Nikki McKibbin (September 28 1979-) was the third place contestant in the original American Idol, and a contestant in the first season of Popstars.
Born Katherine Nicole McKibbin in Grand Prairie, Texas, she owns her own karaoke business. She has a son named Tristan Cole and is currently pursuing a singing career. She is featured on the 2004 www.thefishbowl.com Christmas album.
After becoming a finalist in the top 10, she was known for her constant appearance in the bottom 3 of nearly every American Idol results show. This also led to a controversy over power dialing, claiming that computer nerds helped her stay in the competition by using special modems to cast thousands of votes.
According to the American Idol archives, McKibbin is the only finalist to ever sing rock in the whole competition. Her performance of, "Black Velvet," first made popular by Alannah Myles, led to the elimination of the presumed contest front-runner Tamyra Gray. Both of McKibbin's performances that day were highly praised by Simon Cowell. She ended her run in the third place position on the first season of American Idol, behind victor Kelly Clarkson and runner-up Justin Guarini.
She has appeared on a special "Reality TV Stars" episode of the NBC series Fear Factor in February 2005. Although she did not finish in first place, she did win a bonus prize of $20,000.
