[2] Each season, the series aims to find the most outstanding unsigned solo recording artist (or "idol") in a region.

Through a series of mass auditions, a group of finalists are selected by a panel of judges (which usually consists of artists and record producers) who offer critiques on their performances.

The winner receives a recording contract, monetary prizes, and a title as their nation's "Idol", "SuperStar" or "Star".

The various series have launched the careers of a number of highly successful recording artists around the world, including Idol winners Will Young of the United Kingdom, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Scotty McCreery, Fantasia, Ruben Studdard, David Cook, and Phillip Phillips of the United States, Kurt Nilsen of Norway, Ryan Malcolm and Kalan Porter of Canada, Loreen of Sweden, Guy Sebastian of Australia, and Elvis Blue of South Africa.

Contestants who did not win but have still gone on to prominence include Anthony Callea, Ricki-Lee Coulter and Jessica Mauboy of Australia, Jacob Hoggard and Carly Rae Jepsen of Canada, and Clay Aiken, Chris Daughtry, Gabby Barrett, Lauren Alaina, and Adam Lambert of the United States, among many others.

The first series of Pop Idol proved to be more popular than Popstars, in part due to the chemistry of the judges and the success of its first winner Will Young.

Before selling the format, Fuller reached out for an out-of-court settlement with Popstars creator Jonathan Dowling, in which international versions of Idols will be prohibited to use the prefix Pop in their local titles.

[3] Fuller, Lythgoe, and Pop Idol judge Simon Cowell attempted to sell the format in the United States in 2001, but the idea was met with poor response from major networks.

American Idol went on to become the all-time most dominant show in the U.S. TV ratings, due to the popularity of the judges (particularly Simon Cowell) and its contestants, which were led by its first winner, Kelly Clarkson.

According to the show creator, Simon Fuller, "the interactivity was important because this would allow the audience to tell me who they liked best and this, in turn, would indicate to me who would have the most fans and eventually sell the most music and become the biggest stars.

The judges offer critiques and/or advice after each contestant performance, which can be positive or negative; Nouvelle Star 4 for the first time in any country introduced a red and blue "score card" type system where the jury award a blue "positive" or red "negative" rating and in Nouvelle Star 14, they introduced a scoring system where the jury give a point from a range of 1 to 10 after every mottoshow performance.

The Theatre round is where a specially selected group of auditioners from all regional auditions converge (always in the host city) to perform in three sub stages: a chorus line in groups of 10 where free song choices are allowed, a trio (or less commonly a duo or quartet) where contestants must memorize a preselected song to perform and choreograph together, and finally a solo a cappella round where contestants sing a song of their own choice without musical backing in front of friends, family, judges & fellow contestants.

The semi-finals occurs usually live or pre-recorded (in some countries) where contestants sing in a television studio fully televised; again judges give critiques but beginning at this stage, home viewers vote via telephone and SMS (and in some countries other voting mechanisms including via Internet or via Red Button) who they want to stay in the competition.

During the "semi-final" weeks, contestants receive a workshop tuition with a vocal coach to prepare their song of choice.

During the format, a Wildcards feature was introduced which re-introduced past semi-finalists to receive a second chance to become a finalist, in some shows – the judges sometimes pick one or more contestants to advance as well as the viewers' vote.

In a bid to counter sagging ratings, contestants on Australian Idol were allowed to bring instruments on stage with them and had the opportunity to sing original material from the 2006 season, a world first.

In this final stage a specially awarded song is sung by both remaining contestants which is ultimately slated to be released as the winner's debut single though recently in some countries this has been phased out.

While the show's premise is to find one winner with promises of a recording deal and other frugal benefits, the Idol series often has several contestants who go onto the same route of fame, whether they be finalists, semi-finalists, or even auditioners.

The basic plan for the logo is an oval with the particular show's name centered in custom lettering based on a common font (Kaufmann).

The star also appeared briefly on the American Idol logo, but was scrapped early in the Season 1 auditions.

As part of a relaunch after the first season, the French Nouvelle Star logo was changed to purple, and their name was shortened.

They are the only logo to depart from the standard blue palette until the fifth season of SuperStar Arab changed to the same color scheme as well.

The intro starts with the Idol logo without the dark blue background spinning in the American and Canadian versions while the other Idol formats have their logo glow and sparkle, next the logo zooms in featuring a long section of the CGI Idol figure riding an open elevator past large vertical screens and displays and then walking down a stylized tunnel to a stage, where the figure starts to perform.

Also, the intro sequence for Nouvelle Star has a purple and blue color scheme instead of the standard light blue/light green.

The ending title of this intro is similar to the Universal Pictures logo of 1990 (for the starry background) and in 2012 (for the earth model).

Then it cuts to a big hill with more microphones with spotlights and 4 CGI figures appear with 3 of them singing and 1 playing guitar.

American Idol's revival on ABC was accompanied with a Disney-like intro starting with their Season 16 premiere.

It starts with several shooting stars falling from the sky before curving up and circling the neon American Idol logo with fireworks in the background at the end.

Deutschland sucht den Superstar had a similar version of this intro in 2022, but they used a blue background with shooting stars.

It starts with a closeup of the logo at the top of the 2 in '20' and tracing itself with gold lines as the camera pans to the right.