Top 12 finalistsThe top 12 finalists were announced on March 8, 2007. As in past years, the top 12 appeared on the annual compilation album while the top 10 participated in the American Idol summer concert tour. Also as in past years, one finalist was eliminated every week, with the exception of the April 25 show, when all contestants were declared safe. As a result, two of the participants were eliminated on the May 2 results program.
- Jordin Sparks was from Glendale, Arizona, and auditioned in Seattle. She is the daughter of former NFL defensive back Philippi Sparks.
- Blake Lewis was from Bothell, Washington, and auditioned in Seattle. Claiming to be the city's beatboxing champion, Lewis sampled a hip-hop tune to the judges before rendering Seal's "Crazy." He passed the auditions, but Simon commented to him: "you are not as good as you think you are."
- Melinda Doolittle was from Brentwood, Tennessee, and auditioned in Memphis. She auditioned with "For Once in My Life" by Stevie Wonder and was met with universal praise from the three judges on her vocal ability.
- LaKisha Jones was from Flint, Michigan, and she performed "Think" by Aretha Franklin at her audition in New York.
- Chris Richardson was from Chesapeake, Virginia, and auditioned in New York with Leon Russell's "A Song for You." During Richardson's audition, Randy Jackson compared him to Justin Timberlake.
- Phil Stacey was from Jacksonville, Florida, and auditioned in Memphis. He missed the birth of his daughter to audition. He performed two songs before going through to Hollywood: "My Girl" and "Let's Get It On."
- Sanjaya Malakar was from Federal Way, Washington, and auditioned in Seattle with his sister Shyamali, singing "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours." Simon commented that he had a better voice than his sister. Both made it to Hollywood, but Sanjaya was shown tearfully embracing his sister when he made it to the top 40 in Hollywood and she did not.
- Haley Scarnato was from San Antonio, Texas and sang "I Can't Make You Love Me" by Bonnie Raitt during her audition.
- Gina Glocksen was from Naperville, Illinois, and auditioned in Memphis. She originally auditioned in the fifth season and made it to Hollywood, but she was cut before the top 40.
- Chris Sligh was from Greenville, South Carolina, and auditioned in Birmingham with "Kiss from a Rose" by Seal, after which Paula Abdul gave him a standing ovation saying, "I like you very much."
- Stephanie Edwards was from Savannah, Georgia, and auditioned in Memphis.
- Brandon Rogers was from North Hollywood, California, and auditioned in Los Angeles. After hearing his audition, the judges, including guest judge Olivia Newton-John, were impressed with his vocals. Simon Cowell later mentioned he was the best audition in Los Angeles.
FinalsThere were eleven weeks of finals with twelve contestants competing. One contestant was eliminated every week based on the public's votes, with the exception of the top 6 week, where one week featured a non-elimination and the following week a double-elimination.
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served as a guest mentor this week. Contestants performed one song each from her discography and are listed in the order they performed.
Top 11 – British Invasion (March 24)British singers Peter Noone and Lulu served as guest mentors this week, with the former mentoring the men and the latter mentoring the women. Contestants are listed in the order they performed.
Top 10 – Gwen Stefani (March 31)was a guest mentor for the week. Contestants performed songs from her discography or songs that inspired her, and are listed in the order they performed.
Top 9 – American classics (April 6)served as a guest mentor this week. Contestants are listed in the order they performed.
Top 8 – Latin (April 11)served as a guest mentor this week. Contestants are listed in the order they performed.
Top 7 – Country (April 18)served as a guest mentor this week. Contestants are listed in the order they performed.
Top 6 ''(Idol Gives Back)'' – Inspirational songs (April 25)Owing to a special theme week – Idol Gives Back – Ryan Seacrest announced that this week would be a non-elimination, and that the votes cast for this week would be combined with the votes from the following week. Contestants are listed in the order they performed.
and David Bryan served as guest mentors this week. Contestants performed one song from the Bon Jovi discography, and are listed in the order they performed. Two contestants were eliminated based on the combined votes from last week and this week.
served as a guest mentor this week. Contestants performed two songs each from the Bee Gees discography and are listed in the order they performed.
Top 3 (May 16)Each contestant performed three songs: one chosen by one of the judges, one chosen by the producers, and one chosen by themselves. Contestants are listed in the order they performed.
