American Idol has taken the American public by storm, being the consistently top rated program week after week, year after year since it started 6 years ago. Broadcast on the FOX network, it is another of the popular "reality-TV" type shows, where real contestants, everyday people with dreams of being a singer, compete for a recording contract. Each season begins with try-outs, with judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, and Paula Abdul visiting several big cities to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly who dream of being on the show and having their shot at stardom. The early episodes each season usually highlight the worst performers - it is truly shocking that some of these are so deaf that they can't hear that they are horrible singers. Others take it as a lark and try to get on TV by being outrageous or goofy. And of course, they winnow their way through these and try to pull out those few who really CAN sing. Those that are good enough get sent on to Hollywood, where another week or two of winnowing narrows the field down to 24 - 12 women and 12 men, who are the semi-finalists for that season. They perform each week, are judged by the judges, and then America votes via telephone for their favorite performers - whoever has the lowest number of votes goes home each week, until there is only 1 final winner crowned as American Idol.
This formula has been such a universal success, that there are literally dozens of "American" Idol shows being shown all around the globe, simply localized for certain countries - Israel, Japan, you name it. And with the built in 10s of millions of fans watching and voting each week, there is tremendous momentum built up when it comes time for the winner to release an album - everyone knows their name, has seen and heard them dozens of times, and like them -- no other new artists can get that kind of exposure and potential coming out of the gates, so it is almost a guaranteed hit-making machine.
American Idol Winners
Over the last 5 seasons, American Idol has produced some hits and some duds. Here are the winners so far:
American Idol Season 1 Winner: Kelly Clarkson
American Idol Season 2 Winner: Ruben Studdard
American Idol Season 3 Winner: Fantasia Barrino
American Idol Season 4 Winner: Carrie Underwood
American Idol Season 5 Winner: Taylor Hicks
American Idol Season 6 Winner: ???????
The winner gets a recording contract and releases an album in the year after their victory. Here are the American Idol records that have come out thus far. Kelly Clarkson released her first album, Thankful, in April of 2003. Her swansong from the show, A Moment in Time, became her first big hit, followed by Miss Independent. Her second album really pushed her to the forefront of pop music, winning her a Grammy along the way. Entitled Breakaway, the second album was released in November of 2004, featuring the hits Breakaway, Since U Been Gone, Behind These Hazel Eyes, Because of You, and Walk Away. Ruben released the album Soulful in 2003, I Need an Angel in 2004, and The Return in 2006. Fantasia released Free Yourself and the self-titled Fantasia in 2006. Carrie Underwood, the winner from 2005, really struck gold with her release Some Hearts, in 2005. Her clean cut image has made her a star in both the country and pop worlds, with singles like Jesus Take the Wheel, Before He Cheats, and Wasted. While Carrie and Kelly have been the biggest sellers, many other runner-ups from the competitions have also recorded albums, and with their TV celebrity have managed to sell many millions of albums combined.
American Idol Season 6 Semi Finalists
The 24 semi finalists in American Idol this year are:
MEN:
Chris Sligh
Sanjaya Malakar
Brandon Rogers
Nicholas Pedro
Chris Richardson
Jared Cotter
Sundance Head.
Philip Stacy
Blake Lewis
Rudy Cardenas
Paul Kim
A.J. Tabaldo
WOMEN:
Melinda Doolittle
Jordin Sparks]
Amy Krebs
Antonella Barba
Stephanie Edwards
Leslie Hunt
Alaina Alexander
Sabrina Sloan
Lakisha Jones
Nicole Tranquillo
Gina Glocksen
Haley Scarnato
You can find American Idol wallpaper photos, video clips, and pictures of the various contestants at the main American Idol website, AmericanIdol.com. They also have weekly American Idol results news, telling about what happened in that weeks show, who performed what, and who got sent home. Our biggest complaint is about the low quality photos Fox offers year after year. In this day and age with megapixels worth of photo details, home viewers are accustomed to seeing large, crisp images, not little, grainy 400 pixel pictures. What gives, Fox? Come on, give us some good pictures that only you have access to. They offer limited video clips of American Idol performances, interviews, and behind the scenes. Their pictures tend to be outdated though. If you go to the MyIdol section and select wallpapers, you find some decent, large color photos of all of last years stars - McPhee, Hicks, and all the 24 semi finalists.. Hello??? Where are this years contestants? You'd think that with the money they make from Coke and Cingular and Carrie Underwoods album sales, they could afford to have ONE staff person who processed digital photos each week and posted them online -- guess that is just too much too ask, but we all want free American Idol wallpaper to download to our desktops!
American Idol Blogs and Fan Sites
Sometimes you have to get away from the official Fox website and go to fan sites to get the latest results information, photo links, and stories. IdolMe.com is a forum site where fans can exchange gossip and opinions, and find out early results for those on the West Coast (the live show appears on the east coast "live", and is then re-broadcast to the West Coast 3 hours later, so the results are known 3 hours before the show starts here in the West). You can check out AmericanIdolWatch.com, but we found their recent posting to be at least a week outdated, with left over information from the last season just a few postings down. Your best bet is to go to one of the Blog search engines like Feedster or Technorati and search for "American Idol results" to get recent, up to date postings with news and commentary from this weeks show.
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