American Idol | featured news

Thursday was a big day at Fox. In the morning, the network got word from Nielsen that — after Wednesday night’s Top 5 performance show — “American Idol” had regained its throne as the No. 1-rated entertainment series among younger viewers, who are the currency of broadcast TV ad sales. To accomplish that, “Idol” had to edge past NBC’s singing competition, “The Voice.”

"American Idol" Season 5 winner Taylor Hicks is getting his own short-term show on the Las Vegas Strip.

"American Idol" viewers apparently weren't caught in a romance with Colton Dixon. The 20-year-old alt-rocker was revealed Thursday to have received the fewest viewer votes on the Fox talent competition. Dixon was surprisingly eliminated from "Idol" after delivering lukewarm renditions of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" and Earth Wind and Fire's "September" on Wednesday's evening of old and new tunes. It was his first time in the show's bottom three.

The panel may not be great at this whole criticism thing, but at least they’ve shown the ability to learn from previous mistakes.

The panel was clearly basking in the nostalgic glow of the '80s theme. Pretty much everyone got kudos, oversinging be darned.

Viewers got a first glimpse of Whitney Houston's upcoming film Monday when NBC's "Today" show premiered a trailer for the much-awaited release, and a fuller clip debuted on Yahoo! Movies. A remake of the 1976 original, "Sparkle" stars Houston as the mother of three girls who form a singing group and struggle with fame and drug addiction. The trailer displayed the daughters, including "American Idol" winner Jordin Sparks, in performance. Houston is prominent throughout, at one point singing the classic gospel song "His Eye Is on the Sparrow."

There must be some reason the folks at “American Idol” think that the best way to find tomorrow’s pop star is to have them sing songs that were popular a generation ago as opposed to, you know, actual hit singles from today. We’ve gone from Whitney Houston/Stevie Wonder to Songs from Your Birth Year to ... Billy Joel. When do we get Lawrence Welk week?

"Gentle giant" Jermaine Jones was indeed kicked off on Wednesday for bad behavior, but he’s not the only finalist in trouble.

Jermaine Jones is apparently out on "American Idol." The 25-year-old vocal instructor from Pine Hill, N.J., tweeted Tuesday night that he would no longer be on the Fox singing contest. He wrote on his official "Idol" Twitter account: "Ahttp://www I will no longer b on the show," but the post was later deleted.

Having the top show on television presents a rare opportunity for any network, but especially NBC, which has been so far behind for so long... This week “The Voice” emerged as the unlikely winner of its own reality competition. With a 6 rating, it displaced Fox’s long-running “American Idol” as America’s top-rated television series.