Top 2 – Finale (May 23)Each contestant performed three songs, and contestants are listed in the order they performed. Blake Lewis won the coin toss and chose to perform first.
The finale aired on May 23, 2007, live from the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. Every past winner of American Idol gave a special performance except for Fantasia, who was appearing in The Color Purple in New York City and was thus unavailable.
After Carrie Underwood performed "I'll [Stand By You (Carrie Underwood song)|I'll Stand by You]", Clive Davis gave a speech extolling the state of "the American Idol album franchise," and then presented Underwood with a special award for achieving 6 million U.S. album sales for her album Some Hearts.
Elimination chart'''Color key:'''
''American Idol'' songwriter contestOn the April 3 show, Ryan Seacrest announced the first American Idol songwriting contest. After an open online submission process, where over 25,000 submissions were received, twenty songs were selected for competition by Simon Fuller and A&R representatives of 19 Entertainment. Beginning on May 2, 2007, and ending on May 8, 2007, with "one online vote per fan", the American public were able to listen to snippets from each song and rate them on the American Idol website. On the May 22 show, the two finalists performed the winning song: "This Is My Now". The song was released as a single by Jordin Sparks.
The titles of the twenty songs were:
- "Close to Me" – Michael Doane and AnneMarie Milazzo
- "Forever Starts Today" – Erin Boheme and CJ Vanston
- "If You Ask Me To" – Jennifer Hamady and Shedrick Mitchell
- "I'm Going to Be Me" – Lane Lenhart
- "In Your Eyes" – Colin Armstrong
- "I Saw Stars" – Reed Waddle
- "Lost " – Cal Harris Jr.
- "Love Me till the Lonely's Gone" – Michael Patzig and Tracey Naples
- "The Next Big Thing" – Ray Grant and Sam Sims
- "One Night" – Kelley Hill
- "Right Here with Me" – Kelli Trontell and Don Gatlin
- "Secrets and Lies" – Drew Yowell and Byron Zanos
- "Send Me on My Way" – Matthew Rogers and Scott Young
- "Someday" – Nelson Kole
- "This Is My Now" – Jeff Peabody and Scott Krippayne – Contest Winner
- "Tonight" – Kelly Corsino
- "Waking in a Dream" – R. J. Martinez and Stacy Hogan
- "When You Need a Moment" – Christie Leigh
- "With All the Love Your Heart Can Hold" – Robin Randall and Diana De Witt
- "You Never Gave Up on Me" – Billy Aerts and Burton Collins
ControversiesThere was controversy surrounding the judges' comments over the audition of a Special Olympics participant named Jonathan Jayne. American Idol producer Ken Warwick responded by saying: "It's not a conscious decision, It's just that the further we go in the series, there are less and less good singers, so the numbers are made up by more bad ones." Warwick said that he thinks everyone has the right to audition, and added that in some instances when there are singers with certain disabilities who just want to meet the judges, the producers will "turn the cameras off and bring them in. We give them a good experience."
A series of provocative photos of Antonella Barba surfaced on the Internet.
On Tuesday, April 17, 2007, the day after the Virginia Tech massacre, while Chris Richardson and Ryan Seacrest were discussing the shooting after Richardson's critique, Simon Cowell apparently appeared to be rolling his eyes at the incident, when he was actually speaking to Paula Abdul and did not hear what Chris had said. On the results show the next day, Cowell said, "I may not be the nicest person in the world, but I would never, ever, ever disrespect those families or those victims, and I felt it was important to set the record straight." To clear Cowell's name, a video was shown on the result show which showed Cowell and Abdul talking with an inset of Chris and Seacrest discussing the shooting. Additionally, Seacrest began the performance show by acknowledging what had happened the day before.
ReceptionU.S. Nielsen ratingsLive + same day ratings
American Idol ended the season as the top show of the 2006–2007 TV season. Its Wednesday episodes ranked first with an average of 30.02 million viewers, followed by the Tuesday episodes which averaged 29.54 million. The premiere episode became the series' highest rated debut episode, viewed by 37.44 million viewers and receiving a 15.8/36 Nielsen rating in the Adult 18-49 demographic.
