American Idol: The Search for a Superstar |
Genre | Reality competition |
Created by | Simon Fuller |
Based on | Pop Idol |
Directed by |
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Presented by | |
Judges | |
Theme music composer |
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Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 22 |
No. of episodes | 686 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producers |
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Running time | 22–104 minutes |
Production companies | |
Original release | |
Network | Fox |
Release | June 11, 2002 (2002-06-11) – April 7, 2016 (2016-04-07) |
Network | ABC |
Release | March 11, 2018 (2018-03-11) – present |
It started as an addition to the Idols format that was based on Pop Idol from British television, in which the programme's first series, which was won by Will Young, ended over four months before the show began, as it later became one of the most successful shows in the history of American television. The concept of the series involves discovering recording stars from unsigned singing talents, with the winner determined by American viewers using phones, Internet platforms, and SMS text voting. The winners of the first twenty-one seasons, as chosen by viewers, are Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Hicks, Jordin Sparks, David Cook, Kris Allen, Lee DeWyze, Scotty McCreery, Phillip Phillips, Candice Glover, Caleb Johnson, Nick Fradiani, Trent Harmon, Maddie Poppe, Laine Hardy, Just Sam, Chayce Beckham, Noah Thompson, and Iam Tongi.
American Idol employs a select panel of judges who critique the contestants' performances. The original judges, for seasons one through eight, were record producer and music manager Randy Jackson, singer and choreographer Paula Abdul, and music executive and manager Simon Cowell. The judging panel for the last three seasons on Fox consisted of singers Keith Urban, Jennifer Lopez, and Harry Connick Jr.[1] Season sixteen brought three new judges: singers Lionel Richie, Katy Perry, and Luke Bryan. The show has been hosted by radio personality Ryan Seacrest throughout its run, apart from the show's inaugural season when comedian Brian Dunkleman joined Seacrest as co-host.
The success of American Idol has been described as "unparalleled in broadcasting history".[2] A rival TV executive said the series was "the most impactful show in the history of television".[3] It became a recognized springboard for launching the career of many artists as bona fide stars. According to Billboard magazine, in its first ten years, "Idol has spawned 345 Billboard chart-toppers and a platoon of pop idols, including Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry, Fantasia, Ruben Studdard, Jennifer Hudson, Clay Aiken, Adam Lambert, and Jordin Sparks while remaining a TV ratings juggernaut."[4] For an unprecedented eight consecutive years, from the 2003–04 television season through the 2010–11 season, either its performance show or result show was ranked number one in U.S. television ratings.[5]
American Idol was based on the British show Pop Idol created by Simon Fuller, which was in turn inspired by the New Zealand television singing competition Popstars. Television producer Nigel Lythgoe saw a version in Australia and helped bring it over to Britain.[6] Fuller was inspired by the idea from Popstars of employing a panel of judges to select singers in audition. He then added other elements, including telephone voting by the viewing public (which at the time was already in use in shows, such as the Eurovision Song Contest), the drama of backstories, and real-life soap opera unfolding in real time.[7] Pop Idol debuted in Britain in 2001 with Lythgoe as showrunner—the executive producer and production leader—and Simon Cowell as one of the judges, and was successful with the viewing public.[8]
In 2001, Fuller, Cowell, and TV producer Simon Jones attempted to sell the Pop Idol format to the United States, but the idea was initially met with poor responses from all the television networks including Fox.[9] However, Rupert Murdoch, head of Fox's parent company, was later persuaded to buy the series by his daughter, Elisabeth, who had seen the British show.[9] Although Fox's executives wanted to change the format, Murdoch insisted that it should remain the same as the British one. One change was nevertheless made due to the presence of multiple time zones in the United States that made it impractical for the country to vote in the same time period, an additional half-hour results show was therefore added the day following the performance show.[10] The show was renamed American Idol: The Search for a Superstar and debuted in the summer of 2002. Cowell was initially offered the job of showrunner, but turned down the offer; Lythgoe then took over that position. Much to the surprise of Cowell and Fox, it became one of the biggest shows of the summer.[11][12] With its successful launch in the summer, the show was then moved to January and expanded.[13] The show grew into a phenomenon largely due to its personal engagement with the contestants by prompting the viewers to vote, and the presence of the acid-tongued Cowell as a judge. By 2004, it had become the most-watched show on U.S. television, a position it then held for seven consecutive seasons until 2011.[14][15]
