Template:Infobox reality music competition
The eleventh season of American Idol premiered on Fox on January 18, 2012. The show airs on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8/7c.[1]Ryan Seacrest returns as host,[2] while Randy Jackson, Steven Tyler[3] and Jennifer Lopez all return as judges. Interscope Records Chairman Jimmy Iovine, a songwriter and producer, also returns as an in-house mentor to work with the contestants on a weekly basis. No other major changes in the judging panel were planned this season.[4] This season will follow the same format as season 10, although a new title screen and logo has been created, with a different font. Many international broadcasters aired the show two days after the US screening.
A helicopter view of American Idol auditions at Petco Park, San Diego, July 8, 2011
^Note a The New Jersey audition episode was not aired due to scheduling changes.[24]
The New Jersey audition was a late addition to the schedule,[25] the audition was held although the attendance was reportedly low.[26] However, the audition episode was not shown, the first time that a scheduled audition that had taken place was not shown. Contestants known to have auditioned in New Jersey were listed as having auditioned elsewhere on the official American Idol website, for example Alex Wong who auditioned in New Jersey has San Diego listed as his audition city on the official website.[27][28]
Hollywood week
The Hollywood rounds of auditions were held at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium starting December 12, 2011.[29] There were 309 contestants at the start of Hollywood Week. The contestants performed solo for the first round, and 185 survived after this round. Amongst those cut included actor/comedian Jim Carrey's daughter, Jane Carrey.[30] Another contestant, Symone Black, collapsed and fell off on stage, but was eliminated during the next round. During the group round, a number of contestants became ill; some of whom collapsed in the auditorium. 98 contestants survived the group round, and proceeded on to the next solo round where they performed accompanied by a band or instrument. The contestants were then separated into four rooms, with one room of contestants being eliminated; the other rooms of contestants advanced in the competition. The remaining 70 contestants made it through to the Las Vegas round.
Vegas rounds
After the Hollywood rounds, the contestants went to Las Vegas for a challenge round where they performed traditional late 1950s song in groups with Elvis Presley "Viva, Elvis!" show as the backdrop.[31] This was then followed by a solo Sing-For-Your-Life round as in Season 10. The 42 contestants who made it thus far performed solo accompanied by an instrument at the stage for Le Rêve at the Wynn Las Vegas.
Semi-finalists
After the 42 remaining contestants sang their last solo at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel, they were called one by one to hear the final judgement. The first 14 semi-finalists were announced on the February 22 episode. The other 10 contestants were announced on the February 23 episode.
At the end of the episode revealing the top twenty-four, it was announced that the judges planned to add one more male semifinalist, resulting in a top thirteen boys. The four possibilities were Jermaine Jones, Richie Law, Johnny Keyser and David Leathers Jr. After the other twelve performances on February 28, it was announced that Jermaine Jones was the thirteenth male semi-finalist.
The following is a list of semi-finalists who failed to reach the finals:
The semi-finals round started on February 28. Below are the two semi-final groups (males and females) with contestants listed in their performance order. The top five males and top five females, along with the three wild card choices by the judges, advanced to the finals. There were twenty-five semifinalists, twelve females and thirteen males because the judges decided to add one more male semifinalist, resulting in a top thirteen boys. The males started the semifinal round, and the females continued on following night's episode, the contestants perform songs of their choice (there was no particular theme).
Following those ten singers advancing on Thursday, March 1, six of the remaining 15 semi-finalists were selected by the judges to compete in the Wild Card round. The Wild Card round immediately began, following the announcement of the ten finalists. Following another performance by each Wild Card contender, the judges then selected three contestants to advance to the final group of 13.
Hollie Cavanagh (born July 5, 1993) is from McKinney, Texas. She was born in Liverpool, Merseyside, England to Lorraine and Peter Cavanagh and hailed from the Liverpudlian suburb Allerton, in England, and moved to the United States in 2002. She originally auditioned for season 10, but she was eliminated in the green mile round and was told by Jennifer Lopez that she can win the whole competition in a couple of years with practice. Hollie sang "Mr. Sandman" with Naomi Gillies and Marissa Pontecorvo in Las Vegas. Hollie's only appearance in season 11 was during the Top 42 green mile round. She sang "Change" by American Idol season 4 winner Carrie Underwood for the Sing for Your Life round.
Colton Dixon (born October 19, 1991[39]) is from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He auditioned in North Charleston with his younger sister, Schyler. He originally auditioned for season 10 along with Schyler in the Nashville, Tennessee, auditions, but she was cut in the Las Vegas round and then he was cut in the green mile round. Dixon returned in season 11, however he did not plan to audition, initially planning to simply accompany his sister Schyler to her audition. The judges implored Dixon to audition as well, where he sang David Cook's "Permanent". Colton performed "Dedicated To The One I Love" with Skylar Laine, Chase Likens, and Cari Qouyeser in Las Vegas. In Las Vegas, Schyler was eliminated, bringing Colton to tears. He performed the Coldplay song "Fix You", and dedicated it to his sister.
Jessica Sanchez (born August 4, 1995[41]) is a Filipino-Mexican-American [42] from San Diego, California. She was born in Chula Vista, California. Her father Gilbert Sanchez is a Mexican-American U.S. Navy veteran and originally from Texas and fought in the War in Iraq. Her mother Editha Sanchez is Filipina and originally from Bataan province in the Philippines. Sanchez auditioned in San Diego. She performed "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" with DeAndre Brackensick and Candice Glover in Las Vegas. Her first definitive moment on the season was with Andrea Boccelli song The Prayer during the Sing For Your Life green mile round. Before Idol, she was first known for her appearance on the first season of America's Got Talent where she was brought back by judge Brandy during the show's wildcard round. Sanchez also participated in the YouTube edition of "We Are the World" along with 56 other YouTube artists, including American Idolseason 10 finalist Thia Megia. Jessica's Top 13 performance of I Will Always Love You in tribute of Whitney Houston eventually garnered 7 million views on YouTube before the video was taken down due to copyright infringement.
