Indian Idol is a popular singing talent contest on Indian television. Based on the international series format, launched by UK show Pop Idol, the contest is to determine the undiscovered young singer of the country. The first season of the show aired on Sony TV channel in 2004, followed by the second season in 2005, third in 2007, fourth in 2008-2009. The last and the fifth season was aired in the year 2010.

Programming of Indian Idol
The program is usually telecasted twice a week: There is an hour of performances in the first night and the second night features elimination. The show is produced and broadcasted on Sony TV, India. Along with Sony TV, India, Fremantle Media (makers of the Idol series), which is owned by the German media corporation Bertelsmann also produces the show. The winner signs a contract worth 10 million Indian Rupees with Sony Entertainment Television (India) along with a chance to record an album. The winner also receives a car. The winner of the first season was Abhijeet Sawant and of the second season Sandeep Acharya who also got a guitar signed by Abhijeet Sawant.

Anchors of Indian Idol
Mini Mathur and Aman Verma, an established TV anchor and actor, anchored the first season and second season as a pair. In third season, Mini Mathur was joined by famous television actor and anchor Hussain Kuwajerwala. The 3rd season of Indian Idol was hosted by Meiyang Ch?ng, who was a participant in the third Season, and Hussain Kuwajerwala. Where as the 4th season of the show was anchored by Hussain Kuwajerwala and Abhijeet Sawant the winner of 1st Indian Idol.

Judges of Indian Idol
The judges of the show for the first and second season were Anu Malik, the well-known music director, playback singer Sonu Nigam and choreographer, Farah Khan. For the third season there have been changes in the judges` panel. It included lyricist and script writer, Javed Akhtar, Anu Malik, music director and singer, playback singers Alisha Chinai and Udit Narayan. The fourth season of Indian Idol was judged by former actress Sonali Bendre, popular singer Kailash Kher, and 2 of the previous judges, Javed Akhtar and Anu Malik. The fifth season again saw a change in the judging panel. Only Anu Malik remained from the earlier season, joined by singer Sunidhi Chauhan and musician Salim Merchant.

Winners of Indian Idol
Abhijeet Sawant, from Mumbai, was the winner of the show in the first season. Amit Sana from became the first runner up. Sandeep Acharya became the winner of the second season of Indian Idol. Prashant Tamang, who hails from Darjeeling, became the winner of the 3rd Indian Idol. In the fourth season of the show, Sourabhee Debbarma won the contest of Indian Idol and was the first female winner in the history of the show. The fifth season of Indian Idol concluded on August 15th 2010, and Sreeram Chandra from Hyderabad was crowned as the winner of Indian Idol 5.