American Idol season 21
twenty-first season (2023) of the American reality show singing competition
The twenty-first season of American Idol premiered on February 19, 2023, on the ABC television network. Ryan Seacrest returned as host; Luke Bryan, Katy Perry, and Lionel Richie returned as judges.
Iam Tongi won the season on May 21, 2023, while Megan Danielle was the runner-up, and Colin Stough finished in third place.
Auditions
The Idol Across America virtual auditions program returned from the previous two seasons. Remote auditions took place from August 3 to September 14, 2022, as well as a number of open-call auditions, and from these, the producers selected the contestants who were then invited to audition in front of the judges.
The "platinum ticket" also returned from last season. During the audition round, a total of three platinum tickets were awarded, and they gave the recipients the opportunity to advance directly to the second round of Hollywood week as well as choose their partners for that week's duet challenge before the remaining contestants were paired. During the American Music Awards, three contestants advancing to Hollywood week also were given the opportunity to win a fourth platinum ticket. The platinum ticket recipients were Cam Amen, Kaylin Hedges, Elijah McCormick, and Tyson Venegas.
Hollywood week
Hollywood week was filmed December 4–7, 2022, at the Los Angeles Theatre in Los Angeles.
The public source identifies “American Idol season 21” as twenty-first season (2023) of the American reality show singing competition. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around American, Idol and season.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q116788577. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2023 and 2022.
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