Elise Testone (born July 29, 1983) is from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. She auditioned in North Charleston with the song "Get It While You Can" by Janis Joplin. Prior to Idol, she was a voice instructor in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and she performed regularly, either solo or with one of several bands, in Charleston, South Carolina. In 2011, her band, the Freeloaders, won the Funk/Soul/R&B Artist of the Year award in the Charleston City Paper’s Music issue. Testone received additional recognition from the Charleston City Paper in 2011, winning the staff pick for Best Tribute for Elise Testone’s James Brown Dance Party. She has performed as an opening act for various other artists, including Snoop Dogg, Nappy Roots, Seven Mary Three, and Kevin Costner’s band, Modern West.
DeAndre Brackensick (born October 21, 1994) is from San Jose, California. He auditioned in San Diego, California. He originally auditioned for American Idolseason 10, but he was cut in the green mile round. He performed "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" with Jessica Sanchez and Candice Glover in Las Vegas. He is an active participant in Oak Grove High School's Theater Arts program and is the president of the school's Polynesian Club. He was eliminated on April 5, 2012 and came in 8th place.
Heejun Han (born April 20, 1989) was born in Anyang, Gyeonggi, South Korea. He is from Flushing, New York. He and his family migrated to Queens, New York when he was a child and then moved to Flushing, Queens, New York during his teenage years. Before American Idol, he was a non-profit organizer, working with children with special needs. He has spoken of suffering from emotional depression and credited the children that he worked with for helping him to recover from his illness. He has also said that the children motivated him to audition for American Idol. He auditioned in Pittsburgh with "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You". His audition brought Jennifer Lopez to tears, and Steven Tyler stated "I think you are really great. I think you could be the American Idol". He is the first Korean American to make the finals on American Idol. He was eliminated on March 29, 2012 and came in 9th place.
Jermaine Jones (born November 3, 1986), born to Katrice Cornett, is from Pine Hill, New Jersey. He auditioned in Portland, Oregon. He attended Overbrook High School. Before Idol, he worked as a vocal instructor at Highest Praise Performing Arts Center. In Las Vegas, he performed "Make it Easy on Yourself" with Richie Law and the judges advanced both to the green mile round, but Richie Law was cut in that round. He was not originally chosen for the semi-finals, but he was called back after the top 24 selection filming, making him the 25th semi-finalist and thirteenth male semi-finalist. Standing 6 feet 8 and a half inches tall, he has been dubbed on the show as "The Gentle Giant." On March 13, 2012, he was kicked off the show due to a hidden criminal past. He is the second American Idol contestant to be disqualified during the finals, after the same thing happened to Corey Clark in the second season.
In this season, maintaining the previous season's format, there are originally 12 weeks (later reduced to 11 weeks after Jermaine Jones got disqualified) of the finals and 13 finalists, with one finalist eliminated per week, with the exception of Top 12 week whereby two finalists were eliminated as Jermaine Jones was disqualified from the competition and Shannon Magrane receiving the lowest number of votes for that week. Previous season's winner Scotty McCreery recorded the Tim McGraw song "Please Remember Me" as the send-off song played when a contestant is eliminated.
On March 7, 2012, the women performed Whitney Houston songs and the men performed Stevie Wonder songs. Ryan Seacrest stated that it will be a competition between the male and female contestants. As a result, the bottom 3 of each gender, as well as the male and female contestant who received the lowest number of votes amongst their gender, were announced the next night, and the judges chose who will go home. Between Jeremy Rosado and Elise Testone, each of whom received the lowest number of votes for their respective gender groups, the judges chose to eliminate Rosado from the competition.
Due to a hidden criminal past, Jermaine Jones was disqualified prior to the Wednesday performance show.[45] Footage of executive producers Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick confronting Jones was shown in what would have been his performance slot, in between Van Pelt's and Laine's performances.[46] A clip of his rehearsal, singing "Somewhere Out There", was shown after his removal from the competition. Voting continued as scheduled with the remaining 11 contestants, following the procedure of the season 2 disqualification of Corey Clark.
^Note 1 : The Top 13 results featured individual 'Bottom 3' groups per each gender, with Elise Testone and Jeremy Rosado receiving the least votes amongst their respective genders. The judges subsequently opted to save Testone, thereby eliminating Rosado from the competition. ^Note 2 : Jermaine Jones was disqualified for failing to disclose his full criminal history prior to the voting rounds commencing.
On March 14, the finalist Jermaine Jones was disqualified for concealing arrests and outstanding warrants.[56] Jones, however, denied that he had concealed his previous arrests, as he admitted his arrests when he signed up for Idol.[57] A police official in a New Jersey town where he was the target of two arrest warrants said that "the case wasn't big enough to merit going after him", and that for the show "to expose, embarrass and interrogate a young man without an attorney in front of 40 million viewers was an outrage".[58] Critics suggested that the show may have staged the disqualification to boost ratings.[59] When asked about speculations that producers had prior knowledge of his criminal past and that the producers were simply out to exploit him on-air, Jones replied that "I haven’t even taken my mind into that and why they did what they did, because then I’ll drive myself crazy".[60]
U.S. Nielsen ratings
The premiere was watched by 21.93 million viewers. While at the time it drew the second largest audience of any entertainment program in the television season, it was down 16 percent from the previous year's premiere, which was watched by 26.23 million viewers.[61]
^Note a Episode was repeated on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 with ratings of 5.7/9 overall and 3.4/9 for the 18/49 demographic. Overall, the episode averaged 9.64 million viewers.[99][67]
