American Idol | featured news

Ryan Seacrest is revving up. We're just one week away from the season 11 live shows, and he was running down a dream, itching to shout out his signature line, "This!" That's it. "This!" That's Ryan's calling card, ever since he stopped saying "Seacrest out." Weird.

The first Hollywood night of season 11 ended with a cliffhanger worthy of a soap opera as 16-year-old Symone Black fell off the stage while answering the judges’ post-performance questions.

How many singing competition shows can America watch each week? That’s the question being asked now that NBC’s “The Voice” has started its second season with a bang, while Fox’s long-running “American Idol” has seen its ratings decline. “It’s still very early on for ‘The Voice,' but they got a great start coming out of the Super Bowl with 37.6 million viewers,” media analyst Brad Adgate of Horizon Media told Fox411.com. “The most watched ‘American Idol’ was the finale between Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard in 2003, with a little over 38 million viewers.”

A Tripster Hipster, a snotty hopeful and a woman wronged were among the eclectic — and sometimes gross — hopefuls to give stardom a shot.

At first glance, the numbers look bad: "American Idol's" season premiere was down nearly 5 million viewers from last year's, the biggest season-to-season drop in franchise history. At second glance, the numbers don't look bad at all: "AI" was Wednesday's dominant show, averaging 21.6 million, per estimates, and scoring a still-huge, if diminished, 7.4 demo rating among 18-to-49-year-olds.

One week after “American Idol” season 10 winner Scotty McCreery dropped his debut, runner-up Lauren Alaina follows with her major label bow. Will “Wildflower” debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 like McCreery’s “Clear As Day?”

"American Idol" champ Scotty McCreery is getting a dream gig: Not only is the avid baseball fan going to this year's World Series, he'll sing the national anthem.

Coming off the heels of his saucy interview with a scantily-clad Nicole Scherzinger, Conan O'Brien wanted to give "The X Factor" another look. On "Conan" Thursday night, the host honed in on a popular question: What's the difference between "The X Factor" and Simon Cowell's pervious, "American Idol"?

If there was ever any doubt, it's gone now. Jennifer Lopez will be back at the judge's panel for the 11th season of "American Idol."

An executive producer of the hit musical reality TV show "American Idol" says celebrity judge Jennifer Lopez will return for another season. Lopez hasn't said anything....