American Idol’s three-night finale kicked off on Tuesday with the 90-minute retrospective American Idol: American Dream, which featured Ryan Seacrest, Simon Cowell, Kelly Clarkson, Chris Daughtry and more sharing memories of the popular TV talent contest.
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Cowell, who has joined NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” as a judge this season, believes that “Idol” went downhill after he and Paula Abdul left.
Simon Cowell was the face of “American Idol” for nine seasons, but the former judge hasn’t kept up with the singing competition since he departed the Fox series.
As he told judge Simon Cowell: “I already gave it my best and I have no regrets at all”.
American Idol was the number one show on TV for eight consecutive seasons.
“If I come over as harsh at times, it’s only because I’m being real”.
The show is ending after 15 seasons, juggernaut ratings (which fell off in recent years), thousands of aspiring superstars and way too many covers of Whitney Houston songs. For a time, everyone, everywhere, seemed to be talking about it, and everything and every person the show touched seemed to turn golden. “I was a 25-year-old kid doing radio and a couple of little things on television”, he notes.
After 15 seasons, more than 550 episodes, countless auditions and hundreds of memorable performances, American Idol’s journey comes to an end this Thursday with what is sure to be a must-see goodbye.
The American Idol 15 and the female is starting from tonight.
After a decade and a half run, American Idol sings its swan song this week. Who can forget underdog Sanjaya soaring on a “Vote for the Worst” campaign or William Hung selling records after his rendition of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs?”.
Seasons 9 through 14 have seen less post-Idol success from contestants, with the most notable alumni being the season 10 and 11 first place winners (and almost one-hit wonders) Phillip Phillips and Scotty McCreery. Dunkleman has said that he quit the show after the first season because he didnt like the way the contestants were treated, or the fact that the fights between judges were staged.
“Idol” also showed that in an age of DVRs, programmers could thwart viewers’ avoidance of commercials – by integrating the product into the program. If you bet on a longshot who pulls off an upset, you can really rack up the points, so don’t take them for granted. As many as 37 million votes were cast for that finale, and according to producers, the difference came down to about only 130,000 votes.
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Then, of course, there were the winners, the most successful of which were undoubtedly Season 1 victor Kelly Clarkson and Season 4 champ Carrie Underwood.
