A music competition is a public event designed to identify and award outstanding musical ensembles , soloists , composers , conductors , musicologists or compositions. Pop music competitions are music competitions which are held to find pop starlets .
130-411: 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 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
260-400: A "tag" into the program to be distributed on these services, which Nielsen then tracks through its meters system. Partnering distributors are able to determine if these ratings can be released publicly or not. The most commonly cited Nielsen results are reported in two measurements: ratings points and share, usually reported as: "ratings points/share". There were 119.6 million TV homes in
390-426: A February 2012 New York Times article, the computer and mobile streams of a program are counted separately from the standard television broadcasts, further degrading the overall quality of the sampling data. As a result, there was no way for NBC to tell if there was any overlap between the roughly 111.3 million traditional television viewers and 2.1 million live stream viewers of Super Bowl XLVII . Responding to
520-569: A TV ratings juggernaut." For an unprecedented eight consecutive years, from the 2003–04 television season through the 2010–11 season , either its performance show or result show was ranked number one in U.S. television ratings . American Idol was based on the British show Pop Idol created by Simon Fuller , which was in turn inspired by the New Zealand television singing competition Popstars . Television producer Nigel Lythgoe saw
650-447: A celebrity mentor related to the theme. From the tenth to twelfth seasons, Jimmy Iovine was brought in as a mentor for the season. Initially the contestants sang one song each week, but this was increased to two songs from top four or five onwards, then three songs for the top two or three. The most popular contestants are usually not revealed in the results show. Instead, typically the three contestants (two in later rounds) who received
780-439: A death threat, which he dismissed as a joke 'blown out of proportion'. The performance of " Summertime " by Barrino, later known simply as "Fantasia", at Top 8 was widely praised, and Simon Cowell considered it as his favorite Idol moment in the nine seasons he was on the show. Fantasia and Diana DeGarmo were the last two finalists, and Fantasia was crowned as the winner. Fantasia released as her coronation single " I Believe ",
910-463: A diary of the programs watched in their home for a one-week period. The Nielsen sample included roughly 1,700 audiometer homes and a rotating board of nearly 850 diary respondents by the early 1980s. Nielsen launched its Nielsen Homevideo Index (NHI) in 1980 to measure cable, pay cable, and VCRs, and the NHI began offering daily cable ratings in 1982. Nielsen's continued to advance with steady changes into
1040-404: A different time), rendering the "raw" numbers useless from a statistical point of view. Even in 2013, it was noted that Internet streams of television programs were still not counted because they had either no ads (such as Netflix ) or totally different advertising (such as Hulu ) than their television counterparts, effectively skewing the raw data on a show's popularity. A related criticism of
1170-557: A duet with a former Idol contestant. In each group, the judges chose 7 contestants to advance to the top 14 where the judges chose 4 to advance to the top 10 and remaining 6 contestants were chosen based on the vote. In the sixteenth season, the top 24 performed at the Academy in the Heart of LA, and the show repeated the process from the previous season. However, instead of Idol alumnus as duet partners, superstar celebrity singers were used as
1300-471: A few days of auditions, due to being uncomfortable with giving out criticism. The show decided to continue with the three judges format until the eighth season . All three original judges stayed on the judging panel for eight seasons. In the eighth season, Latin Grammy Award -nominated singer-songwriter and record producer Kara DioGuardi was added as a fourth judge. Abdul left the show in 2009, after
1430-564: A linear watermark . After Nielsen took over the contract for producing data on Irish advertising in 2009, agencies said that they were "disastrous" and claimed that the information produced by them is too inaccurate to be trusted by them or their clients. In 2004, News Corporation retained the services of public relations firm Glover Park to launch a campaign aimed at delaying Nielsen's plan to replace its aging household electronic data collection methodology in larger local markets with its newer electronic People Meter system. The advocates in
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#17327794824811560-533: A live audience, and these performances determine who makes into the Top 24. In the seventeenth and eighteenth seasons, the showcase round took place in Hawaii. From the nineteenth season onward, a showstopper round was used. From the semi-finals onward, the fate of the contestants is decided by public vote. During the contestant's performance as well as the recap at the end, a toll-free telephone number for each contestant
1690-567: A media audience measurement and analytics firm. Nielsen TV ratings (commonly referred to as Nielsen ratings ) are the audience measurement systems operated by Nielsen Media Research that seek to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States using a rating system. Nielsen lost accreditation by the Media Rating Council (MRC) in 2022 due to inaccurate data reporting during
1820-456: A mix of potential finalists, interesting characters and woefully inadequate contestants. Each successful contestant receives a golden or platinum ticket to proceed on to the next round in Hollywood. Based on their performances during the Hollywood round (Las Vegas round from the tenth through twelfth seasons), 24 to 36 contestants are selected by the judges to participate in the semifinals. From
1950-408: A model consisting of six viewer segments, which according to their empirical research, are more relevant for advertisers than older models based on gender and age. The segments are based on user behavior, motivations, and psychographics . It is argued that the model can increase reaching the desired audience and message recall and advertisement likeability. In September 2020, Nielsen began releasing
2080-469: A new panel of homes each week. At the end of the month, all of the viewing data from the individual weeks was aggregated. One exception to the normal sweeps periods occurred in 2008–09 when the February sweeps period was moved to March to accommodate the digital television transition , which was scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009. The transition date was later moved to June 12, but Nielsen kept
2210-410: A phenomenon largely due to its personal engagement with the contestants by prompting the viewers to vote, and the presence of the acid-tongued Cowell as a judge. By 2004, it had become the most-watched show on U.S. television, a position it then held for seven consecutive seasons until 2011. However, after a few years of sharp declining ratings starting in 2012, with rating falls of over 20% each season,
