HOORAY! We have our winners:

June and Geraldine! Congrats, and thanks for entering. Your awesome prizes will be on their way to your mailbox shortly. Enjoy, and thanks again for checking us out at TV Screener.com!

And everyone, stay tuned to TVScreener.com … we’ve got lots more TV goodies coming your way!

It’s almost here, it’s almost here: the 10th season of American Idol (January 19, 8PM ET, Fox), the first Simon Cowell-less season, the first season with newbie judges Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez and the season many are calling the show’s last shot at rebounding from several seasons of lackluster talent.

And to mark a decade of Idol, journalist and author Richard Rushfield has penned American Idol: The Untold Story, a delicious book full of the kind of behind-the-scenes details that will delight any Idol devotee. I’m not saying I stayed up until 4AM reading the book once I picked it up, but, well, I did.

Scoop on each season of the show, as well as interviews with Simon Cowell, American Idol creator Simon Fuller and controversial season one co-host Brian Dunkleman are just part of the fun, as Rushfield, who covered the show for the Los Angeles Times, shares anecdotes and insight that could only come from someone who had rare backstage access and actually sat in the live show audience week after week.

Among the juicier topics Rushfield, also a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and a Daily Beast columnist, dishes in the book:

– Details on the contestant who was season nine’s biggest diva (hint: it rhymes with Bristol Cowersox);
– The truth, finally, about exactly what happened with Dunkleman and his one-time co-host, Ryan Seacrest (including a tidbit that Dunkleman himself may not know until he reads the book!);
– How Taylor Hicks was a lot more calculating than his down-to-earth, good-time singer image might have suggested;
– And the real story behind the show’s many voting controversies, the battle of the Simons, Paula Abdul‘s shenanigans, the season six phenomenon that was Sanjaya Malakar, surprising info about how narrow a pool of choices the contestants sometimes have to work within for song selections and extensive interviews with Idols past, including Kimberley Locke, Ace Young, Megan Joy, Matt Giraud and Nikki McKibbin.

Check out my interview with Rushfield today at TVSquad.com, and follow him on Twitter and at his AI blog, Idol Inferno, where he’ll continue to dish on the show throughout season 10.

And, because nothing goes with obsessive viewing of a new season of American Idol like a great read to help fuel your obsession, TVScreener.com is giving away two copies of the book!

So, for a chance to win a copy of American Idol: The Untold Story:
– Leave a comment on this post, with the name of your all-time favorite American Idol contestant, and an e-mail address to reach you
– Deadline to enter is January 26 at 8PM ET (according to recorded comment time)
– The winner will be chosen by random, using Random.org’s Random Number Generator
– The winner will be announced on the evening of Jan. 26, as an update to this post

Good luck, Idol devotees!

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• Filed in American Idol, TV Books, WIN THIS!
• Tags: American Idol, American Idol season 10, American Idol The Untold Story