Clay Aiken

The second season of "American Idol" (Fox, 2002- ) proved most noteworthy for the rise of Clay Aiken from nerdy country boy-next-door to unlikely heartthrob on the strength of his powerhouse vocals and charming personality. Overshadowing the season's winner, Ruben Studdard, Aiken enjoyed an enviable string of recording, tour and television success, striking multiplatinum with the album Measure of a Man and hitting No. 1 with "This Is the Night." An easy target for his less-than-masculine demeanor and dramatically earnest…more