2340-469: A second solo round and move directly to the final Hollywood round. In the twelfth season, the executive producers split up the females and males and chose the members to form the groups in the group round. In the tenth and eleventh seasons, a further round was added in Las Vegas, where the contestants performed in groups based on a theme, followed by one final solo round to determine the semi-finalists. At
2470-505: A select panel of judges who critique the contestants' performances. The original judges, for seasons one through eight, were record producer and music manager Randy Jackson , singer and choreographer Paula Abdul , and music executive and manager Simon Cowell . The judging panel for the last three seasons on Fox consisted of singers Keith Urban , Jennifer Lopez , and Harry Connick Jr. Season sixteen brought three new judges: singers Luke Bryan , Katy Perry , and Lionel Richie . Beginning in
2600-400: A single episode. Ruben Studdard emerged as the winner, beating Clay Aiken by a small margin. Out of a total of 24 million votes, Studdard finished just 134,000 votes ahead of Aiken. This slim margin of victory was controversial due to the large number of calls that failed to get through. In an interview prior to the fifth season, executive producer Nigel Lythgoe indicated that Aiken had led
2730-434: A single-only deal. BMG / Sony (first through ninth seasons), UMG (tenth through fifteenth seasons), and Disney Music Group 's Hollywood Records (sixteenth through eighteenth seasons) had the right of first refusal to sign contestants for three months after the season's finale. In the fourteenth and fifteenth seasons, the winner was signed with Big Machine Records . Prominent music mogul Clive Davis also produced some of
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#17327794824812860-428: A sister company to Nielsen NetRatings, which measures Internet and digital media audiences through a telephone and internet survey, and Nielsen BuzzMetrics, which measures Consumer-Generated Media. Nielsen also conducts market research for the film industry through National Research Group (NRG). In September 2018, Nielsen acquired SuperData Research, an industry analysis firm that deals with tracking viewing habits within
2990-417: A song co-written by the first season finalist Tamyra Gray, and DeGarmo released " Dreams ". The fourth season premiered on January 18, 2005. Ryan Seacrest returned as host, and Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Simon Cowell returned as judges. This was the first full season of the series to be aired in high definition; the finale of the third season was also aired in high definition. The number of those attending
3120-420: A total of ten finalists. In the second and third seasons, each of the three judges championed one contestant with the public advancing a fourth into the finals, making 12 finalists in all. From the fourth through seventh and ninth seasons, the twenty-four semi-finalists were divided by gender in order to ensure an equal gender division in the top twelve. The men and women sang separately on consecutive nights, and
3250-758: A version in Australia and helped bring it over to Britain. Fuller was inspired by the idea from Popstars of employing a panel of judges to select singers in audition. He then added other elements, including telephone voting by the viewing public (which at the time was already in use in shows, such as the Eurovision Song Contest ), the drama of backstories, and real-life soap opera unfolding in real time. Pop Idol debuted in Britain in 2001 with Lythgoe as showrunner —the executive producer and production leader—and Simon Cowell as one of
3380-417: A weekly Top 10 list of most-watched shows on streaming platforms. The data collection methods used to generate Nielsen TV ratings included: Changing systems of viewing have impacted Nielsen's methods of market research. In 2005, Nielsen began measuring the usage of digital video recording devices (DVRs) such as TiVos . Initial results indicated that time-shifted viewing (i.e., programs that are watched after
3510-481: Is a global music contest based in United States, and Machan Music, an open and ongoing music contest based in India. The Songwriters Resource Network organizes the annual Great American Song Contest which is open to songwriters and lyric writers internationally. Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research ( NMR ) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via
3640-514: Is another rapidly growing market for which Nielsen ratings fail to account for viewers. iTunes , Hulu, YouTube , and some of the networks' own websites (such as ABC.com and CBS.com) provide full-length web-based programming, either subscription-based or ad-supported. Though websites can already track a site's popularity and the referring page , they cannot track viewer demographics. To both track this and expand their market research offerings, Nielsen purchased NetRatings in 2007. However, as noted in
3770-622: Is called SoundWave Music Competition. This competition allows for singers, bands and all acts of all genres a chance to play at the O2 Academy Leeds, Newcastle and Glasgow. SoundWave Music Competition is a high profile competition and the biggest music competition in Northern England and Scotland where entrants can win radio slots and recording within the best recording studios in the United Kingdom and Scotland. One of
3900-546: Is selected, and only those accepted are used as the sample size. In many local areas during the 1990s, the difference between a rating that kept a show on the air and one that would cancel it was so small as to be statistically insignificant. Yet, the show with the higher rating would survive. In addition, the Nielsen ratings encouraged a strong push for demographic measurements. This caused problems with households with multiple television sets or households where viewers would enter
4030-521: Is some public critique regarding accuracy and potential bias within Nielsen's rating system, including some concerns that the Nielsen ratings system is rapidly becoming outdated due to new technology such as smartphones , DVRs , tablet computers and Internet streaming services as preferred or alternative methods for television viewing. In June 2006, however, Nielsen announced a plan to revamp its entire methodology to include all types of media viewing in its sample. Since viewers are aware of being part of
American Idol - Misplaced Pages Continue
4160-445: Is the percentage of TV sets in use which are tuned to a particular show. Share is the percentage of television sets in use, Households Using Television (HUT) or Persons Using Television (PUT) who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. For example, Nielsen may report a show as receiving a 4.4/8 during its broadcast; this would mean that 4.4% of all television-equipped households (that
