Sanjaya shows up on TV holiday special

American Idol finalist Sanjaya Malakar will be featured on KING 5's "Christmas in the Northwest" holiday special airing at 8 tonight.
Hosted by Evening Maga zine's John Curley, the hourlong s pecial includes a sampling of music from the "Christmas in the Northwest 10" CD, a compilation of original and traditional holiday songs by local musicians.
One of the tunes from this year's CD is a light-hearted tribute titled "I Wanna Be Blake (I Wanna Be Malakar)," performed by the WannaBe Idolz. During the KING 5 special, Malakar will join the WannaBe Idolz to perform the song.
The special will be repeated on KONG TV 6/16 at 8 p.m. Dec. 16 and on NorthWest Cable News at 10 p.m. Dec. 15 as well as at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Christmas Day on KING.

MOST WATCHED U.S. TV series

Still, "American Idol" remains the most watched U.S. TV series overall, and the most highly rated in the 18-49 category for a fourth straight year, Fox said.
"This is far and away the biggest show on television and will continue to be the biggest show on television," Fox network spokesman Scott Grogin said. "We're looking forward to next season."
Industry experts say "American Idol" has suffered, in part, from a general decline in broadcast TV audiences that has taken its toll on many of prime time's biggest hits this past season. Some of those losses are attributed to the growing popularity of digital video recorders (DVRs).
Year-to-year declines for "Idol" were most pronounced for the Tuesday performance telecasts as the field of contestants narrowed, suggesting this season's talent pool generated less enthusiasm from fans than last year.
But Sparks was chosen as winner over 25-year-old Blake Lewis via a telephone vote in which a record 74 million votes were cast.
The live, two-hour finale, featuring appearances by such recording stars asGwen Stefani,Bette Midler,Tony Bennett and Green Day, as well as four of the five past "Idol" winners, brought a dramatic close to the 2006-07 U.S. broadcast season.
Fox, a unit of News Corp., finished the season as the leading network in 18-49 ratings for a third straight year and was the only one to increase its overall average audience year to year, up 3 percent from last season.
The second-season "Idol" finale in May 2003, whenRuben Studdard was crowned the winner, stands as the most watched of any episode of the series, averaging 38.1 million viewers.

American Idol Season 7 Starts January 15th, 2008

Get ready for the return of American Idol in 2008 with season 7. The new season will launch with shows on back to back nights starting January 15th on FOX. American Idol season 7 for 2008 hasn’t even begun and already there’s talk of spoilers. Each year we get weeks and weeks of hilarious auditions full of folks of like Sanjaya, but thankfully most of them don’t make it as far as he did.

American Idol

American Idol is an annual American televised singing competition, which began its first season on June 11, 2002. Part of the Idol franchise, it originated from the British reality program Pop Idol.
The program seeks to discover the best young singer in the country, through a series of nationwide auditions. The outcomes of the latter stages of this competition are determined by public voting by phone. The format features three judges who critique the contestants' performances in order to facilitate the voting: record producer and bass player Randy Jackson; former pop star Paula Abdul; and music executive Simon Cowell. The show is hosted by former children's game show emcee and television personality Ryan Seacrest; comedian Brian Dunkleman cohosted with Seacrest in season one.
The show usually airs on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. In its six seasons, its six winners have been, in order of their season, Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Hicks, and Jordin Sparks. The first five American Idols are from the Southern United States of America (U.S) and the sixth, Jordin Sparks, is from the Southwest. Hicks was the oldest winner at 29, Sparks the youngest at just 17.
American Idol is televised on Fox in the United States and on Fox and CTV in Canada. With the exception of the Super Bowl this is the highest rated (viewed) program on national television.