American Idol is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It initially aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to April 7, 2016, for 15 seasons. It was on hiatus for two years until March 11, 2018, when a revival of the series began airing on ABC. It started as an addition to the Idols format that was based on Pop Idol from British television, and became one of the most successful shows in the history of American television. The concept of the series involves discovering recording stars from unsigned singing talents, with the winner determined by American viewers using phones, Internet, and SMS text voting.
| Genre | Reality competition |
| Created by | Simon Fuller |
| Based on | Pop Idol |
| Directed by | Andy Scheer (2002), Bruce Gowers (2003–2006, 2008), Ken Warwick (2007, 2011–12), Bill DeRonde (2009, 2014–15), Gregg Gelfand (2010, 2013), Louis J. Horvitz (2014), Phil Heyes (2015–2016, 2018–) |
| Presented by | Ryan Seacrest, Brian Dunkleman |
| Judges | Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Kara DioGuardi, Ellen DeGeneres, Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler, Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj, Keith Urban, Harry Connick Jr, Luke Bryan, Katy Perry, Lionel Richie |
| Theme music composer | Julian Gingell, Barry Stone, Cathy Dennis |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 19 |
| No. of episodes | 640 |
| Executive producer(s) | Simon Fuller (2002–), Cecile Frot-Coutaz (2002–18), Simon Jones (2002–03), Nigel Lythgoe (2002–08, 2011–13, 2016 finale), Ken Warwick (2002–13), J. Brian Gadinsky (2002), Charles Boyd (2009–16), Trish Kinane (2013–), Jesse Ignjatovic (2014), Evan Prager (2014), Per Blankens (2014-15), David Hill (2015–16), Megan Wolflick (2015–), Jessica Castro (2016), Jennifer Mullin (2018–), Phil McIntyre (2018), Chris Anokute (2019), Brian Burke (2021–) |
| Running time | 22–104 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Fremantle North America, 19 Entertainment |
| Original network | Fox (2002–16), ABC (2018–) |
| Picture format | SDTV (480i) (2002–04), HDTV 720p (2005–) |
About American Idol
Based on the British series Pop Idol, this competition series, hosted by Ryan Seacrest, featured the original judge trio of Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell. The show was revived by ABC in 2018.
Achievement of American Idol
Several American Idol contestants who were finalists or semi-finalists went on to have success in their careers such as Jennifer Hudson, Chris Daughtry and Adam Lambert.
Top Facts You Did Not Know About American Idol
American Idol Category.. Nielsen ratings winners.. Music competitions in the United States.. Competitions.. American television series based on British television series.
Latest information about American Idol updated on July 28 2021.