4290-435: Is to say homes with a TV set, not total number of people) were tuned in to that program, while 8% of households that were watching TV at that time were watching the specific program. Because ratings are based on samples, it is possible for shows to get a 0.0 rating, despite having an audience; CNBC 's talk show McEnroe was one notable example. Another example is The CW show, CW Now , which received two 0.0 ratings in
4420-546: The Idol format that was based on Pop Idol from British television, in which the programme's first series , which was won by Will Young , ended over four months before the show began, as it later 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 platforms, and SMS text voting. The winners of
4550-462: The 18–49 age range is more important than the total number of viewers. According to Advertising Age , during the 2007–08 season, ABC was able to charge $ 419,000 per commercial sold during its medical drama Grey's Anatomy , compared to only $ 248,000 for a commercial during CBS ' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation , despite CSI having almost five million more viewers on average. Because of its strength in young "demos" (demographic groups), NBC
4680-501: The American Idol band was led by Rickey Minor (fourth through ninth and thirteenth through fifteenth seasons) and Ray Chew (tenth through twelfth seasons). Assistance has also been given by vocal coaches and song arrangers, such as Michael Orland and Debra Byrd to contestants behind the scene. Starting with the seventh season, contestants may perform with a musical instrument from the Hollywood rounds onward. In later seasons,
4810-659: The COVID-19 pandemic , but regained it in April 2023. Nielsen Media Research was founded by Arthur C. Nielsen , a market analyst who began his career in the 1920s with marketing research and performance analysis. The company subsequently expanded into radio market analysis in the late 1930s, culminating in the Nielsen Radio Index in 1942, which was meant to provide statistics as to the markets of radio shows. The first Nielsen ratings for radio programs were released
4940-810: The Eurovision Song Contest , the Sanremo Music Festival , Open Mic UK , the All-Japan Band Association annual contest, Live and Unsigned , and American Idol . European classical art music uses competitions to provide a public forum that identifies the strongest young players and helps them start their professional careers (see List of classical music competitions ). Popular instrumental ensembles such as brass bands and school bands have also long relied on competitions and festivals to promote their musical genres and recognize high levels of achievement. In
5070-454: The Pop Idol format; however, only three judges had been found by the time of the audition round in the first season, namely Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Simon Cowell. A fourth judge, radio DJ Stryker , was originally chosen but he dropped out citing "image concerns." In the second season , New York radio personality Angie Martinez had been hired as a fourth judge but withdrew after only
5200-466: The fifteenth season would be its last on Fox, ending its run in April 2016. In May 2017, ABC acquired the rights to the series and the program returned for the 2017–18 television season. The first season of the revived series, or the sixteenth season overall, started airing in March 2018. Seven seasons have been aired on ABC as of May 2024. The show had originally planned on having four judges following
5330-406: The seventeenth season , when Bobby Bones subbed for Seacrest after the latter fell ill. Dunkleman did, however, return for the initial series finale on Fox in 2016 as a guest. Annotations In a series of steps, the show selected the eventual winner out of many tens of thousands of contestants. The eligible age-range for contestants is fifteen to twenty-eight years old. The initial age limit
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5460-418: The twelfth season . However, both Carey and Minaj left after one season. Jackson also departed the judges table after twelve seasons, but would return as the in-house mentor for the thirteenth season in 2014, after which he left the show permanently. Urban was the only judge from the twelfth season to return as a judge for the thirteenth season. After a one-season hiatus, Lopez returned to American Idol for
5590-498: The twenty-first season . The first season was co-hosted by Ryan Seacrest and Brian Dunkleman , following the format of Pop Idol of using two presenters. Dunkleman quit thereafter, resulting in Seacrest becoming the sole emcee starting with the second season in 2003. Seacrest has remained as sole host of American Idol ever since, with the exception of the two-year hiatus between 2016 and 2018 as well as April 8, 2019, during
5720-471: The "sweeps" rating periods. The term "sweeps" dates from 1954, when Nielsen collected diaries from households in the Eastern United States first; from there they would "sweep" west. Seven-day diaries (or eight-day diaries in homes with DVRs) were mailed to homes to keep a tally of what was watched on each television set and by whom. Over the course of a sweeps period, diaries were mailed to
5850-488: The 25 TV markets with the highest sales (e.g. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver), the Local People Meter (LPM) is measured. Individuals register individually; the measurement is carried out on 365 days over 24 hours. The SET Meter (Diary & Electronic) is used in 31 smaller markets (such as Nashville, Salt Lake City). In four sweeps in February, May, July, and November, target group data are collected with
5980-633: The AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen ratings , an audience measurement system of television viewership that for years has been the deciding factor in canceling or renewing television shows by television networks. As of August 2024, it is the primary part of Nielsen Holdings. NMR began as a division of ACNielsen , a marketing research firm founded in 1923. In 1996, NMR
6110-417: The British show. Although Fox's executives wanted to change the format, Murdoch insisted that it should remain the same as the British one. One change was nevertheless made due to the presence of multiple time zones in the United States that made it impractical for the country to vote in the same time period, an additional half-hour results show was therefore added the day following the performance show. The show
6240-472: The Council for Innovative Media Measurement by more than six major broadcast media companies. By the end of 2012, some television executives wanted to see C7, ratings for live plus seven days, with CBS Corporation chief executive officer Les Moonves making the claim C7 made ratings increase by 30%. The American television measurement by Nielsen is based on three different methodological approaches. In
6370-448: The LPM provides accurate measurements of particular local markets, versus a nationwide sample. While diary-based surveys concentrated on quarterly sweeps periods, the industry has been pushed toward year-round measurement due to the automated LPM system. In 1996, Nielsen Media Research began tracking computer, internet, and video game usage through telephone surveys. Nielsen Media Research is
