American Idol

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About

American Idol is an American singing competition TV series created by English entrepreneur Simon Fuller as the U.S. edition of the British TV series Pop Idol that began airing on June 11th, 2002.

Premise

The main objective of the show is to scout and recruit new solo recording artists through a multi-step audition process, which begins with preliminary rounds of off-screen open auditions hosted at select cities, followed by a series of live, on-screen auditions before the panel of judges and the audience in attendance, before the public can choose the winner of each season through telephone voting from the semi-finals and onwards. In addition, the show also incorporates elements of comedy and drama by recapping memorable moments from the preliminary round of auditions and telling the backstories of the contestants and real-life drama that arise as each season progresses in real time.

History

Pop Idol

The concept for American Idol was based on the British TV show Pop Idol, which was in turn inspired by Popstars, the British spin-off of the New Zealand singing competition TV series Pop Stars, that premiered in October 2001. Created by British talent manager and TV producer Simon Fuller, the first season of Pop Idol proved to be considerably more popular than its competitor Popstars, mainly due to the on-screen chemistry of the judges and the success of its first winner, Will Young.

In 2001, Simon Fuller, Simon Cowell and Simon Jones tried to expand its show in the United States, although it was met with lukewarm response from the American television networks. However, the show was eventually picked up for a pilot season by FOX after its president Rupert Murdoch was persuaded by his daughter Elisabeth, who was a fan of the British show. Featuring radio personality Ryan Seacrest and comedian Brian Dunkleman as the co-hosts and Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell as the judges, the show premiered under the name American Idol: The Search for a Superstar on June 11th, 2002. In contrast to the poor reception from the network executives, the show quickly became one of the biggest hits of the summer and soon grew into a pop culture phenomenon; by 2004, it had become the most-watched show on U.S. television, a position it then held on for seven consecutive seasons until the ninth season in 2010, when the viewership and ratings began to steadily decline. On May 11th, 2015, FOX announced that the series would conclude its run with the fifteenth season in 2016, which premiered on January 6th and ended on April 7th.

Reception

Since its premiere in 2002, the show has been met with overwhelmingly high ratings and enjoyed mainstream popularity, with some entertainment critics describing its success as "unparalleled in broadcasting history" and even rival TV executives praising it as “the most impactful show in the history of television.” During its first ten years of run, “American Idol has spawned 345 Billboard chart-toppers and a platoon of pop idols, including Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry, Fantasia, Ruben Studdard, Jennifer Hudson, Clay Aiken, Adam Lambert and Jordin Sparks while remaining a TV ratings juggernaut, according to Billboard Magazine.

Fandom

Over the course of its run, the show became widely recognized as a springboard for aspiring singers to launch their career and rise to mainstream stardom. In addition, many other memorable moments stemmed from the highlight reel of auditions in preliminary rounds. Some of the most commercially successful finalists and winners to emerge from the series include Kelly Clarkson (season one), Carrie Underwood (season four), Chris Daughtry (season five), Clay Aiken (season two), Jennifer Hudson (season three), Fantasia Barrino (season three), Adam Lambert (season eight) and Ruben Studdard (season two).

Anti-Fandom

As the viewership and ratings began to decline during the latter half of the show's run, many started poking fun at the overall concept of American Idol through image macros, giving rise to a substantial anti-fanbase in the social media.

Online Presence

Having premiered years before the emergence of social and viral media cultures, the show gradually adopted to the entertainment industry trend by increasing online presence over the course of its run. At the time of the series finale, American Idol has an official Facebook page with over 12.4 million likes, Twitter account with 1.5 million followers, Instagram feed with more than 551,000 followers and YouTube channel with 713,000 subscribers.

William Hung

William Hung is an American Idol contestant who auditioned on the third season of the show. His atrocious singing, contrasting his gung-ho attitude, caused his performance to go viral, eventually landing him a record deal and various commercial appearances.

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Crying Girl

The Crying Girl is a nickname given to a young audience member who became famous for her overly emotional reaction to the sixth season finalist Sanjaya Malakar's cover performance of The Kinks' “You Really Got Me."

"Pants on the Ground"

"Pants on the Ground" is an original song written and performed by Larry Platt, a 62 year old contestant who auditioned for the ninth season of American Idol in June 2009. As the title implies, the song talks about how people seriously need to pull their pants up, because wearing pants below waistline doesn’t really make them look “cool.” Upon its airing on January 13th, 2010, Platt's performance of "Pants on the Ground" entertained millions of viewers at home, although he couldn't advance to the next round due to the program’s age restrictions.