The next week, Lil Rounds and Anoop Desai were eliminated. [20] The show decided to continue with the three judges format until the eighth season. Contestants went through at least three sets of cuts. One of the more prominent contestants this year was Chris Medina, whose story of caring for his brain-damaged fiancée received widespread coverage. The Top-three results also features homecoming events for the Top 3 finalists. In the tenth season, Jimmy Iovine was brought in as a mentor for the season. Eighth season runner-up Adam Lambert filled in for Urban during the New York City auditions. The finale was the two-hour last episode of the season, culminating in revealing the winner. The tenth and eleventh seasons lasted for twelve weeks, while the twelfth season lasted for ten weeks. [43] The number of text messages rapidly increased, reaching 178 million texts by the eighth season. "[234] Others focused on the personalities in the show; Ramin Setoodeh of Newsweek accused judge Simon Cowell's cruel critiques in the show of helping to establish in the wider world a culture of meanness, that "Simon Cowell has dragged the rest of us in the mud with him. Judges and host of the most recent season of, Learn how and when to remove this template message, 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, Outstanding Directing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Series, American Idol alumni in film, television and theater, Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol, Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol Encore, Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol Encore 2, List of awards and nominations for American Idol contestants, 'American Idol' officially adds J.Lo and Harry Connick Jr. as judges, "For Fox's Rivals, 'American Idol' Remains a 'Schoolyard Bully, "Ten Years of 'American Idol' Chart Dominance: Clarkson, Underwood, Daughtry, Fantasia, More", "Full 2010–11 Ratings: CBS Tops Viewership, Fox Is No.

In this live production, co-produced by 19 Entertainment, park guests chose from a list of songs and auditioned privately for Disney cast members.

Following the success of the first season, the second season was moved up to air in January 2003. Videos are regularly shown of contestants learning their songs by rehearsing with iPods. These were cut to 30 for the semifinal, with ten going on to the finals. "[19] 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. [51] All the runners-up of the first ten seasons, as well as some of other finalists, had also received record deals with major labels. Casey Abrams, who suffers from ulcerative colitis, was hospitalized twice and missed the Top 13 result show. [72] As of 2015, Underwood has become the most successful Idol contestant in the U.S.,[57] selling 16 million albums in the country,[73] while selling a total of 65 million records worldwide. Chris Daughtry's performance of Fuel's "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)" on the show was widely praised and led to an invitation to join the band as Fuel's new lead singer, an invitation he declined. [265][266] The number of imitative singing shows on American television had reached 17 by its final year in 2016. American Idol became the most expensive series on broadcast networks for advertisers starting the fourth season,[287] and by the next season, it had broken the record in advertising rate for a regularly scheduled prime-time network series, selling over $700,000 for a 30-seconds slot,[288] and reaching up to $1.3 million for the finale. "Do I Make You Proud" was released as Hicks' first single and McPhee's was "My Destiny". The number of episodes increased, as did the show's budget and the charge for commercial spots. There were 13 finalists this season, but two were eliminated in the first result show of the finals. Them and a handful of phone-redialer geeks who have been clocking up to 10,000 calls each week for their contestant of choice (but who, according to Fox, are in absolutely no way skewing the outcome). [286] American Idol also partnered with Disney in its theme park attraction The American Idol Experience. "The save" could only be used once, and only up through the top five. [244], American Idol was nominated for the Emmy's Outstanding Reality Competition Program for nine years but never won. The finals lasted eight weeks in the first season. [236], Some in the entertainment industry were critical of the star-making aspect of the show. 1 in Demo and Idol Remains Most-Watched", "How a Hit Almost Failed Its Own Audition", "The Masked Scheduler on 'American Idol,' part 1: The origin story", Watching TV: six decades of American television, "The Masked Scheduler on 'American Idol,' part 2: Managing a megahit", "5 reasons 'American Idol' may go on nearly forever—or not", "The Masked Scheduler on 'American Idol,' part 4: The decline and end of the FOX run", "ABC officially revives American Idol, chides Fox for canceling", "Stryker Strikes Out: The Man Who Was Supposed To Be The Fourth 'Idol' Judge", "Kara DioGuardi not returning to 'American Idol': It's (finally) official", "Ellen DeGeneres is out as 'American Idol' judge", "Steven Tyler's 'Idol' Departure Influenced Jennifer Lopez's Own Exit", "Randy Jackson: I'm Leaving American Idol", Jimmy Iovine Out Of ‘American Idol’, Randy Jackson Poised To Replace Him As Mentor, "All the 'American Idol' judges will return for season 14", "Luke Bryan to Become New 'American Idol' Judge", "Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan to join American Idol as judges", "Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, Luke Bryan Returning to Season 18 of 'Idol, "Ryan Seacrest returns to American Idol for ABC reboot", "AT&T Wireless and American Idol Set Global Records in Text Messaging; AT&T Wireless", "AT&T Announces the Eighth Season of 'American Idol' Smashes All-Time Record for Fan Engagement through Text Messaging", "Harvesting cash from American Idol TV votes", "How Is 'American Idol' Going to Go Live During the Pandemic? [245] Director Bruce Gower won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Series in 2009, and the show won a Creative Arts Emmys each in 2007 and 2008, three in 2009, and two in 2011, as well as a Governor's Award in 2007 for its Idol Gives Back edition. [250], The show itself was popular in the Southern United States, with households in the Southeastern United States 10% more likely to watch American Idol during the eighth season in 2009, and those in the East Central region, such as Kentucky, were 16 percent more likely to tune into the series. [141] Just Sam was crowned the winner, with Arthur Gunn finishing as the runner-up. For the first time in eight years, American Idol lost the leading position in both the total viewers number and the 18/49 demo, coming in second to NBC Sunday Night Football, although the strengths of Idol in its second year in the Wednesday-Thursday primetime slots helped Fox achieve the longest period of 18–49 demographic victory in the Nielsen ratings, standing at 8 straight years from 2004 to 2012. All five of these albums reached the top ten in Billboard 200 which made then American Idol the most successful soundtrack franchise of any motion picture or television program. From 2008 to 2010, Sony Music handled the distribution following their acquisition of BMG. 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. [27] However both Carey and Minaj left after one season,[28] and Randy Jackson departed the show after twelve seasons as a judge but would return as a mentor. The two finalists were Kris Allen and Adam Lambert, both of whom had previously landed in the bottom three at the top five. At the end of this stage of the competition, 24 to 36 contestants were selected to move on to the semi-final stage. [271][272], Various American Idol alumni had success on various record charts around the world; in the U.S. they had achieved 345 number ones on the Billboard charts in its first 10 years,[4] and 458 by its last year of broadcast in 2016, with 100 achieved by Kelly Clarkson alone. [102] Medina was cut in the Top 40 round. [106] He was reported to have eight surgeries during his Idol run, and had considered quitting the show due to the pain.