6500-527: The Netherlands), which has 19,000 contestants from over 30 countries, making it one of the largest competitions in Europe. The All-Japan Band Association annual contest appears to be the world's largest music competition in terms of the number of active contestants, with approximately 800,000 competing musicians in more than 14,000 bands. A competition which has recently hit the United Kingdom music scene
6630-422: The Nielsen rating system is its lack of a system for measuring television audiences outside homes, such as college dormitories , transport terminals, bars , prisons and other public places where television is frequently viewed, often by large numbers of people in a common setting. In 2005, Nielsen announced plans to incorporate viewing by away-from-home college students into its sample. Internet television viewing
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#17327794824816760-417: The Nielsen sample, compared to 6.0% in the general population. Latino households represent 5.7% of the Nielsen sample, compared to 5.0% in the general population. By October 2006, News Corporation and Nielsen settled, with Nielsen agreeing to spend an additional $ 50 million to ensure that minority viewing was not being underreported by the new electronic people meter system. In 2011, CBS and Nielsen proposed
6890-406: The Nielsen sample, it can lead to response bias in recording and viewing habits. Audience counts gathered by the self-reporting diary methodology are sometimes higher than those gathered by the electronic meters, eliminating any response bias. Another criticism of the measuring system itself is that it fails the most important sample criterion: it is not random. A small fraction of the population
7020-581: The NielsenIQ (the former ACNielsen) in 2021. The Nielsen TV Ratings have been produced in the United States since the 1950–51 television season and statistically measure which programs are watched by individual segments of the population. The most well-known portion is the "diary". During the four " sweeps " months of February, May, July and November, Nielsen interviewers in Oldsmar, Florida , and Radcliff, Kentucky , ask homes to participate in filling out
7150-490: The Three Divas. All three unexpectedly landed on the bottom three on the top seven result show, with Hudson controversially eliminated. Elton John, who was one of the mentors that season, called the results of the votes "incredibly racist". The prolonged stays of John Stevens and Jasmine Trias in the finals, despite negative comments from the judges, had aroused resentment, so much so that John Stevens reportedly received
7280-424: The Top 3 finalists. The season reaches its climax in a two-hour results finale show, where the winner of the season is revealed. With the exception of the first two seasons, the contestants in the semifinals onward perform in front of a studio audience. They perform with a full band in the finals. The current musical director is Kris Pooley , who has been with the show since the sixteenth season. In previous seasons,
7410-434: The Top 5. In the eighth to tenth and fourteenth seasons, a double elimination then took place in the week following the activation of the save, but in the eleventh and thirteenth seasons, a regular single elimination took place. The save was not activated in the twelfth season and consequently, a non-elimination took place in the week after its expiration with the votes then carrying over into the following week. The "Fan Save"
7540-463: The United States for the 2017–18 TV season (Nielsen's National Television Household Universe, or Households Using Television, HUT). Nielsen re-estimates the number of television-equipped households each August for the upcoming television season. The rating of a program is a fraction of the HUT. It is calculated as RTG = HUT × SHARE where HUT (or PUT when measuring demos) is Homes Using Television and SHARE
7670-449: The audition rounds, 121 contestants were selected from around 10,000 who attended the auditions. These were cut to 30 for the semifinal, with ten going on to the finals. One semifinalist, Delano Cagnolatti, was disqualified for lying to evade the show's age limit. One of the early favorites, Tamyra Gray , was eliminated at the top four, the first of several such shock eliminations that were to be repeated in later seasons. Christina Christian
7800-449: The auditions by now had increased to over 100,000 from the 10,000 of the first season. The age limit was raised to 28 in this season, and among those who benefited from this new rule were Constantine Maroulis and Bo Bice , the two rockers of the show. The top 12 finalists originally included Mario Vazquez , but he dropped out citing 'personal reasons' and was replaced by Nikko Smith . Later, an employee of Fremantle Media, which produces
7930-564: The average viewership for only the commercial time within the program. These "Commercial Ratings" first became available on May 31, 2007. Additionally, Nielsen provides different "streams" of this data in order to take into consideration delayed viewing (DVR) data, at any interval up to seven days. C3 was the metric launched in 2007, and refers to the ratings for average commercial minutes in live programming plus total playback by digital video recorder up to three days after. In 2009, dissatisfaction with Nielsen's effectiveness resulted in formation of
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#17327794824818060-431: The bottom two in each groups were eliminated each week until only six of each remained to form the top twelve. The wildcard round returned in the eighth season, wherein there were three groups of twelve, with three contestants moving forward – the highest male, the highest female, and the next highest-placed singer – for each night, and four wildcards were chosen by the judges to produce a final 13. Starting in tenth season,
8190-404: The company can count digital viewers in audience and demographic reports but is unable to do so under the current set of rules devised by networks and advertising industries last revised in 2006. As such, Nielsen can only count viewership for television-originated broadcasts, and must exclude viewers who watch programs on digital platforms if the program does not have an identical advertising load or
8320-459: The contestants were allowed to perform with a musical instrument in the auditions. During the first nine seasons, performances were usually aired live on Tuesday nights, followed by the results shows on Wednesdays, but moved to Wednesdays and Thursdays from the tenth through thirteenth seasons, with the tenth, eleventh and thirteenth-season finales aired on Tuesday and Wednesday. From the fourteenth season onward, there were no separate results shows. On
8450-502: The coronation song during the finale, and released the song immediately after the season ended. The single, " A Moment Like This ", went on to break a 38-year-old record held by The Beatles for the biggest leap to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 . Guarini did not release any song immediately after the show and remains the only runner-up not to do so. Both Clarkson and Guarini made a musical film, From Justin to Kelly , which
