At the Miami auditions during the second season, a young man named Edgar Nova was rejected after delivering an off-key rendition of Enrique Iglesias' "My Love". Despite this, he re-entered the tryout line, telling other hopefuls that the judges had asked him to do so. Security was called to escort Nova from the audition venue. Undaunted, Nova flew to Los Angeles at his own expense and appeared at the tryouts there, sporting a different hairstyle in hopes that the judges would not recognize him. They did, but they allowed him another audition, after which he was rejected yet again.
Nikki McKibbin from Season 1 and Syesha Mercado from Season 7 have both tied for most times appearing in the Bottom 3 (six times). They both placed 3rd on the show.
Two brothers from Denver named Jimmy and Scott Osterman were among the hopefuls at the "American Idol 2" tryouts in Austin, Texas. Their audition, which included a cringe-making version of Paula Abdul's "Opposites Attract", had judge Simon Cowell about to deliver a scathing putdown when the pair revealed themselves to be Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly in disguise and that Cowell was the victim of a practical joke for their show Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway (2002). McPartlin and Donnelly are also the hosts of Pop Idol (2001) the original British show from which "American Idol" is adapted, and for which Cowell also serves as a judge.
At the Las Vegas auditions during Season 4, Joseph Land entered the audition room and claimed that he was 28 years old, the maximum age allowed for the competition. All the judges, however, were skeptical of Land's claim, because he appeared to be much older than 28. The chyron graphics displaying his stats even showed his age as "28" (including the quote marks). After his audition received unanimous negative feedback from the judges, Land finally admitted to being 44 years old.
Kelly Clarkson is the first female to win on the show, Ruben Studdard is the first male to win and Kris Allen is the first married contestant to win.
Jordin Sparks is the youngest contestant to win on the show. Taylor Hicks is the oldest contestant to win.
Scott MacIntyre is the first blind contestant to participate on the show.
According to Forbes Magazine 2009, Carrie Underwood topped the list of highest earning American Idol artists.
Carrie Underwood's debut album 'Some Hearts' is the biggest-selling album from an American Idol winner, selling more than 7 million copies. It's also the most successful debut album by a female artist in country music history.
Ruben Studdard beat Clay Aiken by only 134,000 votes out of the 24 million cast in the Season 2 finale. It remains one of the closest votes in the show's history.
The "Kieran" Ryan Seacrest always says to "dim the lights" during the results shows on American Idol (2002) is Kieran Healy (credited on the show as being the "Lighting Designer").
Edgar Nova, who unsuccessfully auditioned for Season 2 twice (once in Miami and once in Los Angeles), appeared yet again, this time at the New York auditions for Season 3. Though the judges said that they admired Nova's tenacity, with Simon Cowell even shaking hands with him, his audition was once again unsuccessful.
Constantine Maroulis, lead singer for the hard rock band Pray For The Soul Of Betty, auditioned for Season 4 in Washington, D.C. without telling his bandmates. When he qualified for the Hollywood rounds, Ryan Seacrest took the show's cameras to a Betty practice session to break the news to the band. Though Maroulis' bandmates were generally supportive of him, drummer Hamboussi expressed visible disdain towards the show and finally left the practice room in a huff.
Top 10 Rankings (2002):
- Winner: Kelly Clarkson,
- 2nd place: Justin Guarini,
- 3rd place: Nikki McKibbin,
- 4th place: Tamyra Gray,
- 5th place: R.J. Helton,
- 6th place: Christina Christian,
- 7th place: Ryan Starr,
- 8th place: A.J. Gil,
- 9th place: EJay Day,
- 10th place: Jim Verraros
Top 12 Rankings (2003):
- Winner: Ruben Studdard,
- 2nd place: Clay Aiken,
- 3rd place: Kimberley Locke,
- 4th place: Joshua Gracin,
- 5th place: Trenyce,
- 6th place: Carmen Rasmusen,
- 7th place: Kimberly Caldwell,
- 8th place: Rickey Smith,
- 9th place: Corey Clark,
- 10th place: Julia DeMato,
- 11th place: Charles Grigsby,
- 12th place: Vanessa Olivarez
Top 12 Rankings (2004):
- Winner: Fantasia Barrino,
- 2nd place: Diana DeGarmo,
- 3rd place: Jasmine Trias,
- 4th place: La Toya London,
- 5th place: George Huff,
- 6th place: John Stevens,
- 7th place: Jennifer Hudson,
- 8th place: Jon Peter Lewis,
- 9th place: Camile Velasco,
- 10th place: Amy Adams,
- 11th place: Matthew Rogers,
- 12th place: Leah LaBelle
Top 12 Rankings (2005):
- Winner: Carrie Underwood,
- 2nd place: Bo Bice,
- 3rd place: Vonzell Solomon,
- 4th place: Anthony Federov,
- 5th place: Scott Savol,
- 6th place: Constantine Maroulis,
- 7th place: Anwar Robinson,
- 8th place: Nadia Turner,
- 9th place: Nikko Smith,
- 10th place: Jessica Sierra,
- 11th place: Mikalah Gordon,
- 12th place: Lindsey Cardinale
Top 12 Rankings (2006):
- Winner: Taylor Hicks,
- 2nd place: Katharine McPhee,
- 3rd place: Elliott Yamin,
- 4th place: Chris Daughtry,
- 5th place: Paris Bennett,
- 6th place: Kellie Pickler,
- 7th place: Ace Young,
- 8th place: Bucky Covington,
- 9th place: Mandisa Hundley,
- 10th place: Lisa Tucker,
- 11th place: Kevin Covais,
- 12th place: Melissa McGhee
Top 12 Rankings (2007):
- Winner: Jordin Sparks,
- 2nd place: Blake Lewis,
- 3rd place: Melinda Doolittle,
- 4th place: Lakisha Jones,
- 5th place: Chris Richardson,
- 6th place: Phil Stacey,
- 7th place: Sanjaya Malakar,
- 8th place: Haley Scarnato,
- 9th place: Gina Glocksen,
- 10th place: Chris Sligh,
- 11th place: Stephanie Edwards,
- 12th place: Brandon Rogers
Top 12 Rankings (2008):
- Winner: David Cook
- 2nd place: David Archuleta
- 3rd place: Syesha Mercado
- 4th place: Jason Castro
- 5th place: Brooke White
- 6th place: Carly Smithson
- 7th place: Kristy Lee Cook
- 8th place: Michael Johns
- 9th place: Ramiele Malubay
- 10th place: Chikezie
- 11th place: Amanda Overmyer
- 12th place: David Hernandez
Kelly Clarkson and Kris Allen are the only winners to not have their entire audition shown on television - while Kris had a clip of his shown, Kelly's was not shown at all.
