American Idol season 9
season of television series
The ninth season of American Idol premiered on Fox on Tuesday, January 12, 2010, and concluded on Wednesday, May 26, 2010. Simon Cowell, Kara DioGuardi, and Randy Jackson returned as judges and were joined by Ellen DeGeneres, who was brought on as a replacement for Paula Abdul after a series of guest judges filled in for the auditions. Idol Gives Back returned on April 21, 2010. The top 24 semifinal format used in the fourth through seventh seasons also returned this season. Cowell, DioGuardi, and DeGeneres all left the show after this season, although only Cowell's departure was announced in advance.
Lee DeWyze, a folk rocker from Mount Prospect, Illinois, won the competition, beating out fellow folk rocker Crystal Bowersox, who was the runner-up. Multiple contestants from this season were signed to record deals including DeWyze, Bowersox, Casey James, Michael Lynche, and Siobhan Magnus. Several contestants who did not even make it to the semifinals eventually had a breakthrough in the music industry, including Tori Kelly, Lauren Daigle, and Tasha Layton.
Changes from previous seasons
Paula Abdul did not return to the judges panel, having announced in the beginning of August 2009 that she was leaving the show due to unresolved contract negotiations. Victoria Beckham, Mary J. Blige, Shania Twain, Katy Perry, Avril Lavigne, Joe Jonas, Neil Patrick Harris, and Kristin Chenoweth were brought on as guest judges during the auditions.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2454931. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2010 and 2009.
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This entry incorporates text from “American Idol season 9” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.