American Idol (Season 4)

The fourth season of American Idol premiered on January 18, 2005 and continued until May 25, 2005. It was hosted by Ryan Seacrest. Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell also returned to judge. Carrie Underwood won the season with approximately 500 million votes cast in the season and 37 million for the finale. Underwood has since gone on to become a five-time Grammy-winning country megastar. This is the last season to be aired in standard definition. Auditions for Season 4 started in August 2004 in Cleveland, Ohio. An audition was originally planned for Anchorage, Alaska, but that was cancelled about a month before due to possible schedule conflict as a result of hurricanes affecting the Orlando auditions. Auditions were held from...