Season One is the only season to have a Top 10, every season after that had a Top 12. Season Eight is the first season to feature a Top 13.
Tamyra Gray co-wrote the winning single for Season 3.
Season 7 is the first to have a finale with both finalist having the same first names, and to have both finalists never appear in the bottom two or three.
In Season 1, Kelly Clarkson beat out Justin Guarini for the title. In Season 4, Carrie Underwood beat out Bo Bice for the title. In Season 6, Jordin Sparks beat out Blake Lewis for the title. In Season 5, Taylor Hicks beat out Katharine McPhee for the title, making this the first time a male finalist won over the female finalist in a boy-girl finale.
Top 13 Rankings (2009):
- Winner: Kris Allen,
- 2nd place: Adam Lambert,
- 3rd place: Danny Gokey,
- 4th place: Alison Iraheta,
- 5th place: Matt Giraud,
- 6th place: Anoop Desai,
- 7th place: Lil Rounds,
- 8th place: Scott MacIntyre,
- 9th place: Megan Joy,
- 10th place: Michael Sarver,
- 11th place: Alexis Grace,
- 12th place: Jorge Nunez,
- 13th place: Jasmine Murray
Season 5 was the first season to use an actual song (Daniel Powter's "Bad Day") for an eliminated contestant's montage. All the earlier seasons were instrumental.
Howard Stern was in talks to replace Simon Cowell in season 10 but the negotiations fell through. Stern ended up as a judge on Cowell's America's Got Talent (2006) instead.
Kelly Clarkson holds the record for the most albums sold by an American Idol alumni with nearly 10 million records. Also, her songs have been downloaded nearly 10 million times. Carrie Underwood is second with album and digital download sales of 15.7 million.
At the end of the Houston, Texas auditions during the third season, hopeful Jonathan Rey from Conroe, Texas approached judge Simon Cowell at the judges' table after Cowell gave Rey's audition an unfavorable review. Rey's hand was extended, leading Cowell to believe that Rey wanted to shake his hand, but Rey instead grabbed a large cup of water on the table and threw its contents at Cowell, drenching him. On-site security called Houston police, who detained Rey outside the audition venue for questioning, releasing him only after Cowell refused to press assault charges.
During the Atlanta tryouts of Season 3, a young woman named Kristen Powell, clad in a leotard and leg warmers, gave a tone-deaf and rhythm-less performance of "Flashdance", which the judges quickly rejected. Though Powell burst into tears and begged for the chance to be "synthesized" to look and sound like a star, it was revealed that she and LaMosa Rowell (her companion at the audition) were merely performing a stunt for a radio broadcast (which included an obscenity-laced tirade by Rowell, complete with angry posturings at the camera). LaMosa and Kristen were interns for the MJ Morning Show, a radio morning show based on 93.3 WFLZ-FM in Tampa, Florida. The show is also heard in Jacksonville, FL (on 97.9 Kiss FM) and St. Louis, MO (on Z107.7 FM). MJ's other American Idol activities included an "American Idiot" competition in which people submitted video tapes of themselves doing foolish things to compete for cash prizes.
The rapping male nanny featured on the 2005 San Francisco auditions was actually comedian Chris Wylde in disguise. Wylde adopted a nerdy persona as a nanny, donned clunky black glasses and auditioned under his real name, Christopher Noll. Instead of singing, he performed a humorous original rap about judges Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell and guest judge, Brandy. Abdul and Brandy praised his performance, which was panned by Cowell. After getting rejected, Wylde spewed out a mouthful of obscenities. According to the New York Post, Idol producers were unaware the audition was a stunt.
For the UK broadcast of Season 6 Cat Deeley introduces the episodes and conducts interviews with contestants and guests.
To date (2009), Kris Allen, Ruben Studdard and Fantasia Barrino are the only three contestants to win after being in Bottom Two or Bottom Three on an elimination show.
David Archuleta, 'Diana Degarmo' and Jordin Sparks are the three youngest contestants to make the Final Two.
Kara DioGuardi co-wrote the winning single for Season 8.
Angie Martinez joined the show as a judge in the second season. But Martinez quit after five days and released a statement saying "it became too uncomfortable for me to tell someone else to give up on their dream."
Kelly Clarkson is the only American Idol winner to hold the title less than a year.
David Cook holds the record for the most downloaded song from American Idol. His song "Time of My Life" has been downloaded more than 300,000 times.
During Season 7 auditions, Idol hopeful Antoria Gillon auditioned in Dallas, Texas while in labor. However, she was still granted a chance in Hollywood.