American Idol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia if (wgNotice != '') document.writeln(wgNotice);American Idol From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia American Idol American Idol logo
Format
Interactive reality game show
Created by
Simon Fuller
Directed by
John Pritchett (live shows)
Bruce Gowers (live shows, 2002-2008)
Nigel Lythgoe (audition shows, 2002-2008)
Ken Warwick (audition shows)
Presented by
Ryan Seacrest (2002 - present)
Brian Dunkleman (2002)
Judges
Simon Cowell (2002 - present)
Paula Abdul (2002 - present)
Randy Jackson (2002 - present)
Kara DioGuardi (from 2009)
Country of origin
United States
No. of seasons
7
No. of episodes
272 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive
producer(s)
Nigel Lythgoe (2002-2008)
Ken Warwick
Cecile Frot-Coutaz
Location(s)
Various locations (Auditions)
Orpheum Theatre, Ontario, CA (Hollywood)
CBS Television City (Semi-finals and finals)
Nokia Theatre (Finale)
Running time
Varies
Production
company(s)
FremantleMedia North America
19 Television
Distributor
FremantleMedia Enterprises
Broadcast
Original channel
FOX
Picture format
480i (NTSC),
720p (HDTV) (since 2006)
Original run
June 11, 2002 Present
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary
American Idol, with the full title American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season only, is an American reality TV 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 is a spinoff 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 and music manager Randy Jackson; pop singer and choreographer Paula Abdul; music executive and music manager Simon Cowell and singer/songwriter and record producer Kara DioGuardi.[1] 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). Contents
1 Initial auditions
2 Rules 2.1 Hollywood
2.2 Semifinals
2.3 Finals
3 Season synopses 3.1 Season 1
3.2 Season 2
3.3 Season 3
3.4 Season 4
3.5 Season 5
3.6 Season 6
3.7 Season 7
3.8 Season 8
4 Media sponsorship
5 Controversy
6 Television ratings 6.1 U.S.
7 International
8 Top-selling American Idol alumni
9 Major awardwinning American Idol alumni
10 American Idol Hot 100 singles
11 American Idol video games
12 Spin-offs
13 Theme park attraction
14 See also
15 References
16 External links //
Initial auditions
Before contestants get the chance to see the show's judges, they go through two rigorous sets of cuts: the first consists of a brief audition in front of one or two of the show's producers with three other contestants. Contestants are then either sent through to the next round of producers or are asked to leave. Only about 100200 contestants in each city make it past this round, which is a staggering statistic considering that tens of thousands of people show up to audition in each city. Rules
Singers are not permitted to have any current record deals or talent management agreements (though they may have had one at some point in the past). They must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents eligible to work full-time and, for the first three seasons, had to be 16 to 24 years of age on October 19 of the year of

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