American Idol

An American version of the British series Pop Idol, which is better known due to the fact that far more people live in America than Britain. In Britain, Pop Idol was also pushed aside for The X Factor. X Factor came to the U.S. in 2011, with Simon Cowell. The Idol season that followed suffered the worst rating drop in the series' history.

The show was launched in 2002. In eight years, it's launched several careers. Among the more notably talented and successful are Kelly Clarkson (Season 1 winner), Clay Aiken (Season 2 runner-up), Ruben Studdard (Season 2 winner), Fantasia Barrino (Season 3 winner), Jennifer Hudson (an Academy Award winner for Dreamgirls), Chris Daughtry, Bo Bice, David Archuleta, Adam Lambert, and Carrie Underwood (Season 4 winner, the first Idol to go purely Country Music).

It's also launched the "career" of William Hung, whose... slaughtering of Ricky Martin's "She Bangs" landed him a record contract, in which he did the same thing to several other pop "standards". So Bad It's Good, indeed.

Another reason for the show's popularity is the chemistry among the three(?) judges:
 * Simon Cowell (Seasons 1-9), a famous UK record exec. His acerbic comments are insanely quotable. Naturally, he's caught a little flak for his attitude. Imported from the equally successful UK show Pop Idol, which started the tradition. He left American Idol at the end of this last season to start an American version of The X Factor.
 * Paula Abdul (Seasons 1-8), an '80s pop star. However, later in her run on the show, she became more notable for her off-screen troubles than her judging. Also rose up controversy for judging a performance before it even actually happened. Decided not to return for Season 9, and was replaced by comedienne Ellen DeGeneres.
 * Randy Jackson (Seasons 1-current), a Grammy Award-winning rock bassist, singer, and record producer. Notable for calling nearly everyone "dawg" (don't confuse this guy with Steven Randall Jackson, the former member of the Jacksons). He is the only Idol judge to serve through every season of the show.
 * Kara DioGuardi (Seasons 8-9), a record executive, music producer and songwriter who has collaborated with some of the biggest names in the music business, including Celine Dion, Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears, and Season 1 Idol winner Kelly Clarkson.
 * Ellen DeGeneres (Season 9), a comedienne and talk show host. Initially, she made fans fear that the show was Ruined FOREVER, seeing as she didn't have roots in the music industry before she came on. For the most part, they were proven wrong, as DeGeneres provided valid criticism and also proved to be a pretty reasonable match for Simon's acerbic wit. Ellen went the way of Simon without warning after her only season.
 * Jennifer Lopez (Season 10-), a pop singer, actress and record producer.
 * Steven Tyler (Season 10-), the frontman of Aerosmith.

One website nailed Paula's judging with the line "her ritualistic fare of generalized superlatives that highlight nothing specific about a performer." Simon, on the other hand, generally responds with either a verbal shrug ("It was good, it just wasn't great") or unabashed criticism ("I felt like I was at a high school musical"), so his rare superlatives actually mean something.

A great deal of the show's entertainment value comes in the first weeks, when one can watch all sort of untalented (and worse) singers warble their off-key "songs" at the four judges.

Still, the show has its detractors. Year after year, opponents try to either get a boycott of the show going or try to sabotage it by putting the worst contestant in the winner's circle. Their efforts haven't succeeded yet, but with Season 6's Sanjaya Malakar (who made it to 7th place) and Season 8's Danny Gokey (who made it into the top 3), they got closer than ever.

The show is a veritable ratings behemoth, drawing 20+ million viewers on a bad day. To put it in perspective, President Barack Obama's speech on the state of Healthcare in September 2009 drew about 30 million viewers -- on 10 different networks. The 2009 finale of American Idol drew 28 million viewers -- on one network. American Idol alone has cemented FOX as the top dog network in terms of advertising potential. The network uses the show as a lead-in to whatever show they are pimping lately -- the most notable examples are House and Glee, which nearly doubled their respective viewerships and went from merely popular to mega-hits once they started airing in the post-Idol time-slot. American Idol was the highest-rated show in the U.S. from its beginnings to the 2004-2005 season. It has since started to slip, notably being beaten by rival show Dancing With the Stars on several nights in the past two seasons in total viewers (though in the coveted 18-49 Demographics, American Idol still wins). However, Idol has far from run out of gas (yet), as it was still able to beat out the Vancouver Winter Olympics on all but one night (February 23rd, 2010).