8580-484: The criticism regarding accusations by several media executives (including Viacom CEO Phillippe Dauman and former Fox Entertainment Group chief operating officer Chase Carey ) that it failed to count viewers watching television programs on digital platforms, Nielsen executive vice president of global product leadership Megan Clarken stated in an April 2015 summit by the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement that
8710-412: The diary and validated with the data of the devices (TV set on/off) in the participating households. In the 154 TV markets with the lowest sales (e. g. Harrisburg, PA or Honolulu) the use of TV is only recorded using a diary survey. Each year until 2018, Nielsen processed approximately two million paper diaries from households across the United States, for November, February, May, and July—also known as
8840-549: The duet partners. In the seventeenth season, the same process was repeated again. However, instead of a top 24, it's a top 20, the contestants performed at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, and performed solos in one episode, and performed the duets in two episodes. In the eighteenth season, due to the COVID-19 pandemic , the top 20 performed at their homes, and based on the vote, half of the top 20 would advance to
8970-400: The eighth season, as a result of failing to agree to terms with the show producers. Emmy Award -winning talk show host Ellen DeGeneres replaced Abdul for the ninth season , but left in 2010 after just one season. DioGuardi was let go from American Idol in 2010 after two seasons, as producers favored a return to the three-person judges panel previously used prior to DioGuardi's appearance on
9100-412: The end of this stage of the competition, 24 to 36 contestants were selected to move on to the semi-final stage. In the twelfth season the Las Vegas round became a Sudden Death round, where the judges had to choose five guys and five girls each night (four nights) to make the top twenty. In the thirteenth season, the Las Vegas round was eliminated and a new round called "Hollywood or Home" was added, where if
9230-590: The fan voting from the wildcard week onward until the finale. Both finalists found success after the show, but Aiken out-performed Studdard's coronation song " Flying Without Wings " with his single release from the show " This Is the Night ", as well as in their subsequent album releases. The fourth-place finisher Josh Gracin also enjoyed some success as a country singer. The third season premiered on January 19, 2004. Ryan Seacrest returned as host, and Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Simon Cowell returned as judges. One of
9360-401: The fifteenth season, and six weeks in the sixteenth season. Each finalist performs songs based on a weekly theme which may be a musical genre such as Motown , disco , or big band , songs by artists such as Michael Jackson , Elvis Presley or The Beatles , or more general themes such as Billboard number-one hits or songs from the contestant's year of birth. Contestants usually worked with
9490-425: The final round, the contestants performed solo with a song of their choice a cappella or accompanied by a band—depending on the season. In the second and third seasons, contestants were also asked to write original lyrics or melody in an additional round after the first round. In the seventh season , the group round was eliminated and contestants may, after a first solo performance and on judges approval, skip
9620-411: The first season, there were three groups of ten, with the top three contestants from each group making the finals. In the second and third seasons, there were four groups of eight, and the top two of each selected. These seasons also featured a wildcard round, where contestants who failed to qualify were given another chance. In the first season, only one wildcard contestant was chosen by the judges, giving
9750-501: The first twenty-two seasons, as chosen by viewers, are Kelly Clarkson , Ruben Studdard , Fantasia Barrino , Carrie Underwood , Taylor Hicks , Jordin Sparks , David Cook , Kris Allen , Lee DeWyze , Scotty McCreery , Phillip Phillips , Candice Glover , Caleb Johnson , Nick Fradiani , Trent Harmon , Maddie Poppe , Laine Hardy , Just Sam , Chayce Beckham , Noah Thompson , Iam Tongi , and Abi Carter . American Idol employs
9880-529: The first week of December 1947. They measured the top 20 programs in four areas: total audience, average audience, cumulative audience, and homes per dollar spent for time and talent. In 1950, Nielsen then moved to television, developing a rating system using the methods he and his company had developed for radio. That method became the primary source of audience measurement information in the American television industry. In September 2020, Nielsen began compiling
10010-512: The fourteenth season, the show aired on Wednesday nights, and on the fifteenth season, Thursday nights. Since the sixteenth season, the show has been airing on Sundays and Mondays. The first season of American Idol debuted as a summer replacement show in June 2002 on the Fox network. It was co-hosted by Ryan Seacrest and Brian Dunkleman. Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Simon Cowell served as judges. In
10140-446: The girls and boys perform on separate nights. In the tenth and eleventh seasons, five of each gender were chosen, and three wildcards were chosen by the judges to form a final 13. In the twelfth season, the top twenty semifinalists were split into gender groups, with five of each gender advancing to form the final 10. In the thirteenth season, there were thirty semifinalists, but only twenty semifinalists (ten for each gender) were chosen by
10270-423: The judges to perform on the live shows, with five in each gender based on the vote and three wildcards chosen by the judges composing the final 13. In the fourteenth season, the top 24 performed at The Fillmore Detroit , starting with the 12 males on one night and then the 12 females on the next night. The following week, the same order went for the top 16, with four males eliminated, followed by four females based on
10400-451: The judges were uncertain about some contestants, those contestants were required to perform soon after landing in Los Angeles, and those who failed to impress were sent back home before they reached Hollywood. In the fourteenth season, the "Hollywood or Home" round was dropped, and a Showcase round was added, where the contestants performed at the House of Blues or auditorium for the judges and
10530-425: The judges, and was successful with the viewing public. In 2001, Fuller, Cowell, and TV producer Simon Jones attempted to sell the Pop Idol format to the United States, but the idea was initially met with poor responses from all the television networks including UPN and Fox . However, Rupert Murdoch , head of Fox 's parent company , was later persuaded to buy the series by his daughter, Elisabeth , who had seen
10660-404: The judges, in one of the audition cities. Once in Hollywood, the contestants perform individually or in groups in a series of rounds. Until the tenth season, there were usually three rounds of eliminations in Hollywood. In the first round the contestants emerged in groups but performed individually. For the next round, the contestants put themselves in small groups and performed a song together. In
