They put the “idol” in
American Idol…

And with the tenth season’s premiere, we’re bringing you our top picks
for the reality TV show’s most impressive alums.

Jennifer Hudson didn’t win
season three.  In fact, she didn’t
even come close finishing in seventh place.  But that didn’t stop her from going on to win an Oscar just
a few years later for her role in Dreamgirls.  Up next for the Weight Watchers spokeswoman—who has shed an
amazing eighty pounds since the birth of her son—is a starring role in the
highly anticipated Winnie Mandela biopic.

With over one hundred awards
won to date including five Grammys, Carrie Underwood has become one of country
music’s most formidable female vocalists. 
The season four winner married hunky hockey player Mike Fisher last
summer in one of the year’s swankiest nuptials at the Ritz in Georgia capping
off her fairy tale with a happily ever after. 

Because of you is right!
Kelly Clarkson set the standard for reality TV singing competitions taking home
the top spot in the show’s first season. 
The pop star made cranking out hits look easy catapulting herself into
the spotlight with four studio albums to date, and a fifth set to drop this
March.

Fantasia Barrino beat out
Jennifer Hudson back in 2004 going on to reach number one with her
debut track “I Believe.”  She
penned a New York Times bestseller, in which she famously revealed she was
illiterate, and earned rave reviews for her successful stint on Broadway in “The
Color Purple.”  An affair with a married
man and a failed suicide attempt last August left her personal life in
shambles, but she’s since rebounded with her first a solo tour.

With J. Lo and Steven Tyler
signing on as judges for the tenth season…

And Simon Cowell out, we can
only guess what this year has in store for fans.

Talent can sometimes be
questionable…

But a good show?

With judges like that, we
think that’s a promise they can keep.