The fifth season of American Idol began on January 17, 2006 and concluded on May 24, 2006. Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell returned to judge, and Ryan Seacrest returned to host. It is the most successful season to date ratings-wise and also with 17 contestants (including all of the top 9 and a few semifinalists) getting record deals - nine of them with major labels. It is the first season with a male winner (Taylor Hicks) and a female...
more
The fifth season of American Idol began on January 17, 2006 and concluded on May 24, 2006. Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell returned to judge, and Ryan Seacrest returned to host. It is the most successful season to date ratings-wise and also with 17 contestants (including all of the top 9 and a few semifinalists) getting record deals - nine of them with major labels. It is the first season with a male winner (Taylor Hicks) and a female runner-up (Katharine McPhee). It was also the first season of the series to be aired in high definition.
Auditions were held in seven cities in the summer and early fall of 2005 in the following order:
Unlike Season Four, no guest judges were involved during the auditions.
A new feature this year, the show now uses a special song to make a tribute to an eliminated contestant's journey on the show, as opposed to before when various different melodic music compositions were played. This year, the song used for an eliminated contestant's...
less