It's very likely that, in decades to come, this will be the show most remembered as what defined American television in the first decade of the 21st century. For better or worse.

""It begins at five a.m., and then you get really nervous, and after you feel, um, very smelly." (When asked if contestants get nervous on elimination night.)"
 * American Title
 * Badass Longcoat: Adam Lambert on the Season 8 performance finale wore a long, black trench coat with fog machines while singing "Mad World".
 * The Band Minus the Face: What the show has become with the exit of Cowell.
 * Brutal Honesty: Simon, which is one of the reasons contestants don't like him.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: Siobhan Magnus, who had an extremely... unique... personality (see Cloudcuckoolander below), but was one of the best singers of Season Nine.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Paula Abdul was so loopy that people just assumed she was completely high all the time.
 * Siobhan Magnus.

"You already are a cult hero, I mean there's millions of people in America that are really angry, because you pissed them off because you're so fucking good."
 * Isadora Furman.
 * Commercial Break Cliffhanger: Probably the modern innovator (if not Deal or No Deal). Dammit, Ryan, that's not funny!
 * Cousin Oliver: Kara DioGuardi, the fourth judge added in Season 8.
 * Cuteness Proximity: Bring anything cute into the audition room and prepare to watch Paula dissolve, with Simon about a millisecond behind her.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Simon. Ellen started to trend towards this as well, although this shouldn't be surprising given her background.
 * Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: In Season 9, Aaron Kelly was asked if he liked Justin Bieber. Kelly's response: "Well, I do, but..." He then immediately shut up.
 * Don't Think, Feel: A contestant who made it to the top 24 in the tenth season, explicitly. And any of a number of others, some more explicitly than others.
 * Dramatic Pause: See Large Ham below.
 * Dude Looks Like a Lady: Look at Steven Tyler.
 * Elimination Statements
 * Excuse Question: During Season 7, using text messaging (which was at standard rates).
 * Filler: Like you wouldn't believe. The amount of it that this show used to be an Overly Long Gag on this page, with such trope entries as "More Filler" and "Engaging Chevrons, just to break up the monotony of the Filler".
 * Film At Eleven: The early episodes, with their "coming up next" clips before each commercial.
 * Follow the Leader: Ever since Jennifer Hudson's success, almost every heavy-set girl who auditions feels the need to give a horrid, eardrum-popping rendition of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going".
 * Foregone Conclusion: Half the time during the initial interviews, they telegraph that a contestant is going to get a "yes" and go to Hollywood by showing scenes shot at the contestant's home - something they never do for people who get a "no". Somewhat justified in that they only shoot the at-home interviews after they've gotten the nod - it's a waste of time and money to go and shoot a contestant beforehand, especially given the low rate of success.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Ryan, Ellen, and Simon turned Season 9 into a "Let's see how far we can push Fox" contest.
 * Season 10 had Steven Tyler start this on the very first audition. He has yet to stop trying.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: A few, each with their own Portmanteau Couple Name; Chris Richardson and Blake Lewis ("Cake") in Season 6, David Cook and David Archuleta ("Cookleta") in Season 7, Kris Allen and Adam Lambert ("Kradam") in Season 8, and Phillip Phillips and Heejun Han (Philjun) in Season 11. And of course, Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest for many.
