American Idol (season 5) American Idol (season 5) The fifth season of reality television singing competition "American Idol" began on January 17, 2006, and concluded on May 24, 2006. Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell returned to judge, and Ryan Seacrest returned to host. It is the most successful season to date ratings-wise, and resulted in 18 contestants (including all of the top 10 and a few semifinalists) getting record deals – nine of them with major labels. It was the first season with a male winner (Taylor Hicks) and a female runner-up (Katharine McPhee). It was also the first season of the
An American Idol Christmas An American Idol Christmas An American Idol Christmas (also titled A Very Idol Christmas in Canada) is a Christmas television special for the television shows "American Idol", "American Juniors" and "Canadian Idol", but focused mostly on "American Idol"– the Canadian winner Ryan Malcolm was edited out in the American release, due to legal reasons. The special was broadcast on the Fox television network in the United States and CTV in Canada. It was first broadcast on November 25, 2003 in the United States. It featured some of the top finalists of American Idol's first season (Kelly Clarkson, Tamyra Gray, Christina