American Idol (2002– )
"American Idol: The Search for a Superstar" (original title)

Twelve finalists and/or future singers (six men and six women) who were selected from America, compete in a talent contest in which they were asked to sing any song they like on this "Star ... See full summary »

Creator:

Simon Fuller

Stars:

Ryan Seacrest, Randy Jackson, Simon Cowell

Won 8 Primetime Emmys. Another 36 wins & 105 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Ryan Seacrest	...	Himself - Host (400 episodes, 2002-2013)
Randy Jackson	...	Himself - Judge (397 episodes, 2002-2013)
Simon Cowell	...	Himself - Judge (314 episodes, 2002-2010)
Paula Abdul	...	Herself - Judge (272 episodes, 2002-2010)

Storyline

Twelve finalists and/or future singers (six men and six women) who were selected from America, compete in a talent contest in which they were asked to sing any song they like on this "Star Search" clone. After each song that was sung, the judges, Abdul, Jackson and Cowell, then critique that finalist's chosen song. After each show's ending, America must vote for a finalist to whom they really think their performance is good using this AT&T (now Cingular Wireless) or any other cellular phone to cast votes with. Once the votes are locked in, the judges and America decides who has the most and the least amount of votes, and the contestant with the least amount of votes is eliminated, and it goes on each week's show until the winner is crowned as "American Idol," where he/she wins a recording contract worth up to $1,000,000. The rest of the other finalists to whom they have been voted off before (the runner-up) also get recording contracts, too.

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Plot Keywords:

manufactured pop | based on british tv series | singing | audition | music reality | 

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Taglines:

Dare to Dream.

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Genres:

Game-Show | Music | Reality-TV

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Official Sites:

Fox Broadcasting Company [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 June 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

American Idol 10

Filming Locations:

Alex Theatre - 216 N. Brand Boulevard, Glendale, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fremantle Media North America, Fremantle Media, 19 Television

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Tamyra Gray co-wrote the winning single for Season 3.

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Quotes

[says it at times during the auditions]
Randy Jackson: Singing is not your thing.

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Crazy Credits

Production will have in place weekly monitoring procedures designed to prevent individuals from unfairly influencing the outcome of the voting by generating significant blocks of votes using technical enhancements. The producers reserve the right to remove any identified "power dialing" votes.

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Connections

Referenced in Over the Hedge (2006)

User Reviews

Yer basic love/hate relationship - more hate than love by 2013

I've watched every episode of this show from its inception, and, sadly but not surprisingly, I have seen it become more and more cheesy as the years go by.

For starters, Seacrest has to go. If you look up the word smarmy in the dictionary, you will see his picture. And the judges are all a joke at this point - they've become caricatures of themselves, it seems, and nothing they have to say means anything, nor do the viewers' votes actually count, since I believe the producers of the show will not have someone win whom they do not approve of (meaning someone they can't control). The contestants are still good, though, which is why I still watch: I'm a sucker for a talent show and I do love seeing someone do really well, as Jordin is doing this year. And let's face it, the show is an incredible spectacle - the modern equivalent of, say, the gladiators in the Colosseum.

Last night, they kicked off the "Idol Gives Back" thing, where, for every vote cast, ten cents would be donated by the shows' sponsors - Ford, Coca Cola, and A T & T - toward the world's hunger crisis. Seacrest stood there, in all his sanctimonious smarminess, preaching to us about how we were not just voting this week, we're "saving lives." I'm all for ending hunger in all countries of the world, beginning with our country, don't get me wrong, but this to me feels like a very underhanded and sleazy way to obtain more publicity for the show.

The corporations in question have enough money to fully end all world hunger if they wanted; they do not need our votes to contribute to that cause. And it would be a tax write-off for them, to boot. By telling people they are "saving lives" by voting, the producers of the show (and Seacrest, as their shamelessly pathetic talking head - he's like Max Headroom without the soul) are implying that the opposite is true, as well: if you don't vote, you are NOT saving lives.

About the show itself: the worst thing is how they never let the contestants sing a whole song, they have to condense their song into a minute and a half, and then they get criticized for not having enough feeling or enough conviction or enough personality, blah blah blah. A song has to be complete in order for it to legitimately 'live' - the emotion or feeling of it has to build and you cannot genuinely do that when you're forced to cut out most of it. They have time on the show for all sorts of crap, but they can't make time for the performers to actually SING. I commend anyone who can come on week after week and manage to give a credible performance under these conditions, something the judges don't seem to acknowledge or appreciate.

Where will it all end? I predict a few more seasons, and then hopefully the network will take the show off before it deteriorates into an even tackier circus than it's already become.

Added 3/6/13 ~ This season hopefully will be the last. Brutal.