 * Hopeless Auditionees: The main reason to watch the early episodes each season.
 * Idol Singer: It's right there in the title.
 * Jail Bait: Steven's infamous "hot, humid and happening, just like your daughter" line, spoken to former MLB pitcher Joe Magrane after his 16-year-old daughter Shannon had just had a superb audition. Needless to say, Joe was not amused, and Steven later referenced his faux pas, saying "I hope your daddy isn't still mad at me" to Shannon (who made it all the way to 11th place) at a later performance round. In Steven's defense, Shannon's over six feet tall even without high heels.
 * Jerkass: Simon. In order to get a positive statement out of him, you have to be really good.
 * Judge Stock Phrases: "Pitchy", "indulgent", "relevant", "true artist", "commercial", "dawg", "in it to win it".
 * Simon: "rubbish".
 * Large Ham: "THIS.....................is aMERican Idol!" Yes, Ryan. It is.
 * Licensed Game: There's a number of them, and they're all pretty awful. The judges got to give their own commentary for at least the first set of games.
 * It gave the show a Crowning Moment of Funny when a Season 9 auditioner boasted that she'd trained using one of the video games and that it told her she was a perfect singer. Of course, everyone who knows anything about just how bad the games are knows what came next....
 * Likes Older Women: The implication of this is averted in Juniors with changes to some song lyrics.
 * Long Runner: Just ended its eleventh season.
 * Mama Bear: J-Lo is known to weep whenever a contestant is eliminated. At the beginning of Season 10, she apparently wasn't sure if she wanted to go through with being a judge after she ended up having to send a fan favorite contestant home. It was especially heartbreaking in Season 11 when Ryan asked J-Lo to deliver the news that the Adorkable Jeremy Rosado had been eliminated. J-Lo's voice cracked and she stammered before finally working up the strength to announce that Jeremy had been cut from the competition.
 * The Mean Brit: Simon Cowell.
 * Mind Screw: Before Jennifer Hudson made it as an actress and before Fantasia Barrino got success from her second album, the most successful person to come out of Season 3 was William Hung.
 * Mr. Fanservice: Ace Young in Season 5, Blake Lewis and Sanjaya Malakar in Season 6, David Cook and David Archuleta in Season 7, Kris Allen and Adam Lambert in Season 8, Casey James, Lee Dewyze and Tim Urban in Season 9, basically every guy from Season 10 (but most notably James Durbin and Casey Abrams), and Phillip Phillips and Colton Dixon in Season 11.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Usually of the leggy variety. Kellie Pickler and Katharine "McPheever" McPhee in Season 5, Haley Scarnato in Season 6, Kristy Lee Cook in Season 7, Pia Toscano and Haley Reinhart in Season 10, and pretty much every girl in Season 11 (but especially Shannon Magrane and Hollie Cavanagh).
 * Musicalis Interruptus:.
 * Nice Girls: Paula, Ellen, and Jennifer, who have each had to learn that effective judges can't always be nice. Ellen quit because it hurt her to be mean to people.
 * Power Trio: Randy, Paula, and Simon, until the addition of Kara as a fourth judge. And now, Ellen!
 * They went back to the Power Trio format... but with Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler instead of Paula and Jennifer Lopez instead of Simon.
 * Precision F-Strike: Steven, to Casey Abrams:

"Ryan: "While you hang onto your Coke glass, why don't you tell us about how nerve-wracking the first audition was.""
 * Product Placement: This show is possibly the most shameless purveyor of this Trope, from the shticky Ford commercials every week to:

