American Idol ''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 Ap ...

'' is an American singing competition television series created by

Simon Fuller Simon Fuller (born 17 May 1960) is a British entrepreneur, artist manager, and film and television producer renowned for nurturing and inspiring world class entertainment talent. He is the creator of the ''Idols'' TV format, including the UK s ...

; it is produced by Fremantle and

19 Entertainment 19 Entertainment is a producer of entertainment properties for television with a focus on music. Founded by Simon Fuller in London in 1985, the company co-produced ''Pop Idol'' in the United Kingdom with Thames Television in 2001. The ''Idol serie ...

. It began airing on

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

in the United States on June 11, 2002, and ended on April 7, 2016. The series moved to

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

with its sixteenth season which debuted on March 11, 2018. It started off as an addition to the ''Idols'' format based on the British series ''

Pop Idol ''Pop Idol'' is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and par ...

'', and became one of the most successful shows in the history of

American television Television is one of the major mass media outlets in the United States. , household ownership of television sets in the country is 96.7%, with approximately 114,200,000 American households owning at least one television set as of August 2013. ...

. The concept of the series involves discovering recording stars from unsigned singing talents, with the winner determined by the viewers in America through telephones, Internet, and SMS text voting.

Series overview

Episodes

Season 1 (2002)

Season 2 (2003)

Season 3 (2004)

Season 4 (2005)

Season 5 (2006)

Season 6 (2007)

Season 7 (2008)

Season 8 (2009)

Season 9 (2010)

Season 10 (2011)

Season 11 (2012)

Season 12 (2013)

Season 13 (2014)

Season 14 (2015)

Season 15 (2016)

Season 16 (2018)

Season 17 (2019)

Season 18 (2020)

Season 19 (2021)

Season 20 (2022)

Season 21 (2023)

Most watched episodes

''American Idol'' has seen its fair share of viewership changes over the years. The show had 38.1 million viewers in the finale of season 2 and an all-time low with a mere 5.55 million viewers tuning in to watch the final performances of the fourteenth season.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:American Idol episodes Lists of American reality television series episodes