Kelly Clarkson Wins the First American Idol, September 4, 2002

Kelly Clarkson won the first season of American Idol on Wednesday, September 4, 2002, beating Justin Guarini in a live results show on Fox. The 20-year-old singer from Burleson, Texas, took about 58 percent of the 15.5 million votes cast in the finale. Within a month her first single had broken a chart record held by the Beatles, and the summer show that produced her had grown from about 9.9 million viewers at its premiere to nearly 23 million for the final night.

How American Idol Began in the Summer of 2002

American Idol premiered on Fox on June 11, 2002. It was an American version of Pop Idol, a British singing competition created by Simon Fuller whose first series had ended a few months earlier. Fox launched it as a summer series. From the Tuesday premiere to the September 4 results show was 85 days, which you can check with the days-between-dates calculator; the whole first season ran its course between early June and the week after Labor Day.

The producers held open auditions that spring in seven cities: Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Dallas and Miami, from April 20 to May 11. A panel of three judges, Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell, sorted the hopefuls. Ryan Seacrest and Brian Dunkleman co-hosted.

The first season narrowed its field in stages:

Stage	Contestants
Hollywood round	121
Semifinals	30
Finals	10
Finale	2

Once the competition reached the semifinals, the judges offered critiques, but viewer votes did most of the deciding. More than 110 million votes were cast over the season, and 15.5 million of them came in the finale alone.

A Summer Audience That Kept Growing

The premiere drew about 9.85 million viewers. Over the next three months the audience generally grew, and the season averaged about 12.7 million viewers per episode. The finale’s 22.77 million viewers more than doubled the audience of the first night.

The voting itself became part of the story. When Tamyra Gray was eliminated in fourth place, the result surprised many viewers, and Cowell publicly defended the voting as fair. Handing the final decisions to a national phone audience was the show’s central idea, and that week showed both its appeal and its risk.

The Top 10 of Season 1

The finalists, in order of finish, were:

1. Kelly Clarkson
2. Justin Guarini
3. Nikki McKibbin
4. Tamyra Gray
5. R. J. Helton
6. Christina Christian
7. Ryan Starr
8. AJ Gil
9. Jim Verraros and EJay Day, eliminated together in a double elimination

The Finale: Kelly Clarkson vs. Justin Guarini

The finale was split across two nights. On the performance show, broadcast Tuesday, September 3, both finalists sang “Before Your Love,” one of the songs prepared for the winner’s debut single, and Clarkson also sang “Respect.” Viewers voted overnight.

On September 4 the results show named Clarkson the winner with about 58 percent of the vote. Her prize was a recording contract with RCA Records through Fuller’s 19 Recordings. The finale fell two days after Labor Day, which in 2002 was Monday, September 2; the day-of-the-week tool will confirm the weekday of any air date.

A Beatles Record Falls

RCA released Clarkson’s coronation song, “A Moment Like This,” within weeks. On the Billboard Hot 100 dated October 5, 2002, it jumped from No. 52 to No. 1. That was the biggest leap to the top in the chart’s history, breaking a record the Beatles had held for 38 years since “Can’t Buy Me Love” climbed from No. 27 to No. 1 in April 1964.

Clarkson broke the leap record again in 2009, when “My Life Would Suck Without You” jumped from No. 97 to No. 1.

The season’s success also spun off a Las Vegas special, a 30-date tour featuring the top ten finalists and a movie co-starring the two finalists, From Justin to Kelly, which was a box office failure.

What Came Next for Kelly Clarkson

Clarkson built a long career after the show. Her album Breakaway produced “Since U Been Gone” and won her first two Grammy Awards, for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. She won Best Pop Vocal Album again for Stronger at the 55th Grammy Awards, when she was one of only two American Idol winners to have won a Grammy.

She later moved into daytime television. The Kelly Clarkson Show premiered in September 2019, and Clarkson won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show Host in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

American Idol’s Long Run

American Idol became a fixture of the Fox schedule for well over a decade. The network aired it for 15 seasons, ending in April 2016 after several years of declining ratings. ABC acquired the rights in May 2017 and brought the show back in March 2018.

For the year that launched it, see the full 2002 calendar, or jump ahead to the 2016 calendar for the end of the Fox era.