However, after a few years of sharp declining ratings starting in 2012, with rating falls of over 20% each season,[16] the fifteenth season would be its last on Fox, ending its run in April 2016.[17] In May 2017, ABC acquired the rights to the series and the program returned for the 2017–18 television season.[18][19] The first season of the revived series, or the 16th season overall, started airing in March 2018.[20] Six seasons have been aired on ABC as of May 2023.[21]
Judges
The show had originally planned on having four judges following the Pop Idol format; however, only three judges had been found by the time of the audition round in the first season, namely Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell.[9] A fourth judge, radio DJ Stryker, was originally chosen but he dropped out citing "image concerns."[22] In the second season, New York radio personality Angie Martinez had been hired as a fourth judge but withdrew only after a few days of auditions due to not being comfortable with giving out criticism.[23] The show decided to continue with the three judges format until the eighth season. All three original judges stayed on the judging panel for eight seasons.
In the eighth season, Latin Grammy Award-nominated singer-songwriter and record producer Kara DioGuardi was added as a fourth judge. Abdul left the show in 2009 after the eighth season as a result of failing to agree to terms with the show producers.[24] Emmy Award-winning talk show host Ellen DeGeneres replaced Abdul for the ninth season, but left in 2010 after just one season.[25] DioGuardi was let go from American Idol in 2010 after two seasons as producers favored a return to the three-person judge panel previously used prior to DioGuardi's appearance on the show.[26] Cowell also left the show in 2010 to introduce the American version of his show The X Factor for 2011.[27] Jackson was the only judge from the ninth season to return for the tenth.
Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler joined the judging panel in the tenth season,[28] but both left in 2012 after two seasons.[29] Jackson was the only judge from the eleventh season to return for the twelfth. They were replaced by three new judges, Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj, and Keith Urban, who joined Jackson in the twelfth season.[30] However, both Carey and Minaj left after one season,[31] and Jackson departed the show after twelve seasons as a judge but would return as a mentor for the thirteenth season in 2014, after which he left the show permanently.[32][33]
Urban was the only judge from the twelfth season to return as a judge for the thirteenth season. Lopez returned to American Idol for the thirteenth season and was joined by former mentor Harry Connick Jr.[1] After this, Lopez, Urban, and Connick Jr. remained on the show until its cancellation after the fifteenth season in 2016.[34][35]
Katy Perry,[36] Luke Bryan[37] and Lionel Richie[38] have served as the judges since the revival of American Idol began on ABC in 2018, marking the sixteenth season of Idol.[39] In February 2024, Perry announced the twenty-second season of Idol was likely to be her last season.[40]
Guest judges may occasionally be introduced. In the second season, guest judges such as Lionel Richie and Robin Gibb were used, and in the third season Donna Summer, Quentin Tarantino and some of the mentors also joined as judges to critique the performances in the final rounds. Guest judges were used in the audition rounds, Gene Simmons, LL Cool J, Brandy, Mark McGrath and Kenny Loggins in the fourth season, Carole Bayer Sager, Jewel, and Olivia Newton-John in the sixth season, Shania Twain, Neil Patrick Harris, Avril Lavigne, Mary J. Blige, Joe Jonas, Kristen Chenoweth, Victoria Beckham and Katy Perry in the ninth season and Adam Lambert in the fourteenth season. In the ABC version, two instances occurred during the live shows. Abdul filled in for Bryan in one episode of the nineteenth season, and Alanis Morissette and Ed Sheeran filled in for Perry and Richie in an episode of the twenty-first season.
