Season 4
Auditions for the fourth season started in fall 2004, after the third season finale. This time audition venues were different from previous auditions. Judges started their talent hunt from Washington DC, and then moved to St. Louis and New Orleans. The other venues were Las Vegas, Cleveland and final auditions were in San Francisco. 200 contestants were finalized out of seven cities. This time, they chose 24 to continue on the show, instead of 32 as earlier.
Another major change introduced to this season was relaxation in age limit. Now candidates from 16 to 28 years of age till August 4, 2004, could participate in the show. Thus, this season, they got two senior rockers due to change in new age limit criteria. These senior contestants were Constantine Maroulis born on September 17, 1975, and Bo Bice, born on November 1, 1975. They were called rockers for their long hair and choice of rock songs during the competition.
In 2004, they changed the format of competition as well. Now, there were 12 girls and 12 guys competing separately and they performed in different episodes to get in the list of finalists. In first elimination, two guys and two girls were asked to go home on the basis of public vote. In the end, ten girls and ten guys succeeded in persuading America. After another elimination round, the number came down to sixteen.
In episode sixteen, these shining super sixteen were revealed in American Idol. In next episodes, these eight males and eight females performed, to fight for top twelve. Then time for eliminations came and again voting results made two males and two females to say bye to the show. Bright twelve came forward to perform live.
This time, America voted out one participant and top eleven were presented in a special episode including repeat performances. In fact these top eleven performed in two episodes, because of some confusion in the voting process in the previous episode.
After getting voting results, the number gradually came down to ten, nine, eight, seven, six and then five with every consecutive episode. These top five were Anthony Fedorov, Harold “Bo” Bice, Scott Savol, Carrie Underwood and Vonzell Solomon.
After one more elimination, final four were given country music theme to perform to vie for top three. Now, to give some time to top three for preparation, a full fledge episode titled, “American Idol Presents-World’s Worst Auditions” was aired. I am sure even a hammerhead can guess what was in this episode. Now, the most awaited performance of top three came and the show got its top two as Bo Bice and Carrie Underwood. In the finale episode, voting lines got closed and hearts started beating fast and finally America got its American Idol Four……………….CARRIE UNDERWOOD.
