American Idol is an American singing competition series created by Simon Fuller and produced by 19 Entertainment, and is distributed by FremantleMedia North America. It began airing on Fox on June 11, 2002, as an addition to the Idols format based on the British series Pop Idol and has since become one of the most successful shows in the history of American television. The concept of the series is to find new solo recording artists, with the winner being determined by the viewers in America. Winners chosen by viewers through telephone, Internet, and SMS text voting were 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, and Nick Fradiani.

American Idol employs a panel of judges who critique the contestants' performances. The original judges were record producer and music manager Randy Jackson, pop singer and choreographer Paula Abdul and music executive and manager Simon Cowell. The judging panel for the most recent season consisted of country singer Keith Urban, singer and actress Jennifer Lopez, and jazz singer Harry Connick, Jr.[3] The show was originally hosted by radio personality Ryan Seacrest and comedian Brian Dunkleman, with Seacrest continuing on for the rest of the seasons.

The success of American Idol has been described as "unparalleled in broadcasting history".[4] The series was also said by a rival TV executive to be "the most impactful show in the history of television".[5] It has become 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, Daughtry, Fantasia, Ruben Studdard, Jennifer Hudson, Clay Aiken, Adam Lambert and Jordin Sparks while remaining a TV ratings juggernaut."[6]

For an unprecedented eight consecutive years, from the 2003–04 television season through the 2010–11 season, either its performance or result show had been ranked number one in U.S. television ratings.[7] By 2012, however, the popularity of American Idol had begun to decline; that year, ratings in the 18–49 demographic fell by 24–27%, and fell further during subsequent seasons. For the first time since 2003, Idol was no longer amongst Nielsen's top 10 shows in terms of viewership. Critics credited the decline primarily to the growing popularity of NBC's competing series The Voice, along with other reality competition series that patterned themselves on Idol. On May 11, 2015, Fox announced that the series was canceled and that the program would conclude its run following its fifteenth season.