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Seems like Reacher fans haven’t scrolled down far enough on Alan Ritchson’s filmography, because many have only recently realized the action star auditioned for American Idol Season 3 back in 2004.
“Today I learned that while his first credited role as an actor was Aquaman in Smallville in 2005 (which I did know), Alan Ritchson was actually on network TV a year before… as himself auditioning for American Idol,” one X user wrote on March 9. “And he made it to Hollywood! Literally!”
“Wait, how am I just finding out Alan Ritchson was on American Idol?!” another person posted on March 14.
“I wonder if this Idol appearance led to him getting work as an actor,” a third X user wrote a day latter. “Let him sing already!”
Ritchson was just a 20-year-old from Niceville, Florida, when he tried out for the singing competition — and he had Paula Abdul smiling even before he started singing, as fellow judges Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson noted.
Cowell and Jackson even left the judges’ table so that Ritchson could give Abdul a one-on-one serenade, and the future TV star sang Stevie Wonder’s “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” while caressing her face.
“He’s totally hot.” Abdul said in a behind-the-scenes interview. “Now listen, I’m a professional, and [the serenade] didn’t sway my decision… much.”
Later in the tryouts, Ritchson sang The Drifters’ “On Broadway” while gyrating his hips.
“That was my first time to L.A.,” Ritchson said on Jimmy Kimmel Live in December 2023, reflecting on his time on Idol. “I was … a semi-finalist, like, Top 32 or something. I made it almost to the very end, right?”
Ritchson also said Idol producers shot B-roll of him frolicking with a model in the hotel pool and then edited the footage to make it seem like he was shirking off a songwriting challenge, when really, he was helping his fellow contestants craft lyrics. “I was helping people!” he exclaimed.
American Idol, Sundays, 8/7c, ABC