American Idol (season 5)

Broadcast from	January 17 – May 24, 2006
Judges	Paula Abdul Simon Cowell Randy Jackson
Host(s)	Ryan Seacrest
Broadcaster	Fox Broadcasting Company
Finals venue	Kodak Theatre
Taylor Hicks
Hicks performs for troops aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, docked at Coronado, California in December 2006
Origin	Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
Song	"Do I Make You Proud"
Genre(s)	Soul, blues, blues rock
Katharine McPhee
◀ 2006 ▶

The fifth season of reality television singing competition American Idol began on January 17, 2006, and concluded on May 24, 2006. Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell returned to judge, and Ryan Seacrest returned to host. It is the most successful season to date ratings-wise, and resulted in 18 contestants (including all of the top 10 and a few semifinalists) getting record deals – nine of them with major labels. It was the first season with a male winner (Taylor Hicks) and a female runner-up (Katharine McPhee), which happened again in seasons 9, 10, 11, 13 and 15. It was also the first season of the series to be aired in high definition.

Auditions were held in seven cities in the summer and fall of 2005. An audition was originally planned for Memphis, Tennessee but that was canceled due to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort that was taking place in the city, and replaced by Las Vegas, Nevada and Greensboro, North Carolina.

Unlike season four, no guest judges were involved during the auditions. The season used the same rules as season four.

One notable auditioner this season was Paula Goodspeed, a fervent fan of Paula Abdul, who auditioned in Austin. In 2008, Goodspeed made headlines when she committed suicide outside Abdul's home. Abdul later claimed that she had objected beforehand to Goodspeed being at the audition because she knew Goodspeed and had been frightened by her past behavior, but the producers overrode her objection. The producers Ken Warwick and Nigel Lythgoe however denied being aware of her fears or that they would put her in danger.