American Idol will be returning to the screens with its 20th season. This year, American Idol will be celebrating its milestone platinum season of celebrating raw talent and bringing up the musicians from simple American households.
Every year, contestants from all over America gather down to compete against each other in hope of achieving stardom. They are auditioned, critiqued, ragged, and guided by the judges to win the title of American Idol.
This year the judges are pop star Katy Perry, country musician Luke Bryan, and the legendary Lionel Richie.
American Idol debuted on Fox in the year 2002 and ran straight for 15 seasons before having its finale in 2016. The show was picked up by prime-time ABC in 2019 and since then it has been revived with the same galore and glamour.
“It’s the 20th season and usually that means platinum in a marriage, so it’s definitely platinum talent,” said Katy Perry.
“We’ve been together as judges, for now, five seasons and I think our bar is just getting higher and higher. I would say ‘American Idol’ is like the cream of the crop now.”
American Idol has churned out some amazing musicians who went ahead in building illustrious careers for themselves. The first winner of American Idol Kelly Clarkson went ahead and won a Grammy as well. Carrie Underwood and Fantasia Barrino are also alumni of American Idol who bagged Grammy awards.
The Oscar award winner Jennifer Hudson was also a runner-up of American Idol. She came seventh in her season but paved her way straight to Hollywood.
“It’s so fun sitting at that judging table because you never know if the next Jennifer Hudson is going to walk in, or the next Carrie Underwood. We gotta be on our game,” Bryan said.
“We want to be not that visible because it’s all about them, but at the same time it’s our job to make them comfortable,” Richie added. “We know what that’s all about because we’ve been there before. We don’t want to scare them to death.”
Before the commencement of the 20th season of American Idol on ABC primetime, let’s have a look at the previous winners and runners-up of American Idol to revive our memories and to praise American Idol for churning out raw talent and transforming them into gold.
Season 1: Kelly Clarkson (with runner-up Justin Guarini)
Season 2: Ruben Studdard (with runner-up Clay Aiken)
Season 3: Fantasia Barrino (with runner-up Diana DeGarmo)
Season 4: Carrie Underwood (with runner-up Bo Bice)
Season 5: Taylor Hicks (with runner-up Katharine McPhee)
Season 6: Jordin Sparks (with runner-up Blake Lewis)
Season 7: David Cook (with runner-up David Archuleta)
Season 8: Kris Allen (with runner-up Adam Lambert)
Season 9: Lee DeWyze (with runner-up Crystal Bowersox)
Season 10: Scotty McCreery (with runner-up Lauren Alaina)
Season 11: Phillip Phillips (with runner-up Jessica Sanchez)
Season 12: Candice Glover (with runner-up Kree Harrison)
Season 13: Caleb Johnson (with runner-up Jena Irene)
Season 14: Nick Fradiani (with runner-up Clark Beckham)
Season 15: Trent Harmon (with runner-up La’Porsha Renae)
Season 16: Maddie Poppe (with runner-up Caleb Lee Hutchinson)
Season 17: Laine Hardy (with runner-up Alejandro Aranda)
Season 18: Just Sam (with runner-up Arthur Gunn) Season 19: Chayce Beckham (with runner-up Willie Spence)
