American Idol (season 8) American Idol (season 8) The eighth season of "American Idol" premiered on January 13, 2009, and concluded on May 20, 2009. Judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson continued to judge the show's contestants, along with Ryan Seacrest as host. The season introduced Kara DioGuardi as the fourth judge on the "Idol" panel. It was also Abdul's final season as a judge. Kris Allen, a native of Conway, Arkansas, was announced the winner of the competition on May 20, 2009, defeating runner-up Adam Lambert after nearly 100 million votes. This was the second season where both of the final
Judge Jackson book door-to-door and via singing conventions and educational programs. Judge Jackson Judge J. Jackson (March 12, 1883, Montgomery County, Alabama - April 7, 1958, Ozark, Alabama) was an American sacred harp composer, songwriter, and educator. His 1934 publication "The Colored Sacred Harp" was later recognized by scholars such as Doris Dyen and "New Grove" writer Joe Dan Boyd as an important document of early twentieth-century shape note singing practice. Jackson was raised in a family of sharecroppers and obtained little formal education as a child. When he was sixteen years old, he left home and took work as a farmhand