American Idol is probably the most watched TV Show in the USA or perhaps, the world. It’s a reality show created by Simon Fuller to find a new musical talent. It hit the airwaves by the 11th of June 2002 on the Fox Network and on that day, the most popular TV show in American Television marks its history. Currently ranked as the #1 TV show according to Nielsen Ratings and is actually one of the three TV shows that have been #1 for five consecutive seasons. Also part of this American Idol franchise is a spin off from the British show called ‘Pop Idol’, in which 2 of its series were broadcasted within 2001 and 2003 in the UK and Ireland.
The purpose of the show is to discover the best singer across the country through a vast nationwide audition and viewer’s choice done via telephone voting. So far American television did change and viewers taking their own part in the show by chosing past winners as Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Hicks, Jordin Sparks, David Cook, and Kris Allen (listed in chronological order). The eligible age for contestants to join this show must be around 16-55 years old only. Some auditions brought us several old, I mean, really old contestants but they did that singing to dedicate to someone else and not to join the show.
The show employs a panel of judges to criticize each of the contestant’s performances. This includes the Grammy award winning record producer/music manager Randy Jackson and also an award winning music executive and music manager Simon Cowell were both judges since Season 1 up to this present day. Also on the list is, the Grammy award-winning pop singer and Emmy award-winning choreographer Paula Abdul. Abdul was a judge for the show’s first eight seasons and is known for giving comfort to the contestants after getting bashed by neither Randy nor Simon. On Season 8, the show added a twist by adding the Grammy award-nominated singer-songwriter and record producer Kara DioGuardi. After Abdul’s exit, on September 9, 2009, Ellen DeGeneres was confirmed to be her replacement for the ninth season.
The host of the show is Ryan Seacrest. Although he’s been joined by comedian Brian Dunkleman on the first season, it was Seacrest doing it all alone since Season 2 to Season 8. Also listed is Rickey Minor to lead the American Idol band.
American Idol is hitting the airwaves on Tuesday and Wednesday nights in the United States and Canada, Wednesday and Thursday nights in Australia and Asia, Thursday and Friday nights on ITV2 in the United Kingdom Friday and Saturday nights in Israel, and Saturday and Sunday nights in Latin America.