Top 24

Contestants are listed in the order they performed.

Top 16 – Motown

Contestants are listed in the order they performed.

Top 12 – Back to the start

Contestants performed the songs they originally sang at their auditions, and are listed in the order they performed.

Top 11 (March 19) – Party songs

Sarina-Joi Crowe performed "Neon Lights," but the judges chose to not save her, resulting in her elimination. Contestants are listed in the order they performed. The judges did, however, choose to use their "judges' save" when Qaasim Middleton was announced as the performer to be eliminated.

Top 11 (March 26) – Movie soundtracks

Nile Rodgers served as a guest mentor this week. Contestants chose songs featured in movies, and are listed in the order they performed.

Top 9 – Music from the 1980s

Boy George served as a guest mentor this week. Contestants are listed in the order they performed.

Beginning this week, viewers could vote via Twitter to determine which of the bottom two contestants would be eliminated and which would be saved.

Top 8 – Kelly Clarkson

Kelly Clarkson served as a guest mentor this week. Contestants performed one song each from her discography, and are listed in the order they performed.

Daniel Seavey performed "Breakaway," but he lost the Twitter vote and was eliminated.

Top 7 – Billboard Hot 100

Jason Derulo and Florida Georgia Line served as guest mentors this week. Contestants performed one song each from the Billboard Hot 100, and are listed in the order they performed.

Qaasim Middleton performed "Hey Ya!," but he lost the Twitter vote and was eliminated.

Top 6 – American classics

Each contestant performed two songs.^[28] Contestants are listed in the order they performed.

Joey Cook performed "My Funny Valentine" and "Somebody to Love," but she lost the Twitter vote and was eliminated.

Top 5 – Arena anthems

Each contestant performed two songs.^[29] Contestants are listed in the order they performed.

Quentin Alexander performed "Light My Fire" and "Shake It Out," but he lost the Twitter vote and was eliminated.

Top 4 – Judges' hometowns & one's soul

Martina McBride and Jay DeMarcus served as guest mentors this week. Each contestant performed two songs: one representing a judge's hometown, and one representing their own soul.^[30] Contestants are listed in the order they performed.

Top 3

Each contestant performed three songs: one chosen by mentor Scott Borchetta, one dedicated to the finalists' hometowns, and one chosen by the judges. Contestants are listed in the order they performed.

Rayvon Owen performed "Want to Want Me", "As", and "You Are So Beautiful"; however, he was revealed to have had the lowest vote count from the previous week and was eliminated.

Top 2 – Finale

Each contestant performed three songs, one of which was chosen by producer Simon Fuller, and are listed in the order they performed.

Quentin Alexander incident

National media outlets reported on an exchange between judge Harry Connick Jr. and contestant Quentin Alexander, noting that Connick scolding a contestant was awkward.^[31][32] On the live airing of the top 6 show, there were three contestants who had not been saved when Alexander was chosen. After he performed, host Ryan Seacrest noted that he appeared to be upset. When asked, Alexander responded, "This sucks, we've got two of the best vocalists, my best friend [Joey Cook] sitting over there. This whole thing is whack, but I'm going to shut up right now." Seacrest then replied that it was a competition, and with the save anything could happen. After Alexander had left the stage, Connick Jr. said, "Quentin, if it's that whack, then you can always go home, because Idol is paying a lot of money to give you this experience and for you to say that to this hand that is feeding you right now, I think is highly disrespectful." Alexander was then prompted by the producers to return to the stage, where he approached the judges and clarified that he meant the two being potentially eliminated was whack, not the show nor the experience. Later, after performing his second song, he explained, "I understand that these things are going to happen, and I just didn't want my friend to leave" and apologized.^[33] Judge Jennifer Lopez empathized with Alexander's emotions running high, but said that as an artist, he would have to learn to work through that even when putting on a performance.^[34] Joey Cook commented after being eliminated on Alexander's statements:

I pretty much just told him what he did was beautiful, in my opinion, and it was the perfect representation of him. Quentin is a very emotional person. He’s very 'all cards on the table.' There is no sugar coating. He doesn’t hide his emotions. He’s honest. He’s a raw human being, and I think what happened last night was the perfect example of that and how emotional of a person he is.^[35]

The producers played up the exchange in what Music Times termed "what seemed like shady circumstances" to replay the incident throughout the week in show promos and at the beginning of the top 5 show.^[36][37] An Idol source also stated that for fairness purposes, the judges and contestants had a strict wall of silence between them and only interact onstage so Connick Jr. and Alexander have not had contact since last week.^[36] Alexander was eliminated the following week with what Music Times questioned as possibly the first time American Idol "went into an episode with what seemed to be a very clear agenda."^[38] Yahoo's managing editor Lyndsey Parker detailed many points that she argued was American Idol "throwing Quentin Alexander under the tour bus" referring to the idiom of "throwing [someone] under the bus" by sacrificing a friend as the show heavily promoted the summer tour, which only guaranteed that the top five finalists would be included.^[39] Included in her critique was that the show had aired the promotional video featuring the confrontation, which she characterized as "misleadingly edited" to boost ratings.^[40] She also wrote:

Throughout the evening, almost all of the contestants were lavishly praised, even though two of them actually messed up, one of them made a questionable lyrical change, and several of them had obvious pitch issues. Quentin’s perfectly solid “Light My Fire” received one of only two negative critiques among the night’s dozen performances, and undeservedly so.

Parker also referenced a "backhanded and unflattering" exchange from Connick Jr. insinuating that Alexander needed Auto-Tune.^[39] She also noted that the "fan save" via Twitter was handled uniquely in that contestant Rayvon Owen didn't have a replay or critique until after a commercial break, while Alexander did not get the same treatment, and host Ryan Seacrest claimed Alexander had muttered "I give up," to which Alexander had to clarify that he had actually said, "I give it up."^[39] USA Today echoed the sentiment stating that the awkward moments probably led to his elimination.^[41]

U.S. Nielsen ratings

This article needs additional citations for verification. (March 2015)

The season premiere was watched by 11.2 million viewers; down 25% from the thirteenth season's premiere (which had an audience of 15.19 million viewers). However, it was up 6.3% from the thirteenth season's finale (which had an audience of 10.53 million viewers), the second time in the show's history^{[citation needed]}. Currently, the most-viewed episode this season was the "Minneapolis Auditions," which aired on January 21, 2015, and the episode with the fewest viewers tuning in was the "Top 7 Perform: Billboard Hits," which aired on April 8, 2015. This episode now takes the top spot as the least-viewed and worst-rated American Idol episode ever, with 6.58 viewers. The title was previously held by the thirteenth season's "The Final 2," which was watched by 6.76 million viewers on May 20, 2014.^[42][43] The average viewership in millions for the audition episodes was 10.84. The "Top 10 Perform: Movie Night" episode was moved to Thursday night, to make way for the two-hour finale of Empire. This season, there was a two part finale, with the first of two parts airing on Tuesday, May 12, 2015, at 9/8c. The second of the two-part-finale aired on Wednesday, May 13, 2015, at 8/7c.^[44]