A huge part of the enjoyment that comes with watching American Idol is finding out about new talented singers and cringing at some of the aspiring singers that should probably stick to singing in the shower. After running on Fox for 15 seasons, American Idol was canceled due to low ratings and a lack of engagement from longtime viewers. Alas, ABC rebooted the series in 2018, hiring judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, and Luke Bryan to integrate the judging panel. So far, this Idol reboot has been successful, and it has aired for four seasons.
When most fans think of iconic American Idol auditions, they often remember earlier seasons of the show. At the time, judge Paula Abdul would cringe at the not-so-talented auditioners, Simon Cowell would outright tell them to stop singing immediately, and Randy Jackson would deliver his famous "it's a no from me, dawg" responses. But while it is easy to remember those moments when the judges - and the viewers - felt embarrassed for a contestant, they aren't actually the most-viewed American Idol auditions on YouTube. Instead, the most popular viral auditions from the show were all success stories.
Catie Turner (5.8 million views)
Catie Turner auditioned for American Idol season 16, which was the rebooted series' first year airing on ABC. At the time, Katy Perry, Luke Bryan, and Lionel Richie were all newbie judges, but they were already absolute pros at their jobs. Catie was a 17-year-old high school student from Langhorne, Pennsylvania. She played the guitar while singing an original song, "21st Century Machine", and let's just say that the judges were completely blown away. This is the most-watched American Idol audition of all time on the show's official YouTube channel, with 5.8 million views as of this writing.
Claudia Conway (4.5 million views)
Claudia Conway is a very good singer who worked hard to auditon on American Idol season 19 and did deserve her ticket to Hollywood. Alas, no one could help the fact that the hype around Claudia's Idol audition had to do with the person she is related to. Her mother happens to be Kellyanne Conway, a trusted advisor of former president Donald Trump. In 2020, Claudia went viral by exposing her mom on social media with little candid videos that she'd record from their home. Unsurprisingly, Claudia's audition has gained 4.5 million views on YouTube. She sang two songs: Rihanna's "Love On The Brain" and Adele's "When We Were Young".
Harper Grace (3.8 million views)
The third most-watched American Idol audition of all time on the series' YouTube channel is from Harper Grace in season 16. The big story here is that many years prior to Idol, a video of Harper singing the US National Anthem went viral for how terrible her singing was. As such, this audition was her redemption moment... and she did absolutely redeem herself in it. For her audition, Harper performed an original song called "Yard Sale". The video has 3.8 million views on YouTube.
American Idol season 19 airs Sundays & Mondays at 8 pm ET/PT on ABC.