Jamal Roberts won the season on May 18, 2025, while John Foster was the runner-up, and Breanna Nix finished in third place.[5]
Auditions
The Idol Across America virtual auditions program which began in 2020 returned and auditions were held remotely from August 12 to September 9, 2024. There were also many open-call auditions and from those, the producers selected contestants to audition in front of the judges.[6]
The "platinum ticket" also returned from the previous three seasons. During the audition round three platinum tickets were awarded. The recipients were Kolbi Jordan, Filo, and Canaan James Hill.
Dubbed the "Idol Arena", each of the 144 contestants were chosen at random to perform a solo, and sixty-two of them advanced to the next round. The three platinum ticket recipients (Jordan, Filo, and Hill) sang. Their advantage was the ability to skip this round and they sang a bonus performance. Joining them were 59 additional contestants who cleared the Idol Arena, while the other 82 were eliminated. The "Showstoppers" round determined the Top 24 semifinalists.[7] In a twist after the Showstoppers round, while cuts were made, the judges chose four contestants to advance to the Top 24 and the remaining 42 competed in the Head to Head round. During the round contestants had 24 hours to pick a partner and prepare a duet performance. After the duets, the judges chose 20 to be in the Top 24.[8]
Showstopper round
The Showstopper round featured the top 62 contestants performing for the judges and a live audience at the Barker Hangar. The round was filmed on January 27, 2025, and aired on April 7, 2025. The judges narrowed the number of contestants down to 46, with four advancing to the Top 24. Five contestants which made it to the Top 24 (Ché, Penny Samar, Josh King, Kyana Fanene, and Baylee Littrell) did not have their Showstopper performance aired.[8][9] The next night, a new "Head to Head" round was featured where the remaining 42 contestants sang for 20 spots. Jelly Roll debuted as the "Artist in Residence" and he mentored the contestants until the winner was announced.[9]
The top 24 contestants were split into two groups of twelve and performed a song each at the Aulani resort in Kapolei, Hawaii on Oahu. The first group taped performances on February 11 which aired on April 13, while the second group taped on February 12 and aired on April 14. Ashanti was a guest mentor and judge for the first group, and Josh Groban for the second group. Two contestants from each group were eliminated based on the public vote and the rest advanced to the top 20.[11] Contestants are listed in the order they performed.
The top 20 performances aired on Sunday, April 20 and the results were revealed on Monday, April 21. The top 20 performances aired on Easter and the theme for the episode was "Songs of Faith."
Color key:
This contestant was chosen by the public to advance.
This contestant was not chosen by the public, and had to perform again for the judges.
This contestant was not chosen by the public, but was chosen by the judges as a Wild Card pick.
This contestant was eliminated.
Contestants are listed in the order they performed.
Contestants were given three songs, each selected by the judges, to pick from. After each performance, contestants guessed who picked their chosen song. Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie tied with the most song choices selected by the contestants, and were able to save one contestant from elimination.
The first round of songs were chosen by Jelly Roll, based off of a list of each contestants' favorite songs (according to host Ryan Seacrest during the telecast). The 2nd round songs were selected by the contestants as dedications to their hometowns, shown after their hometown visits. After Nix had been eliminated and finished in 3rd place, the remaining two performed their intended winner's singles in the final round, after which Roberts was announced as the winner.[citation needed]
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