Travis Tucker

American Idol
Season 4
Broadcast from	January 18 – May 25, 2005
Judges	Paula Abdul Simon Cowell Randy Jackson
Host(s)	Ryan Seacrest
Broadcaster	Fox Broadcasting Company
Finals venue	Kodak Theatre
Winner
Carrie Underwood
Carrie Underwood at the American Idol Experience parade.
Origin	Checotah, Oklahoma, U.S.
Song	"Inside Your Heaven"
Genre(s)	Country
Runner-up
Bo Bice
Chronology
◀ 2005 ▶

The fourth season of American Idol premiered on January 18, 2005 and continued until May 25, 2005. It was hosted by Ryan Seacrest. Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell also returned to judge. Carrie Underwood won the season with approximately 500 million votes cast in the season and 37 million for the finale. Underwood has since gone on to become a seven-time Grammy-winning country megastar. This is the last season to be aired in standard definition.

Auditions for Season 4 started in August 2004 in Cleveland, Ohio. An audition was originally planned for Anchorage, Alaska, but that was cancelled about a month before due to possible schedule conflict as a result of hurricanes affecting the Orlando auditions. Auditions were held from August to October 2004, and over 100,000 people attended the auditions for the first time.

While in the past seasons celebrity guest judges have been invited to participate during the competition, this was the first season where guest judges were invited to participate in the auditions. The music celebrities featured were:

Where there were four judges present, three yeses were required for the auditioner to proceed on to Hollywood.

It is also the first season in which the age limit was raised to 28, in order to increase variety. Among those who benefited from this new rule were Constantine Maroulis and Bo Bice, considered to be the eldest (and most experienced) of Idol contestants. They were also constantly mentioned by Ryan Seacrest and in the media as "the two rockers", since their long hair and choice of songs made them stand out from conventional Idol standards. Scott Savol and Nadia Turner also benefited from the change.

The audition episodes featured the Molfetta twins multiple times. They first auditioned in New Orleans but both failed, Rich Molfetta tried again in Las Vegas and got through to the Hollywood, but J.P. Molfetta failed in his audition in San Francisco.