"Simon: I love her to death now. I honestly, honestly do."
 * Refuge in Vulgarity: In Season 9, Ellen would get on Ryan's nerves this way.
 * Retool: They've tried a number of tweaks over the years, but nothing more dramatic than what they did for 2011. With Simon Cowell gone, they made some major changes. The show moved back from a four-judge panel to a three-judge one. Instead of directly replacing Simon, they went for a new dynamic. The show moved from Tuesdays and Wednesdays to Wednesdays and Thursdays. They increased the age-range that they will allow. In 2011, they only allowed contestants to use instruments once -- that rule didn't survive to 2012 (which some say is one of the reasons Phillip Phillips won). Additionally, they tweaked the voting format by allowing votes through Facebook, instead of only phone and text-message voting.
 * The Runner Up Takes It All: A fairly frequent occurrence is for the season winner to be outsold by at least one of the runners-up, who goes on to have a longer and/or more successful career.
 * A lot of people forget that Clay Aiken was the runner-up on the second season, as he had far more success than the actual winner, Ruben Studdard.
 * Fantasia Barrino of Season 3 hasn't done too badly -- as long as you don't compare her to Oscar-winning, Super-Bowl-anthem-singing Jennifer Hudson, who finished seventh.
 * Season 5 champion Taylor Hicks has been outdone by four of his competitors: third-placer Elliott Yamin, fourth-placer Chris Daughtry, sixth-placer Kellie Pickler, and even eighth-placer Bucky Covington.
 * If you count runner-up Katharine McPhee (though she's had more success in acting), that makes five.
 * Chris Daughtry isn't just an example within his season, he's a pretty good example within the entire show. His band's debut album became the best selling album of 2007, and he currently sits as the third best-selling Idol contestant of all time behind Clarkson and Underwood. And again -- he placed fourth, meaning that the collective American consciousness felt there were three better contestants than him. Also, during the season, he was offered the opportunity to leave the show and replace the singer of the band Fuel. He turned it down, but an established rock band liked the fourth place winner of the season enough to want him to front them.
 * Try finding media coverage of the most recent season that mentions Kris Allen, the winner of Season 8, before fan favorite runner-up Adam Lambert.
 * Really, the only winners who are more popular than everyone else in their season are Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Jordin Sparks, and Scotty McCreery.
 * The Sadistic Choice: Sometimes, to convey voting results, Ryan will split the contestants into two groups: one which is the safe, and one which is not. The last contestant will be asked to stand with one of the groups. Sometimes they get it wrong, and at other times, they will not choose, only to have Ryan choose for them.
 * Show Stopper: Ian Benardo, who straddles the line between obnoxious and hilarious in the way only a Camp Gay Jewish New Yorker can.
 * Sixth Ranger
 * Spin-Off:
 * American Idol Rewind (syndicated reruns recapping a particular season, with additional interviews with contestants).
 * American Idol Extra (a former recap/"post-game" show aired by Fox Reality Channel).
 * American Juniors (a spinoff in Summer 2003, which formed a 5-member teen pop group).
 * To Be Continued: Jennifer Lopez burst into tears after letting an early favorite go in Season 10. Randy and Steven praised her for being considerate. The bad news is that only ten of the top twenty four contestants were named.
 * Repeated in Season 11, where the first episode of Hollywood Week ended with Symone Black, age 16, falling off the stage, apparently injuring herself, though viewers would have to wait until the next episode to discover how badly.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: For all their bickering, Simon and Paula have an incredibly solid relationship, and seeing as how he brought Paula on The X Factor with him, he clearly respects her opinions (most of the time).


 * Vote Early, Vote Often: The fairness of the voting is frequently called into question, with a lot of people suspecting that it's rigged in favor of contestants preferred by 19 Entertainment. Also played literally, in that viewers are allowed to vote as many times as they want.
 * Wham! Episode: The episode was Casey Abrams was initially voted off. First Hulk Hogan appears and throws Ryan into the crowd and later in the show Ryan reveals Casey received the fewest votes. Casey starts to sing but the judges immediately cut him off and say they will save him while it's looking like Casey is to have a heart attack..
 * Who Is This Guy Again?: Sometimes members of the top 24 received little to no screentime. Examples include Jason Castro of Season 7, Allison Iraheta and Kris Allen of Season 8, and for those with short memories or didn't watch Season 10, Hollie Cavanaugh of Season 11.
 * Who Is This Guy Again?: Sometimes members of the top 24 received little to no screentime. Examples include Jason Castro of Season 7, Allison Iraheta and Kris Allen of Season 8, and for those with short memories or didn't watch Season 10, Hollie Cavanaugh of Season 11.