With Paula Abdul having departed American Idol earlier this year and rumblings of Simon Cowell possibly following suit this coming spring, the blockbuster Fox reality singing competition may never be the same after 2010.

Nevertheless, Idol proved to be an omnipresent television force during the first decade of the new millennium, transforming some unknowns into superstars and turning others into punchlines. Here are 32 things that would or would not have happened had American Idol never spun off from U.K. series Pop Idol and hit American airwaves in 2002.