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'''Live + 7 day ratings'''
Related programmingAmerican Idol Extra, a behind-the-scenes show, also returned for a second season, corresponding with the start of the finals in March. It aired on Thursdays on Fox Reality.
''Idol Gives Back 2007''">Idol Gives Back#Idol Gives Back 2007">''Idol Gives Back 2007''On the March 8 results show, Ryan Seacrest announced an initiative to give back to people in poverty in both Africa and the United States, including those affected by Hurricane Katrina. The event took place over two episodes of the series. For every vote cast immediately following the April 24 broadcast, sponsors donated funds to the Charity Projects Entertainment Fund. The fund would distribute the money raised to many charities in the United States as well as in Africa. News Corporation pledged to donate 10 cents for every vote made to the show for the first 50 million calls, that is, up to $5 million. MySpace created a special profile page for the event in order to spread the word. Donations from viewers were accepted by phone and through the website during the April 25 results show, in a manner similar to a telethon. Near the end of the broadcast, Seacrest announced the show had raised $30 million. As of May 1, 2007, over $70 million has been raised as a result of Idol Gives Back.
Between contestant performances, video vignettes showing Seacrest and the judges and visiting and observing squalid conditions in Africa and the United States were aired. Similar vignettes were aired during the results show. For this special, the voting period was doubled to four hours following the show, rather than the usual two. In response to the anticipated call volume, each contestant was assigned two toll free numbers. Over 70 million votes were cast.
The results show was broadcast from two locations—the regular American Idol stage and Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. It included appearances by celebrity actors and personalities. Ellen DeGeneres co-hosted the event from the Disney Hall stage.
Due to the charity theme of the show, no contestant was eliminated on the April 25 results show. That was a surprise both to viewers, to whom Seacrest promised the "most shocking elimination ever", and to the contestants. When Seacrest seemed about to eliminate Jordin Sparks, he announced that since it was a charity night, none of the contestants would be voted off, and the votes from that week would be added to the votes from the following week, and that two contestants would be eliminated. Both weeks' shows had a two-hour extension of the regular two-hour voting window, and in the end, the two-week combined voting totaled 135 million votes.
''Idol Chat (season 3)''aired its third season of Idol Chat.
''Idol Tonight (season 2)''brought back a second season of Idol Tonight, the live pre-show to American Idol, which aired on Wednesdays starting in March. The show featured Justin Guarini as a correspondent along with Kimberly Caldwell and Rosanna Tavarez.
International broadcastsU.K. editionFor back-to-back repeat of the performance and results shows in the U.K. on ITV2, Cat Deeley presented additional sections preceding and following each commercial break, and followed the end of the show with a short interview with that week's eliminated contestant.
Music releasesUnlike previous seasons, the top 12 compilation album did not come out while the show was airing. The top 12 recorded studio versions of each of the songs they sang on the show. The songs were available for purchase on AmericanIdol.com as digital downloads through the night of the finale.
Originally, a collage of the finalists' head shots from the top 24 photo shoot was used as album art on AmericanIdol.com, with the title American Idol 6: Greatest Moments; at present, the covers of Sparks' and Lewis' EPs are used instead. The American Idol: Season 6 – "Greatest Hits" & "The Collector's Edition" were eventually released on June 12, 2007. This was the only season where the season's collection was not distributed by Sony BMG/RCA Records.
Sparks' first non-American Idol single was the top hit "Tattoo", which received platinum certification. Her second single was the Billboard Hot 100 number three hit "No Air" with Chris Brown. The song went to number one in several countries, and also topped Billboard's Pop Airplay chart. "No Air" had been certified platinum in April. It stands as the bestselling single by any American Idol contestant. Sparks released a third single off her album, "One Step at a Time", which peaked at number 17. "One Step at a Time" so far sold over a million copies and is certified platinum. Sparks released her second album Battlefield in July 2009. The album's title track became her fifth top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 10. That made Jordin Sparks the only American Idol contestant to have their first five singles become Top 20 Hits. Blake Lewis' first single was "Break Anotha!", which failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. His second single, "How Many Words", also failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Shortly afterward, Lewis confirmed that he had been dropped by Arista records. His album sales were just over 300,000. The drop also canceled his apparent plans for a third single release.
"This Is My Now," as performed by Jordin Sparks, was released as a radio single. It debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at number 15.
Concert tour
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