American Idol season 8
The eighth season of American Idol premiered on Tuesday, January 13, 2009, and concluded on May 20, 2009. Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson returned as judges, while Ryan Seacrest returned as host. This season introduced Kara DioGuardi as a permanent fourth judge.[1] This was also Paula Abdul's last season as a judge.[2] Kris Allen was announced the winner of the competition on May 20, 2009, defeating runner-up Adam Lambert after nearly 100 million votes were cast.
American Idol
January 13 –
May 20, 2009
The eighth season saw numerous changes to the format of the show. There were 36 semifinalists instead of 24, and thirteen finalists instead of twelve: nine contestants chosen by the public and four by the judges in a Wild Card round. Another addition was the "judges' save," which allowed the judges to veto one elimination during the competition, and was used to veto Matt Giraud's elimination.
Multiple contestants from this season were signed to record deals, including Kris Allen, Adam Lambert, Danny Gokey, Allison Iraheta, Lil Rounds, Anoop Desai, and Michael Sarver.[3]
Hollywood week[edit]
The Hollywood round moved from the Orpheum Theatre to the Kodak Theatre, which had previously been used for the finales in the first and third through sixth seasons.
In the first round, the 147 contestants each sang a short solo a cappella performance of any song. The next round had the remaining 107 contestants performing in groups of three or four. The 72 contestants who survived that round performed one more solo song, this time accompanied by a band, before being narrowed down to 54. The final 54 then went to the "judges' mansion" in Los Angeles for the final results, and the top 36 were announced. Some contestants had a sing-off to determine who would enter the top 36.
Controversies[edit]
In the top 13, the expected telephone number for contestant Alexis Grace, 1-866-IDOLS-13, was not owned by American Idol, but by a company called Intimate Encounters, who used it as a phone sex line.[20] Although host Ryan Seacrest mentioned the replacement phone number, 1-866-IDOLS-36, several times, some commentators feared that the phone number confusion could lead to Grace being inadvertently voted off the show.[21] However, Grace was not voted off that week.
After the top 11 program, Justin Guarini, while hosting Idol Wrap on TV Guide channel, asserted that the show's group performances were being lip-synced.[22] Soon after Guarini's assertion was aired, a spokesperson for the producers of American Idol said, "The Idols don't lip-sync, period."[22] The following day, the same spokesperson said that "due to extensive choreography and to balance their voices with open mics against a screaming audience, the Idols do sing along to their own prerecorded vocal track during the group performances only."[22][23] The spokesperson maintained that the performers sing their solo songs live, but their performances available to download through iTunes are recorded prior to airing.[22]
Kris Allen's win over Adam Lambert resulted in controversy about the voting process, prompted by a claim that of the nearly 100 million votes cast,[24] as many as "38 million" votes may have come from Arkansas, which was Allen's home state,[25] despite the fact that the state only had a population of 2.86 million people at the time. Although the claim was later retracted,[26] it resulted in allegations that AT&T may have influenced the results.[27] Fox had previously denied these claims as baseless, stating that the network has no preference on who the winner might be.[28] AT&T meanwhile said in a statement that the vote tally above was based on incorrect information and apologized by saying that "AT&T does not divulge or confirm how many votes were cast in any state."[29] On May 27, 2009, the producers of the show stated that they "stand by the outcome" and are "absolutely certain" that "without a doubt Kris Allen is the American Idol."[30][31][32]