American Idol, with the full title
American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season only, is an
American reality-competition show airing on
Fox. It debuted on June 11, 2002, and it has since become one of the most popular shows on American television. Part of the
Idol franchise, it originated from the
reality program Pop Idol created by
British entertainment executive
Simon Fuller, which was first aired in 2001 in the United Kingdom.
The program seeks to discover the best singer in the country through a series of nationwide auditions. The outcomes of the later stages of this competition are determined by public voting by phone. The format features four judges who give critiques of the contestants' performances:
record producer Randy Jackson;
pop singer and
choreographer Paula Abdul; and
music executive Simon Cowell. Beginning with season 8,
songwriter Kara DioGuardi will be the show's fourth judge;
all previous seasons had only three judges. The show is hosted by former children's game show emcee and television personality
Ryan Seacrest; comedian
Brian Dunkleman co-hosted with Seacrest during the first season. The American Idol band is led by
Rickey Minor.
The show usually airs on Tuesday and Wednesday nights in the US and Thursday and Friday nights in the UK (two days after the US airing). In its seven seasons, its winners have been
Kelly Clarkson,
Ruben Studdard,
Fantasia Barrino,
Carrie Underwood,
Taylor Hicks,
Jordin Sparks and
David Cook. The runners-up have been
Justin Guarini,
Clay Aiken,
Diana DeGarmo,
Bo Bice,
Katharine McPhee,
Blake Lewis, and
David Archuleta.
