American Idol American Idol logo Format Interactive reality game show Created by Simon Fuller Directed by John Pritchett (live shows) Bruce Gowers (live shows, 2002-2008) Nigel Lythgoe (audition shows) Ken Warwick (audition shows) Presented by Ryan Seacrest Brian Dunkleman (season 1) Judges Simon Cowell Paula Abdul Randy Jackson Country of origin United States No. of seasons 7 (As of May 21, 2008) (List of episodes) Production Executive producer(s) Nigel Lythgoe Ken Warwick Cecile Frot-Coutaz Location(s) Various locations (Auditions) Orpheum Theatre, Ontario, CA (Hollywood) CBS Television City (Semi-finals and finals) Nokia Theatre (Finale) Running time Varies Broadcast Original channel FOX (repeats on Fox Reality) Picture format 480i (NTSC), 720p (HDTV) Original run June 11, 2002 – Present External links Official website IMDb profile TV.com summary American Idol is an American reality-competition show airing on Fox. It debuted on June 11, 2002, and it has since become one of the top 12, dropped out of the first few shows. This time, Ruben Studdard emerged as the winner with Clay Aiken as runner-up. Out of 24 million votes recorded, Studdard finished 130,000 votes ahead of Aiken. There was discussion in the communication industry about the phone system being overloaded, and that more than 150 million votes were cast, a result Simon had successfully predicted. Then, in the top five and four, the contestants sing three songs each to the three judges, Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell, and Randy Jackson. Following each performance episode, a results show airs that reveals the breakdown