22 years of American Idol hometowns (County map made)

[Craig]

(Moderators: feel free to merge the discussions. A new thread was recommended.)

 

I decided to create this map showing how many counties (or parishes, in the case of Louisiana) have produced at least one Idol contestant that made it to a voting round since the first season (from which data is available - there isn't enough data online to find out for those below such, as in the Hollywood round, although that could be done with a lot of research). This does not include those with a listed hometown outside the US or in a US territory. The scale is not big enough to view closely in small urbanized areas, such as in the Northeast Corridor. It took many hours of research to map this out to include all the contestants, from the most obscure early season semi-finalists who are living their normal lives now with their families to the most famous winners. (Can we ever do a "Where Are They Now? Maybe at the 25th Anniversary that should be done for everyone.)

 

A total of 292 counties (out of 3,143) in 44 states have seen at least one hometown Idol make a voting round. This map shows the best result anyone from there achieved, in the case of those with more than one Idol.

 

6 states (Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming - all pretty small) have never had someone from those states make it past the Hollywood round. Still, there's a lot of places that have shown up in 22 seasons and about 550 contestants.

 

If sufficient information can be found, this map could be expandable to those who were cut in Hollywood rounds over the years, although that is often difficult to analyze as many are never shown.

 

Edited September 6 by Craig

[nigelsimon]

9 minutes ago, Craig said:

 

That could be an expandable piece of work. Some states have long lists (such as TX, FL, GA, NC, TN and CA). 6 states have never had anyone get past the Hollywood rounds.

I understand. I would limit it to the finalists on the big stage (top 12-13) so it won't be as expansive. However, it's up to you. 

[ptebwwong]

What happens when 2 contestants came from the same county? For example, Clay Aiken is from Raleigh & Scotty McCreery was from a suburb of Raleigh. I see the map showing a runner-up for NC which I assume was Clay, but then that county also has a winner. I assume these aren't the only 2 that come from the same county over the years. They are 2 success stories so the ones that came to mind.

[Craig]

20 minutes ago, ptebwwong said:

What happens when 2 contestants came from the same county? For example, Clay Aiken is from Raleigh & Scotty McCreery was from a suburb of Raleigh. I see the map showing a runner-up for NC which I assume was Clay, but then that county also has a winner. I assume these aren't the only 2 that come from the same county over the years. They are 2 success stories so the ones that came to mind.

 

That's a mistake I have on the map. I should have colored it gold. It should be colored based on the highest finisher of any season - there are many counties with more than one (in some cases, in the same season).

Edited September 7 by Craig