Judges timeline |
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Hosts
The first season was co-hosted by Ryan Seacrest and Brian Dunkleman following the format of Pop Idol of using two presenters. Dunkleman quit thereafter,[41] resulting in Seacrest becoming the sole host starting with the second season in 2003.
Seacrest has remained as sole host of American Idol ever since, with the exception of the two-year hiatus between 2016 and 2018 as well as April 8, 2019, when Bobby Bones subbed for Seacrest after the latter fell ill.[42] Dunkleman did, however, return for the initial series finale on Fox in 2016 as a guest.[43]
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In a series of steps, the show selected the eventual winner out of many tens of thousands of contestants.
Contestant eligibility
The eligible age-range for contestants is fifteen to twenty-eight years old. The initial age limit was sixteen to twenty-four in the first three seasons, but the upper limit was raised to twenty-eight in the fourth season, and the lower limit was reduced to fifteen in the tenth season. The contestants have to be legal U.S. residents, can not have advanced to particular stages of the competition in previous seasons, and must not have held a current recording or talent representation contract by the semi-final stage[44] (in previous years by the audition stage).[45]
Initial auditions
For the first eighteen seasons, contestants went through at least three sets of cuts. The first was a brief audition with a few other contestants in front of selectors which may include one of the show's producers. Although auditions can exceed 10,000 in each city, only a few hundred of these made it past the preliminary round of auditions. Successful contestants then sing in front of producers, where more may be cut. Only then can they proceed to audition in front of the judges, which is the only audition stage shown on television.[46] Those selected by the judges are sent to Hollywood. Between 10 and 60 people in each city may make it to Hollywood (the average total is between 150 and 200)[citation needed].
From the nineteenth season onwards, contestants request a Zoom interview and audition remotely for the show's producers. If the audition goes well, they will then invite the contestants to audition in front of the judges, in one of the audition cities.[47]
Hollywood week
Once in Hollywood, the contestants perform individually or in groups in a series of rounds. Until the tenth season, there were usually three rounds of eliminations in Hollywood.[48] In the first round the contestants emerged in groups but performed individually. For the next round, the contestants put themselves in small groups and performed a song together.[49] In the final round, the contestants performed solo with a song of their choice a cappella or accompanied by a band—depending on the season. In the second and third seasons, contestants were also asked to write original lyrics or melody in an additional round after the first round. In the seventh season, the group round was eliminated and contestants may, after a first solo performance and on judges approval, skip a second solo round and move directly to the final Hollywood round.[50] In the twelfth season, the executive producers split up the females and males and chose the members to form the groups in the group round.
In the tenth and eleventh seasons, a further round was added in Las Vegas, where the contestants performed in groups based on a theme, followed by one final solo round to determine the semi-finalists.[51][52] At the end of this stage of the competition, 24 to 36 contestants were selected to move on to the semi-final stage. In the twelfth season the Las Vegas round became a Sudden Death round, where the judges had to choose five guys and five girls each night (four nights) to make the top twenty.[53] In the thirteenth season, the Las Vegas round was eliminated and a new round called "Hollywood or Home" was added, where if the judges were uncertain about some contestants, those contestants were required to perform soon after landing in Los Angeles, and those who failed to impress were sent back home before they reached Hollywood.[54] In the fourteenth season, the "Hollywood or Home" round was dropped, and a Showcase round was added, where the contestants performed at the House of Blues or auditorium for the judges and a live audience, and these performances determine who makes into the Top 24.[55] In the seventeenth and eighteenth seasons, the showcase round took place in Hawaii. In the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first seasons, a showstopper round was used.
