"American Idol" kicks off its 15th (and farewell) season tonight in the first of its two-night premier.
When the show premiered in June of 2002, no one knew that it would go on to become one of TV's biggest juggernauts and eventually change the television landscape, helping coin the phrase "Reality TV."
The show would also make household names of season one winner Kelly Clarkson and season four's Carrie Underwood along with a host of contestants like eventual Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, Clay Aiken, Chris Daughtry and Adam Lambert, all of whom would succeed without being crowned winner.
"Idol" also made household names of its original judging panel, including Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdu – all of whom are rumored to be returning in some capacity this season following an announcement by host Ryan Seacrest on his morning radio show last year.
"You know, you found out the same time I did," Abdul told HNGN exclusively. "I will go on record as saying I feel the most blessed girl to have been a part of something that changed the face of television and brought families together. It was a blessing in my career, and I loved every minute of it."
While exactly how they will return remains to be seen, Jackson, who was last seen on the show in 2013 as a contestant advisor, told HNGN, "You'll see me on there somewhere; you'll be like, 'There's the dog!' It'll be fun."
As an artist how you feel so many recording artists have blasted "American Idol" saying, "It's terrible karaoke and ruining the music business?"
I haven't heard anyone say that it's ruining the music business; I don't know how that's possible. I have heard people criticize Idol for not... Well for taking away the dues experience for kids. But let's say you're 16 years old and audition for "Idol", let's say you only make it through the first audition day, that's a great experience. And then you go back to doing what you were doing, if you make it all the way to the finale that's 8 months of your life spent with the best most intensive boot camp training you could get. That's paying dues. It's a lot harder to do 8 months of Idol than 8 months of playing in a bar every night. I've done both, I haven't been a contestant, but I've seen what "Idol" does. We have "Idol" to thank for a lot of great talent. I'm not sure we'd know about Kelly Clarkson or Fantasia, Jennifer Hudson or Adam Lambert without it. So I don't know what they mean.
Do you think the music industry has changed and is now harder for contestants to become a Kelly Clarkson?
That is unquestionably true. Back when Kelly Clarkson was in the competition, I may be wrong, but I don't think there was a twitter, Instagram or anything. I don't think most people had a cell phone then. So it's very different. Also when Kelly Clarkson came out the record companies was in a completely different state than now. I don't know these numbers, but I would venture to say record companies were selling 10 times the records they are selling now. It's much more difficult with or without "American Idol" to make it in this business, so this is very helpful for these young folks.
Can you say anything about this season's crop – why they are different?
I think across the board they are little more ready for prime time. We saw some people last year and the year before that were really talented but would get under the bright lights and kind of wilt. That doesn't mean we were looking for these big dynamic performers, it just meant we were looking for people that felt they could come alive on stage. We put a lot of faith in potential and we didn't see that. You can't blame the kids because it takes a little longer than a season; it takes years to develop that. These performers I think across the board are more suited for what Idol is and all 3 of us thought about that. Like it's almost not fair to put somebody through, like we saw someone yesterday that didn't make it through to the top 24 that is a ridiculously talented singer. A beautiful young lady, extremely gifted and we just saw her collapse a little bit and we haven't even started yet. So where we might have put her through before in the hope that she might come out of her shell, we said this isn't the right place for you. These kids are like horses and the starting gate that are ready to run a race.
