“American Idol” can mean two things when you ask “how long is American Idol?”—how long the show has been running overall, and how long a typical episode or season is. Here’s the quick scoop.

How long the series has run

  • The show first premiered in June 2002 in the United States as a summer series on Fox.
  • It aired on Fox for 15 seasons from 2002 to 2016 , then went on a short hiatus.
  • A revived version returned in March 2018 on ABC and has continued with new seasons into the mid‑2020s, including seasons airing in 2024 and 2025 and another beginning in January 2026.
  • Across all these years, the franchise spans more than two decades on U.S. television.

So in “real time,” American Idol has been part of TV culture for over 20 years and is still ongoing.

How long are episodes?

  • A standard American Idol episode is usually around one hour of runtime , especially audition and regular performance episodes.
  • Some special episodes—like finales or extended performance nights—can run closer to two or even three hours , which is why viewers sometimes complain about “extra long” episodes.

As an example, a Sunday night live show during the season might run about two hours, while a results show or mid‑season episode can be closer to one.

How long is a season?

  • Early seasons on Fox were quite long, often around 40–44 episodes , running roughly from January to May each year.
  • In more recent years on ABC, seasons have become shorter, often in the mid‑teens to around 20 episodes , but they still usually stretch over about three months from premiere to finale.

Put simply: a season generally runs for one TV “cycle” (late winter to late spring), but with fewer episodes now than in the early 2000s.

Mini example to make it concrete

Imagine a modern ABC season:

  • Premieres in late February.
  • Runs weekly performance shows for several weeks.
  • Wraps with a big live finale in May, lasting a couple of hours and crowning that year’s winner.

That’s the practical sense of “how long is American Idol” —about three months per season, one to two hours per episode, over a franchise life of more than 20 years.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.