Clay Aiken

2007

CLAY AIKEN

Season 2 Runner-Up
Ask the "Claymates" and they'll tell you 2003's real Idol was not Ruben Studdard but Aiken, 28, who recently released his third album A Thousand Different Ways. Despite some bumps in the road (his Kelly Ripa encounter!), Aiken continues to hit the right notes. But there's something else he'd like to accomplish: starting a family. "I want to be a father so badly," he told PEOPLE in September.