10790-438: The judges, which is the only audition stage shown on television. Those selected by the judges are sent to Hollywood. Between 10 and 60 people in each city may make it to Hollywood (the average total is between 150 and 200). From the nineteenth season onwards, contestants request a Zoom interview and audition remotely for the show's producers. If the audition goes well, they will then invite the contestants to audition in front of
10920-566: The largest audiences are widely televised events in the genre of popular music , such as the Eurovision Song Contest and American Idol . The Open Mic UK and Live and Unsigned contests in the United Kingdom each garner approximately 10,000 contestants annually, making them the largest contests in the region. According to 2005 statistics, more than 650,000 visitors attend the World Music Contest (Kerkrade,
11050-410: The lowest number of votes was called to the center of the stage. One of these three was usually sent to safety; however the two remaining were not necessarily the bottom two. The contestant with the fewest votes was then revealed and eliminated from the competition. A montage of the eliminated contestant's time on the show was played and they gave their final performance (from the fourteenth season onward,
11180-522: The mentors also joined as judges to critique the performances in the final rounds. Guest judges were sporadically used during the audition rounds: Gene Simmons , LL Cool J , Brandy , Mark McGrath , and Kenny Loggins in the fourth season ; Carole Bayer Sager , Jewel , and Olivia Newton-John in the sixth season ; Shania Twain , Neil Patrick Harris , Avril Lavigne , Mary J. Blige , Joe Jonas , Kristin Chenoweth , Victoria Beckham , and Perry in
11310-416: The mid-2000s. Along with changing their counting methods, Nielsen also started emphasizing their sample in 2003 in reaction to census shifts and requests from some industry sectors. Nielsen's automated Local People Meter (LPM) technology was introduced in two cities: New York and Los Angeles. The LPM improved the method of measurement from active and diary-based to passive and meter-monitored. More importantly,
11440-463: The montage and the final performance were dropped). However, in the sixth season , during the series' first ever Idol Gives Back episode, no contestant was eliminated, but on the following week, two were sent home. Moreover, from the eighth to the fourteenth seasons, and the seventeenth season onward, the judges may overturn viewers' decision with a "Judges' Save" if they unanimously agreed to. "The save" could only be used once, and only up through
11570-442: The most talked-about contestants during the audition process was William Hung whose off-key rendition of Ricky Martin 's " She Bangs " received widespread attention. His exposure on Idol landed him a record deal and surprisingly he became the third bestselling singer from that season. Much media attention on the season had been focused on the three black singers, Fantasia Barrino , LaToya London , and Jennifer Hudson , dubbed
11700-563: The networks have aired them) would significantly impact television ratings. A year later, the networks were not factoring these new results into their ad rates because of advertisers' resistance. In July 2017, Nielsen announced that it would include select programs from subscription-based video on demand (vSVOD) services Hulu and YouTube TV in its Digital in TV Ratings system. Since about October 2017, Nielsen also began to track select programs from Netflix . Partnering distributors insert
11830-451: The ninth season (substituting in the vacant chair, before DeGeneres was hired); and Adam Lambert filled in for Urban at one audition location during the fourteenth season . In the ABC version, two instances occurred during the live shows: Abdul filled in for Bryan on one episode of the nineteenth season , while Alanis Morissette and Ed Sheeran filled in for Perry and Richie on an episode of
11960-406: The ninth season reportedly earned at least $ 1 million in their first year as winner. At first the contract came with a $ 250,000-plus advance, but dropped to about $ 62,500 over the Fox years. All the runners-up of the first ten seasons, as well as some of other finalists, had also received record deals with major labels. However, starting in the eleventh season, the runner-up may only be guaranteed
12090-606: The oldest music competitions in the world is the International Naumburg Competition , in New York, which had its first competition in 1926. In recent years, the largest music competition in terms of number of global genres represented appears to be Sharq Taronalari , an enormous festival sponsored by UNESCO and the government of Uzbekistan. Various online music competitions for young musicians are now gaining popularity, including Unsigned Only, which
12220-491: The public relations campaign claimed that data derived from the newer People Meter system represented a bias toward underreporting minority viewing, leading to a de facto discrimination in employment against minority actors and writers. However, Nielsen countered the campaign by revealing its sample composition counts. According to Nielsen Media Research's sample composition counts, as of November 2004 , nationwide, African American households using People Meters represented 6.7% of
12350-465: The recent decades, large competitions have also developed in the field of popular music to showcase performances by pop vocalists and rock bands (e.g. " Idol series " and " Battle of the Bands " events). One of the first and oldest large-scale musical contests is the Sanremo Music Festival which started in 1951 and was also the inspiration for the Eurovision Song Contest . The music competitions with
12480-406: The right to discard votes by power dialers. One or more of the least popular contestants may be eliminated in successive weeks until a winner emerges. Over 110 million votes were cast in the first season, and by the tenth season the seasonal total had increased to nearly 750 million. Voting via text messaging was made available in the second season when AT&T Wireless joined as a sponsor of
12610-650: The same season. In 2014, Nielsen reported that American viewership of live television (totaling on average four hours and 32 minutes per day) had dropped 12 minutes per day compared to the year before. The CW got another 0.0 rating for its broadcast of the 1st Critics Choice Super Awards. Nielsen reported several reasons for the shift away from live television: increased viewership of time-shifted television (mainly through DVRs) and viewership of internet video (clips from video sharing websites and streams of full-length television shows). In 2007, Nielsen began to release data that reflected out-of-home/not via home TV viewing. This
12740-553: The season that culminates in revealing the winner, both of which are broadcast live in the U.S. Eastern and Central time zones. For the first, third through sixth and fourteenth through fifteenth seasons it was broadcast from the Dolby Theatre , which has an audience capacity of approximately 3,400. The second-season finale took place at the Gibson Amphitheatre , which had an audience capacity of over 6,000. In
