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
Randy Jackson was later decided that he would remain as a judge for season 12. On May 9, 2013, Jackson announced that he would be leaving "American Idol" after twelve seasons due to him wanting to focus on other business ventures. On September 3, 2013, it was announced that Jackson would replace Jimmy Iovine as the in-house mentor on "American Idol". He departed the series for good in November 2014. Jackson produces "America's Best Dance Crew", an American group dance competition and reality television show, which premiered on February 7, 2008 on MTV and was cancelled in 2010 due to declining ratings.