American Idol is an annual American televised singing competition, which began its first season on June 11, 2002. Part of the Idol franchise, it originated from the British reality program Pop Idol created by British entertainment executive Simon Fuller.
The program seeks to discover the best young 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 three judges who critique the contestants' performances in order to facilitate the voting: record producer and bass player Randy Jackson; former pop star Paula Abdul; and music executive Simon Cowell. The show is hosted by former children's game show emcee and television personality Ryan Seacrest; comedian Brian Dunkleman cohosted with Seacrest in season one. 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. In its six seasons, its six winners have been, in order of their season, Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Hicks, and Jordin Sparks. The first five American Idols are from the Southern United States of America and the sixth, Jordin Sparks, is from the Southwest. Hicks was the oldest winner at 29, Sparks the youngest at just 17.
American Idol is televised on Fox in the United States, ITV2 in the UK, FOX8 in Australia, CTV in Canada and on Q11 for the 7th season, in the Philippines. The Idol series was first created by Simon Fuller and developed by Simon Jones of FremantleMedia. The director is Bruce Gowers and executive producers are Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick. With the exception of the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards, American Idol is the highest rated program on U.S. national television.
Contestants 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). Contestants 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 audition. Since the fourth season, the upper age limit was raised to 28 with an earlier cutoff date, August 4, to attract more mature and diverse contestants.
Auditioning contestants must bring with them to the audition a valid proof of age and work eligibility, such as a birth certificate and driver's license or a passport, and minors under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. All auditioning contestants are required to print out a copy of the release form to fill out and turn in at the audition in order to grant permission to be seen and heard by the producers' cameras. Contestants who were found out to have given false information are disqualified. It should be noted that after auditioning - regardless of the outcome - contestants are under contract with the show until three months after the final episode.
Others who are ineligible include: those who made the top 40 or farther of past seasons; people employed with affiliates of Fox, Fremantle, 19, those holding recording or management contracts and those who are not US citizens or permanent residents. Even if a person is eligible, he or she may not have a chance to audition or be seen because the show can see only a limited number of people in each city.
In an interview with Anderson Cooper on the CBS TV current affairs show 60 Minutes on March 17, 2007, judge Simon Cowell openly declared that the underlying primary purpose of the Idol franchise was for 19 Entertainment to discover new singing talent that can be signed to recording agreements that the corporation maintains with a major record company,and benefit from the record sales of contestants and winners who are exposed to the worldwide marketplace through the TV shows. Cowell indicated that revenue from recordings by performers associated with the Idol franchise has already exceeded US $100 million. 19 Entertainment also retains exclusive right of refusal for management and merchandising of any contestant. Exercising management rights is at the sole discretion of 19 Entertainment; in the alternative the contestant performer is free to pursue his or her own career.
Early auditions
In the show, hopeful contestants are screened by preliminary panels to be selected for singing talent or humorous potential and human interest. The long process begins with tens of thousands of candidates strategically interviewed and eliminated before being individually auditioned by show producers Ken Warwick and Nigel Lythgoe. Often slide shows of candidates whose performances are judged to be poor are shown from this interview.
Contestants then audition before the three main judges - Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson - in selected cities across the nation. Sometimes a celebrity fourth judge may be added. These are generally held at large convention centers where thousands of people wait in line for auditions. Contestants are required to sing a short portion of a song. In many cases the individuals singing songs for these auditions have not obtained valid performance permission from the songwriters of the songs that they are singing. To date, there have been no lawsuits resulting from this obvious violation of copyright infringment, primarily because many songwriters see the auditions as potential free advertising.