12870-440: The selected contestants' albums, such as Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Fantasia Barrino and Diana DeGarmo. All top 10 (11 in the tenth and twelfth seasons, 5 in the fourteenth season, and 7 in the sixteenth season) finalists earn the privilege of going on a tour, where the participants may each earn a six-figure sum. Each season premieres with the audition round, taking place in different cities. The audition episodes typically feature
13000-538: The semi-final stage (in previous years by the audition stage). For the first eighteen seasons, contestants went through at least three sets of cuts. The first was a brief audition with a few other contestants in front of selectors which may include one of the show's producers. Although auditions can exceed 10,000 in each city, only a few hundred of these made it past the preliminary round of auditions. Successful contestants then sing in front of producers, where more may be cut. Only then can they proceed to audition in front of
13130-411: The semifinals onward the contestants perform their songs live, with the judges making their critiques after each performance. The contestants are voted for by the viewing public, and the outcome of the public votes is then revealed during a results segment. The results segment feature group performances by the contestants as well as guest performers. The Top-three results also features homecoming events for
13260-476: The series was "the most impactful show in the history of television". It became a recognized springboard for launching the career of many artists as bona fide stars. According to Billboard magazine , in its first ten years, " Idol has spawned 345 Billboard chart-toppers and a platoon of pop idols, including Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry , Fantasia, Ruben Studdard, Jennifer Hudson , Clay Aiken , Adam Lambert , and Jordin Sparks while remaining
13390-416: The seventeenth season. The eighteenth-season finale was conducted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic . The winner usually receives a record deal with a major label, which may be for up to six albums, and secures a management contract with American Idol -affiliated 19 Management (which has the right of first refusal to sign all contestants), as well as various lucrative contracts. All winners prior to
13520-489: The seventh through thirteenth seasons, the venue was at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live , which holds an audience of over 7,000. Since the show's reboot on ABC, the venue remains the same throughout the entire show (excluding auditions), but was still two episodes in the sixteenth season, and then stretched to a single three-hour season finale that is annually aired live simultaneously in all U.S. territories , starting with
13650-497: The show and that this contributed to his expulsion. Clark also claimed that Abdul gave him preferential treatment on the show due to their affair. The allegations were dismissed by Fox after an independent investigation. Two semi-finalists were also disqualified that year – Jaered Andrews for an arrest on an assault charge, and Frenchie Davis for having previously modeled for an adult website. The season finale drew more than 38 million viewers, marking Idol' s biggest audience ever for
13780-517: The show in May 2024 after seven seasons. On July 31, 2024, published reports announced former Idol winner Carrie Underwood as Perry's replacement, joining Bryan and Richie for the twenty-third season . Guest judges may occasionally be introduced. In the second season, guest judges such as Richie and Gladys Knight were used, and in the third season , Donna Summer , Quentin Tarantino , and some of
13910-454: The show's budget and the charge for commercial spots. Dunkleman left the show, leaving Ryan Seacrest as the lone host. Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Simon Cowell returned as judges. Kristin Adams was a correspondent for this season. Corey Clark was disqualified during the finals for having an undisclosed police record; however, he later alleged that he and Paula Abdul had an affair while on
14040-442: The show, and 7.5 million text messages were sent to American Idol that season. The number of text messages rapidly increased, reaching 178 million texts by the eighth season. Online voting was offered for the first time in the tenth season. The votes are counted and verified by Telescope Inc. In the first three seasons, the semi-finalists were split into different groups to perform individually in their respective night. In
14170-400: The show, sued the company for wrongful termination, claiming that he was dismissed after complaining about lewd behavior by Vazquez toward him during the show. During the top 11 week, due to a mix-up with the contestants' telephone number, voting was repeated on what was normally the result night, with the result reveal postponed until the following night. In May 2005, Underwood was announced
14300-566: The show. Cowell also left the show in 2010 to introduce the American version of his show The X Factor in 2011. Jackson was the only judge from the ninth season to return for the tenth. Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler joined the judging panel in the tenth season , but both left in 2012 after two seasons. Jackson was the only judge from the eleventh season to return for the twelfth. They were replaced by three new judges, Mariah Carey , Nicki Minaj , and Keith Urban , who joined Jackson in
14430-478: The simpler codes (usually their child's), raising serious questions about the demographic data quality. The situation further deteriorated as the popularity of cable television increased the number of viewable networks to the extent that the margin of error has increased because the sampling sizes are too small. Compounding matters is that of the sample data that is collected, advertisers will not pay for time shifted programs (those that are recorded for replay at
14560-626: The sweeps period in March that year rather than moving it again. This local viewing information provides a basis for program scheduling and advertising decisions for local television stations, cable systems, and advertisers. Typically, the November, February, and May sweeps are considered more important; nevertheless, the July sweeps can have a local impact regarding personnel. In some mid-size markets, diaries provide viewer information for up to two additional "sweeps" months (October and January). There
14690-420: The thirteenth season, and was joined by former mentor Harry Connick Jr. After this, Lopez, Urban, and Connick Jr. remained on the show until its cancellation after the fifteenth season in 2016. When the show was revived by ABC in 2018, Katy Perry , Luke Bryan , and Lionel Richie were selected as judges, marking the sixteenth season of Idol . Bryan and Richie have remained on the show since, while Perry left
