LOS ANGELES, April 8 — American Idol managed to keep the surprises coming right up to the very end, as Fox TV’s singing contest ended its 15-season run.
Trent Harmon was crowned the 15th and final American Idol winner last night.
“I’ve done this 14 times and the atmosphere has never been more emotionally charged than it is tonight,” host Ryan Seacrest said, before requesting, “for the last time,” that the lights be dimmed in anticipation of the results.
“After the nationwide vote, the winner of American Idol season 15 is… Trent Harmon!”
Fans had considered him the underdog to runner-up La’Porsha Renae — even the judges appeared a little shocked.
As his name flashed on the screens around him, Harmon gave Renae a long hug, before tearfully declaring, “I worked so hard and I know I have a god-given ability, but I didn’t want to take it for granted. I wanted to work so, so hard, and she pushed me to do it,” he said, referring to his fellow Mississippian Renae.
The 25-year-old Harmon worked as a waiter at his family’s restaurant before auditioning for the show.
He grew up on a farm and described himself as a “dude from Mississippi.”
Singer Trent Harmon is congratulated after winning the competition during the American Idol Grand Finale in Hollywood April 7, 2016. — Reuters pic
Harmon memorably struggled through Hollywood Week with mono, but won hearts with his earnestness that saw him train himself not to make silly faces when he sang and write every word the judges ever told him down in a tattered leather-bound journal.
That dedication and persistence paid off in spades as he came from behind to pip Renae, widely regarded as the season’s frontrunner, to the finish line.
The 22-year-old runner-up, meanwhile, is a single mother who overcame domestic abuse to compete.
American Idol, once a ratings powerhouse that influenced TV and music, had suffered steady audience erosion, before Fox decided it would end this season.
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