Audience voting
From the semi-finals onward, the fate of the contestants is decided by public vote. During the contestant's performance as well as the recap at the end, a toll-free telephone number for each contestant was displayed on the screen. For a two-hour period after the episode ends (up to four hours for the finale) in each US time zone, viewers may call or send a text message to their preferred contestant's telephone number, and each call or text message was registered as a vote for that contestant. Viewers were allowed to vote as many times as they can within the two-hour voting window. However, the show reserves the right to discard votes by power dialers.[56] One or more of the least popular contestants may be eliminated in successive weeks until a winner emerges. Over 110 million votes were cast in the first season, and by the tenth season the seasonal total had increased to nearly 750 million. Voting via text messaging was made available in the second season when AT&T Wireless joined as a sponsor of the show, and 7.5 million text messages were sent to American Idol that season.[57] The number of text messages rapidly increased, reaching 178 million texts by the eighth season.[58] Online voting was offered for the first time in the tenth season. The votes are counted and verified by Telescope Inc.[59]
Semi-finals
In the first three seasons, the semi-finalists were split into different groups to perform individually in their respective night. In the first season, there were three groups of ten, with the top three contestants from each group making the finals. In the second and third seasons, there were four groups of eight, and the top two of each selected. These seasons also featured a wildcard round, where contestants who failed to qualify were given another chance. In the first season, only one wildcard contestant was chosen by the judges, giving a total of ten finalists. In the second and third seasons, each of the three judges championed one contestant with the public advancing a fourth into the finals, making 12 finalists in all.
From the fourth through seventh and ninth seasons, the twenty-four semi-finalists were divided by gender in order to ensure an equal gender division in the top twelve. The men and women sang separately on consecutive nights, and the bottom two in each groups were eliminated each week until only six of each remained to form the top twelve.
The wildcard round returned in the eighth season, wherein there were three groups of twelve, with three contestants moving forward – the highest male, the highest female, and the next highest-placed singer – for each night, and four wildcards were chosen by the judges to produce a final 13. Starting in tenth season, the girls and boys perform on separate nights. In the tenth and eleventh seasons, five of each gender were chosen, and three wildcards were chosen by the judges to form a final 13. In the twelfth season, the top twenty semifinalists were split into gender groups, with five of each gender advancing to form the final 10. In the thirteenth season, there were thirty semifinalists, but only twenty semifinalists (ten for each gender) were chosen by the judges to perform on the live shows, with five in each gender based on the vote and three wildcards chosen by the judges composing the final 13. In the fourteenth season, the top 24 performed at The Fillmore Detroit, starting with the 12 males on one night and then the 12 females on the next night. The following week, the same order went for the top 16, with four males eliminated, followed by four females based on the vote. Then, on the first night of finals, a similar sequence from the thirteenth season was used to determine the final 12, with five of each gender based on the vote and two wildcards chosen by the judges. In the fifteenth season, the top 24 performed at Cathedral of Saint Vibiana in Los Angeles and were split into two groups of twelve and performed twice, one being a solo performance and one being a duet with a former Idol contestant. In each group, the judges chose 7 contestants to advance to the top 14 where the judges chose 4 to advance to the top 10 and remaining 6 contestants were chosen based on the vote. In the sixteenth season, the top 24 performed at the Academy in the Heart of LA, and the show repeated the process from the previous season. However, instead of Idol alumnus as duet partners, superstar celebrity singers were used as the duet partners. In the seventeenth season, the same process was repeated again. However, instead of a top 24, it's a top 20, the contestants performed at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, and performed solos in one episode, and performed the duets in two episodes. In the eighteenth season, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the top 20 performed at their homes, and based on the vote, half of the top 20 would advance to the top 10, and the other half would be eliminated. However, a wild card was given to one of the bottom 10 to save them from elimination.[60][61] In the nineteenth season, the show used a combination of the process from the sixteenth and fourteenth seasons. In the twentieth season, the show repeated the process from the previous season, but they used a top 20 instead of a top 16, and there were no all star duets. In the twenty-first season, the same process was repeated, but they started with a top 26 instead of a top 24.
