| American Idol Finalists (with dates of elimination) | |
| Season 1 (2002) | |
| Kelly Clarkson | winner |
| Justin Guarini | 4 September |
| Nikki McKibbin | 28 August |
| Tamyra Gray | 21 August |
| RJ Helton | 14 August |
| Christina Christian | 7 August |
| Ryan Starr | 31 July |
| A.J. Gil | 24 July |
| EJay Day | 17 July |
| Jim Verraros | 17 July |
| Season 2 (2003) | |
| Ruben Studdard | winner |
| Clay Aiken | 21 May |
| Kimberley Locke | 14 May |
| Joshua Gracin | 7 May |
| Trenyce | 30 April |
| Carmen Rasmusen | 23 April |
| Kimberly Caldwell | 16 April |
| Rickey Smith | 9 April |
| Corey Clarke | disqualified, 1 April |
| Julia DeMato | 26 March |
| Charles Grigsby | 19 March |
| Vanessa Olivarez | 12 March |
American Idol is a television show on the Fox Network, based on the popular British show Pop Idol. The show is a contest to determine the best young singer in the United States.
In the show, hosted by Ryan Seacrest, people first audition before three judges (Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson). Eventually, the performers are narrowed down to twelve finalists. After that, each contestant performs live (on the East Coast) in primetime a song from a weekly theme, which have included disco and Billboard #1 hits. Viewers have several hours following the broadcast of the show to phone in their votes for their favorite contestant. Callers are allowed to vote as many times as they like for any number of contestants. On the following night's episode (live again), the contestant with the fewest votes is sent home.
In the first season, Kelly Clarkson won, with Justin Guarini coming in second. Numerous television specials starring the ten finalists followed, as well as a movie entitled From Justin to Kelly.
In season two, Ruben Studdard was the winner with Clay Aiken as runner up. Out of 24 million votes cast, Studdard finished just 130,000 votes ahead of Aiken, although there remains controversy over the validity of the reported results, and Aiken has enjoyed more widepsread popularity.
A spin-off series called American Juniors premiered on June 3, and the next season of American Idol will premiere in January 2004.
Canada got its own version in August-September 2003, called Canadian Idol, hosted by Ben Mulroney, son of former PM Brian Mulroney.
In December 2003, winners of eleven different national Idol competitions were collected for a World Idol competition in London.
See also: teen idol.