The ninth season of American Idol will premiere on January 12, 2010, on Fox. Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi will all return as judges, and Ellen DeGeneres will permanently replace Paula Abdul as the fourth judge. On January 11, 2010, Simon Cowell announced that the ninth season of the show would be his last as a judge. Idol Gives Back will also return this season and will be held on April 21, 2010, during the top 7 results show. The top 24 semi-finals format used in fourth through seventh seasons will also return this season.It was recently confirmed that this will be Simon Cowell's final season as he will leave to helm the American version of The X Factor. The United Kingdom is broadcasting the season starting from the 13th and 14th January 2010 on ITV2 (ITV was the network that broadcast the original Idols franchise in 2001), on a same-day delay basis after the American broadcast. In Asia, it is coming live via satellite on STAR World (also owned by News Corp) on January 13. In Singapore, the show will also be broadcast on the next day on the local free-to-air channel, MediaCorp Channel 5, on January 13, 2010. In The Philippines, the show will also be broadcast on the local free-to-air channel, Q (television network), on January 13, 2010. In Latin America, it will be broadcast four days after its premiere, on January 16, by Sony Entertainment Television with Spanish subtitles. In the Arab World, the show will be broadcast on the free-to-air channel MBC4, where it will be a Thursday and Friday show.

Regional auditions phase

Locations

Auditions were held in the following cities:

Call-back auditions phase

Locations & Guest Judges

During this stage guest judges filled in the fourth judging seat.

• Contestants must be between the ages of 16 and 28 as of June 12, 2009, and be eligible to work in the U.S.

Abdul replacements

Paula Abdul will not return as a judge. Therefore, Victoria Beckham, Katy Perry, Mary J. Blige, Shania Twain, Avril Lavigne, Joe Jonas, Neil Patrick Harris and Kristin Chenoweth will be guest judges during the auditions. Fox chairman Peter Rice stated that they would find a permanent fourth judge before the season premiere in January,and on September 9, it was confirmed that Ellen DeGeneres would be joining the show as the new permanent fourth judge for the rounds held at CBS Television City and thereafter.

US Nielsen ratings