The Host
Ryan John Seacrest, (born December 24, 1974 in Dunwoody, Georgia, United States) is a TV and radio host, most famous for the reality-television talent-search series American Idol. He is the host of a morning drive-time radio show on 102.7 KIIS-FM based in Los Angeles, California, and the weekly syndicated radio show, American Top 40. He is also Anchor and managing editor of E! News.
The Judges
Randall Darius Jackson
Randall Darius Jackson (born June 23, 1956) is an American musician and record producer, now best known to the general public for being a judge on the television show American Idol.
Music careerJackson played bass in violin virtuoso Jean-Luc Ponty's backing band and toured with rock band Journey in 1983 and 1985. His numerous credits range from playing with Aretha Franklin, George Michael , Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Billy Cobham, Blue Crab Cult, Herbie The Car, Richard Marx, Billy Joe, Journey, Banana Republic and Bob Dylan to playing at the Grand Ole Opry with The Charlie Daniels Band. His production/songwriting work in the San Francisco Bay area with Narada Michael Walden and Walter Afanasieff led Randy to be quite in demand as a producer himself.
While in the Bay Area, Randy played in bands with Carlos Santana and Jerry Garcia. He moved to Italy in the late 1980s and produced a record for Italian pop star Zucchero. The record Zucchero and the Randy Jackson Band produced one of Zucchero's biggest hits, "Donne". Jackson was bass guitarist for Tracy Chapman featuring on several Tracks on her 1992 release Matters of the Heart. He performed on the single "Bang Bang Bang", "Open Arms", and "Dreaming on a World". Jackson has also recorded, produced, or toured with many well-known artists and bands, ranging from Mariah Carey (whom he knew when she was still a teenager; he was in her band at Live 8 in London in 2005) to *NSYNC, Céline Dion, Wild Orchid, Bruce Springsteen, and Madonna (he played bass on her # 1 hit "Like a Prayer"). He has also worked as an executive, spending eight years as vice president of artists and repertoire (A&R) at Columbia Records and four years heading A&R at MCA Records.[1]
Jackson also hosts a radio top 40 countdown known as "Randy Jackson's Hit List" syndicated on hundreds of stations nationwide by Westwood One. Every week Randy counts down his top 30 Urban AC and Mainstream AC hits, gives us a peek into AI with American Idol Underground, and shares what's currently in his iPod.
Jackson has been a judge with American Idol since its inception in 2002. On the show, he is known for taking a middle road of criticism between the supportiveness of Paula Abdul and the nastiness of Simon Cowell. Many contestants think of Randy as the nice male on the show. He has popularized "pitchy" as the way to describe off-key singing. He is also renowned for his heavy use of slang terms, most notably the words "dude", "dawg", and "dope". Jackson sometimes also refers to the group of male semifinalists as "the dogg pound" (though during season five, the female contestants were also included).
Paula Julie Abdul
Paula Julie Abdul (born June 19, 1962) is an American Emmy Award-nominated, Grammy-winning, multi-platinum singer, choreographer, dancer, television personality and actress. In the 1980s, her career rose rapidly, from being a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers to being a highly sought-after choreographer at the height of the music video era, then to being a pop music singer with a string of top hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s. After that she suffered a series of reverses in her professional and personal life, until she found renewed fame and success in the 2000s as a judge on the highly rated television series American Idol.
Simon Philip Cowell
Simon Philip Cowell (born October 7, 1959) is a British artist and repertoire ("A&R") executive for Sony BMG in the UK, but is best known as a judge on the television programs Pop Idol, The X Factor, American Idol and Britain's Got Talent. He is notorious for his unsparingly blunt and often controversial criticism of the contestants. He is known for combining activities in the television and music industries, having produced singles and records for various television characters such as the Power Rangers.