14820-411: The top 10, and the other half would be eliminated. However, a wild card was given to one of the bottom 10 to save them from elimination. In the nineteenth season, the show used a combination of the process from the sixteenth and fourteenth seasons. In the twentieth season, the show repeated the process from the previous season, but they used a top 20 instead of a top 16, and there were no all star duets. In
14950-403: The twenty-first season, the same process was repeated, but they started with a top 26 instead of a top 24. In the twenty-second season, the show repeated the process from the twentieth season. The finals are broadcast in primetime from Los Angeles, in front of a live studio audience (except the eighteenth season , due to the COVID-19 pandemic ). From 2002 to 2019 and from 2021 to 2022, the venue
15080-408: The twenty-third season, Underwood will replace Perry, alongside returning judges Bryan and Richie. The show has been hosted by television presenter Ryan Seacrest throughout its run, apart from the show's inaugural season when comedian Brian Dunkleman joined Seacrest as co-host. The success of American Idol has been described as "unparalleled in broadcasting history". A rival TV executive said
15210-433: The video game and eSports areas, an area that Nielsen plans to expand into. Later, in April 2021, Nielsen stated they will close down SuperData and move its analysis and tracking into Nielsen Sports. In September 2020, Nielsen began compiling a weekly Top 10 list of most watched shows on streaming platforms. After divestiture of NielsenIQ (the former ACNielsen consumer research business) in 2021, Nielsen became solely
15340-408: The vote. Then, on the first night of finals, a similar sequence from the thirteenth season was used to determine the final 12, with five of each gender based on the vote and two wildcards chosen by the judges. In the fifteenth season, the top 24 performed at Cathedral of Saint Vibiana in Los Angeles and were split into two groups of twelve and performed twice, one being a solo performance and one being
15470-517: The winner, with Bice the runner-up. Both Underwood and Bice released the coronation song " Inside Your Heaven ", with Underwood's version of the song making her the first country artist ever to debut at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. As of 2015, Underwood has become the most successful Idol contestant in the U.S., selling 16 million albums in the country, while selling a total of 65 million records worldwide. Music competition Examples of music competitions in popular music include
15600-399: Was CBS Television City . Starting in 2023, it changed to Red Studios. The finals lasted eight weeks in the first season. From the second to ninth and fourteenth seasons, the finals lasted eleven weeks. The tenth and eleventh seasons lasted for twelve weeks, while the twelfth season lasted for ten weeks. In the thirteenth season, the finals lasted thirteen weeks. The finals lasted seven weeks in
15730-417: Was a follow-up to their added inclusiveness regarding family members who are dorming in college. Since specific demographics influence advertising rates, Nielsen provides statistics by categories including age, sex, race, economic class, and area. For example, an advertiser might look for younger viewers, for older or wealthier audiences, or for women rather than men. In general, the number of viewers within
15860-522: Was able to charge almost three times as much for a commercial during Friends as CBS charged for Murder, She Wrote , even though the two series had a similar amount of total viewership during the two seasons they were on the air concurrently. Glee (on Fox ) and The Office (on NBC) drew fewer total viewers than NCIS (on CBS) during the 2009–10 season, but earned an average of $ 272,694 and $ 213,617 respectively, compared to $ 150,708 for NCIS . Nielsen also provides viewership data calculated as
15990-483: Was between Justin Guarini , one of the early favorites, and Kelly Clarkson . Clarkson was not initially thought of as a contender, but impressed the judges with some good performances in the final rounds, such as her performance of Aretha Franklin 's " Natural Woman ", and Betty Hutton 's " Stuff Like That There ", and eventually won the crown on September 4, 2002. In what was to become a tradition, Clarkson performed
16120-412: Was displayed on the screen. For a two-hour period after the episode ends (up to four hours for the finale) in each US time zone, viewers may call or send a text message to their preferred contestant's telephone number, and each call or text message was registered as a vote for that contestant. Viewers were allowed to vote as many times as they can within the two-hour voting window. However, the show reserves
16250-417: Was hospitalized before the top six result show due to chest pains and palpitations, and she was eliminated while she was in the hospital. Jim Verraros was the first openly gay contestant on the show; his sexual orientation was revealed on his blog, however it was removed during the competition after a request from the show producers over concerns that it might be unfairly influencing votes. The final showdown
16380-421: Was introduced in the fourteenth season . During the finals, viewers were given a five-minute window to vote for the contestants in danger of elimination by using their Twitter account to decide which contestant will move on to the next show, starting with the Top 8. During the original run of American Idol on Fox, the finale week consisted of a one-hour long final performance night and a two-hour last episode of
16510-521: Was released in 2003 but was widely panned. Clarkson has since become one of the most successful Idol contestants internationally, with worldwide album sales of more than 25 million. Starting September 30, 2006, this season was repackaged as " American Idol Rewind " and syndicated directly to stations in the U.S. Following the success of the first season, the second season was moved up to air in January 2003. The number of episodes increased, as did
16640-410: Was renamed American Idol: The Search for a Superstar and debuted in the summer of 2002. Cowell was initially offered the job of showrunner, but turned down the offer; Lythgoe then took over that position. Much to the surprise of Cowell and Fox, it became one of the biggest shows of the summer. With its successful launch in the summer, the show was then moved to January and expanded. The show grew into
16770-399: Was sixteen to twenty-four in the first three seasons, but the upper limit was raised to twenty-eight in the fourth season, and the lower limit was reduced to fifteen in the tenth season. The contestants have to be legal U.S. residents, can not have advanced to particular stages of the competition in previous seasons, and must not have held a current recording or talent representation contract by
16900-536: Was split off into an independent company, and in 1999, was purchased by the Dutch conglomerate VNU . In 2001, VNU also purchased ACNielsen, thereby bringing both companies under the same corporate umbrella for years. NMR is also a sister company to Nielsen//NetRatings, which measures Internet and digital media audiences. VNU was reorganized and renamed the Nielsen Company in 2007. NMR was separated again from
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