Finals
The finals are broadcast in primetime from Los Angeles, in front of a live studio audience (except the eighteenth season, due to the COVID-19 pandemic). From 2002 to 2019 and from 2021 to 2022, the venue was CBS Television City. Starting in 2023, it changed to Red Studios. The finals lasted eight weeks in the first season. From the second to ninth and fourteenth seasons, the finals lasted eleven weeks. The tenth and eleventh seasons lasted for twelve weeks, while the twelfth season lasted for ten weeks. In the thirteenth season, the finals lasted thirteen weeks. The finals lasted seven weeks in the fifteenth season, and six weeks in the sixteenth season. Each finalist performs songs based on a weekly theme which may be a musical genre such as Motown, disco, or big band, songs by artists such as Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley or The Beatles, or more general themes such as Billboard number-one hits or songs from the contestant's year of birth. Contestants usually worked with a celebrity mentor related to the theme. From the tenth to twelfth seasons, Jimmy Iovine was brought in as a mentor for the season. Initially the contestants sang one song each week, but this was increased to two songs from top four or five onwards, then three songs for the top two or three.
The most popular contestants are usually not revealed in the results show. Instead, typically the three contestants (two in later rounds) who received the lowest number of votes was called to the center of the stage. One of these three was usually sent to safety; however the two remaining were not necessarily the bottom two.[62] The contestant with the fewest votes was then revealed and eliminated from the competition. A montage of the eliminated contestant's time on the show was played and they gave their final performance (from the fourteenth season onward, the montage and the final performance were dropped). However, in the sixth season, during the series' first ever Idol Gives Back episode, no contestant was eliminated, but on the following week, two were sent home. Moreover, from the eighth season onwards, the judges may overturn viewers' decision with a "Judges' Save" if they unanimously agreed to. "The save" could only be used once, and only up through the Top 5. In the eighth to tenth and fourteenth seasons, a double elimination then took place in the week following the activation of the save, but in the eleventh and thirteenth seasons, a regular single elimination took place. The save was not activated in the twelfth season and consequently, a non-elimination took place in the week after its expiration with the votes then carrying over into the following week.
The "Fan Save" was introduced in the fourteenth season. During the finals, viewers were given a five-minute window to vote for the contestants in danger of elimination by using their Twitter account to decide which contestant will move on to the next show, starting with the Top 8.
Season finale
During the original run of American Idol on Fox, the finale week consisted of a one-hour long final performance night and a two-hour last episode of the season that culminates in revealing the winner, both of which are broadcast live in the U.S. Eastern and Central time zones. For the first, third through sixth and fourteenth through fifteenth seasons it was broadcast from the Dolby Theatre, which has an audience capacity of approximately 3,400. The second-season finale took place at the Gibson Amphitheatre, which had an audience capacity of over 6,000. In the seventh through thirteenth seasons, the venue was at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live, which holds an audience of over 7,000. Since the show's reboot on ABC, the venue remains the same throughout the entire show (excluding auditions), but was still two episodes in the sixteenth season, and then stretched to a single three-hour season finale that is annually aired live simultaneously in all U.S. territories, starting with the seventeenth season. The eighteenth-season finale was conducted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rewards for winner and finalists
