Hannah Harper won the season on May 11, 2026, while Jordan McCullough was the runner-up, and Keyla Richardson finished in third place.
Auditions
Remote auditions were held from August 26 to October 6, 2025, as well as a number of open-call auditions. From these auditions, producers of the show selected the contestants who would be invited to audition in front of the judges. Unlike previous seasons, where auditions were hosted in various cities, in-person auditions were only held at one site, Belmont University in Nashville.
For the first time, Hollywood Week was not held in or near Hollywood (despite retaining its name). Instead, it was held in Nashville and was dubbed the "Music City Takeover". A total of 127 contestants advanced to this stage of the competition. Each contestant performed a song of their own choice. After a select number of performances, several contestants at a time were called to the stage, and the judges sent some to the adjacent "Golden Room" which was a holding room for those who could advance, while the rest were eliminated. After all contestants performed, 60 were sent to the Golden Room while the judges made their final decisions, and the rest were eliminated.
Of those in the Golden Room, 28 of them were chosen as part of the Top 30, while another 28 were eliminated. The last four contestants performed two sing-offs of which one in each advanced, and the other was eliminated. The contestants who made it to the top 30 were: Makiyah, Jordan McCullough, Lucas Leon, Bella Emry, Madison Moon, Keyla Richardson, Braden Rumfelt, Chris Tungseth, Jake Thistle, Tianna Roberts, Philmon Lee, Brooks Rosser, Daniel Stallworth, Kutter Bradley, Bryant Thomas, Jesse Findling, Julián Kalel, Sheldon Riley, Brianna Yancey, Kiera Howell, Kyndal Inskeep, Hannah Harper, Ruby Rae, Jacquie Lee, Brenna Brigman, Rae, Genevieve Heyward, Abayomi, Michael Garner, and Chloe Lauren.
'Ohana Round
The top 30 from Hollywood Week advanced to the next round known as the 'Ohana Round, which occurred at Disney's Aulani resort in Kapolei, Hawaii. Three performers were awarded Platinum Tickets by the contestants, the contestants' friends and family, and a panel of musicians and other industry figures respectively.
After the 'Ohana Round, the Top 20 was selected; of the contestants in the Top 20, the three that received a platinum ticket were Jordan McCullough (voted by fellow contestants), Brooks (voted by friends and family), and Kyndal Inskeep (voted by musicians and industry figures).
The top 20 contestants were split into two groups of ten and performed a song each at Aulani. The first group's performances aired on March 16, while the second group aired on March 23. Brad Paisley and Keke Palmer both served as guest mentors during the round. Contestants are listed in the order they performed. The songs performed by the Top 20 and onwards were published on all music streaming platforms.
Each contestant performed a song from the Songs of Faith songbook. No contestants were eliminated on March 30, as the social media votes were not totaled by the end of the broadcast. The eliminations were announced during the April 6 broadcast.
Contestants were given three songs, each selected by the judges, to choose from. After each performance, contestants guessed who chose their song. The theme for the round was "90s" and every song choice was from the 1990s. Lionel Richie had the most song choices selected by the contestants, and was able to save one contestant from elimination.
This was the first live episode of the season, but due to the change from Sunday nights to Monday nights, this - and all other episodes for the rest of the season - were shown live only in the Eastern and Central time zones, with a delayed broadcast in points west, on ABC affiliates. In contrast, the Disney+ simulcast stream (which began the previous week) was still live in all time zones.
Jennifer Hudson served as a guest mentor and guest judge this week. Each contestant performed one song from a Disney film. The Top 9 went to Disneyland before the episode. Contestants are listed in the order they performed.
Top 7 – Taylor Swift / California Songs Night (April 27)
Nikki Glaser served as a guest judge this week. Each contestant performed one song from the songbook of Taylor Swift and another by artists from California. Contestants are listed in the order they performed.
Alicia Keys served as the guest mentor and performer for the finale. The first round of songs was a tribute to Alicia Keys, based on the songs of her own discography. The second round of songs were selected by the contestants as a tribute to their hometowns. After Richardson was eliminated in third place, the remaining two reprised their audition songs, after which Harper was announced as the winner.
Starting this season, the American Idol app, which was used for voting in recent seasons, was discontinued, and voting for this season occurred on the show's website and social media accounts as well as via text messages.