The winner usually receives a record deal with a major label, which may be for up to six albums,[63][64] and secures a management contract with American Idol-affiliated 19 Management (which has the right of first refusal to sign all contestants), as well as various lucrative contracts. All winners prior to the ninth season reportedly earned at least $1 million in their first year as winner.[64] At first the contract came with a $250,000-plus advance, but dropped to about $62,500 over the Fox years.[65] All the runners-up of the first ten seasons, as well as some of other finalists, had also received record deals with major labels. However, starting in the eleventh season, the runner-up may only be guaranteed a single-only deal.[66] BMG/Sony (first through ninth seasons), UMG (tenth through fifteenth seasons), and Disney Music Group's Hollywood Records (sixteenth through eighteenth seasons) had the right of first refusal to sign contestants for three months after the season's finale. In the fourteenth and fifteenth seasons, the winner was signed with Big Machine Records. Prominent music mogul Clive Davis also produced some of the selected contestants' albums, such as Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Fantasia Barrino and Diana DeGarmo. All top 10 (11 in the tenth and twelfth seasons, 5 in the fourteenth season, and 7 in the sixteenth season) finalists earn the privilege of going on a tour, where the participants may each earn a six-figure sum.[67]
Season | Episodes | Originally aired | Winner | Runner-up | |||
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First aired | Last aired | Network | |||||
1 | 25 | June 11, 2002 (2002-06-11) | September 4, 2002 (2002-09-04) | Fox | Kelly Clarkson | Justin Guarini | |
2 | 40 | January 21, 2003 (2003-01-21) | May 21, 2003 (2003-05-21) | Ruben Studdard | Clay Aiken | ||
3 | 44 | January 19, 2004 (2004-01-19) | May 26, 2004 (2004-05-26) | Fantasia Barrino | Diana DeGarmo | ||
4 | 43 | January 18, 2005 (2005-01-18) | May 25, 2005 (2005-05-25) | Carrie Underwood | Bo Bice | ||
5 | 41 | January 17, 2006 (2006-01-17) | May 24, 2006 (2006-05-24) | Taylor Hicks | Katharine McPhee | ||
6 | 41 | January 16, 2007 (2007-01-16) | May 23, 2007 (2007-05-23) | Jordin Sparks | Blake Lewis | ||
7 | 42 | January 15, 2008 (2008-01-15) | May 21, 2008 (2008-05-21) | David Cook | David Archuleta | ||
8 | 40 | January 13, 2009 (2009-01-13) | May 20, 2009 (2009-05-20) | Kris Allen | Adam Lambert | ||
9 | 43 | January 12, 2010 (2010-01-12) | May 26, 2010 (2010-05-26) | Lee DeWyze | Crystal Bowersox | ||
10 | 39 | January 19, 2011 (2011-01-19) | May 25, 2011 (2011-05-25) | Scotty McCreery | Lauren Alaina | ||
11 | 40 | January 18, 2012 (2012-01-18) | May 23, 2012 (2012-05-23) | Phillip Phillips | Jessica Sanchez | ||
12 | 37 | January 16, 2013 (2013-01-16) | May 16, 2013 (2013-05-16) | Candice Glover | Kree Harrison | ||
13 | 39 | January 15, 2014 (2014-01-15) | May 21, 2014 (2014-05-21) | Caleb Johnson | Jena Irene | ||
14 | 30 | January 7, 2015 (2015-01-07) | May 13, 2015 (2015-05-13) | Nick Fradiani | Clark Beckham | ||
15 | 24 | January 6, 2016 (2016-01-06) | April 7, 2016 (2016-04-07) | Trent Harmon | La'Porsha Renae | ||
16 | 19 | March 11, 2018 (2018-03-11) | May 21, 2018 (2018-05-21) | ABC | Maddie Poppe | Caleb Lee Hutchinson | |
17 | 19 | March 3, 2019 (2019-03-03) | May 19, 2019 (2019-05-19) | Laine Hardy | Alejandro Aranda | ||
18 | 16 | February 16, 2020 (2020-02-16) | May 17, 2020 (2020-05-17) | Just Sam | Arthur Gunn | ||
19 | 19 | February 14, 2021 (2021-02-14) | May 23, 2021 (2021-05-23) | Chayce Beckham | Willie Spence | ||
20 | 20 | February 27, 2022 (2022-02-27) | May 22, 2022 (2022-05-22) | Noah Thompson | HunterGirl | ||
21 | 20 | February 19, 2023 (2023-02-19) | May 21, 2023 (2023-05-21) | Iam Tongi | Megan Danielle | ||
22 | TBA | February 18, 2024 (2024-02-18) | TBA | TBA | TBA |