Pop Idol (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Pop Idol was a British television series which debuted on ITV on October 5 2001; the show was a talent contest to decide the best new young pop singer, or 'pop idol', in the United Kingdom, based on viewer voting and participation.

The Idol series has become an international franchise; it has spun off many successful shows such as American Idol, Australian Idol, Latin American Idol, Idols (Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, South Africa), Canadian Idol, Idols West Africa, Indian Idol, Indonesian Idol, New Zealand Idol, Philippine Idol, Hay Superstar, Nouvelle Star , Deutschland sucht den SuperStar, Singapore Idol, Malaysian Idol, Music Idol, Ídolos Brazil, Ídolos Portugal, and Super Star.

Series format

Unusually, the format was created not by TV producers but by music impresario Simon Fuller, in 1998. Having seen the project as initially web based, the reality TV boom of the late '90s led him to take his format and inject elements of the variety talent shows of the 1970s and Popstars.

One of the UK's top-earning TV format exports, Pop Idol made extensive use of premium-priced viewer interactivity, with viewers voting by telephone, mobile telephone texting (not used on series one), through the "red button" on digital television sets or voting via the official website. The final of the first series of Pop Idol in February 2002 received the highest-ever one-night vote for a UK TV show, making the show one of ITV1's most profitable. The sister show on ITV2, Pop Idol Extra, also made extensive use of mobile phone text messages to raise additional revenue. The first Pop Idol received very high voting figures despite not make use of texting or the 'red button' but only telephone and Internet voting.

The Saturday night primetime show initially followed the audition process, as at various locations around the UK, hopefuls sang before four judges (Pete Waterman, Simon Cowell, Nicki Chapman and Neil "Dr" Fox). Besides the successful auditioners, the poorest "singers" were often aired due to their obvious lack of talent or presence. Poor singers often faced harsh criticisms from many judges, mainly Simon Cowell (whose controversial rantings also made him famous on American Idol). The judge's reactions often extended from disgust to nearly open laughter over such performances.

Once auditions wrapped up, the series moved to the Criterion Theatre, where further auditions saw the judges decide on a group of 50. Unusually, this was the final point at which the judges had direct control over the contestants' fates, as the remainder of the results would be driven solely from viewer voting.

Stage 3 of the series moved to a conventional TV studio. The 50 contestants were split into five groups of ten, each of whom would sing one song for the judges, accompanied only by a piano. Each judge would offer their opinion, and at the end of the show, phone lines opened for votes. Later the same evening, a live show (the inital one having been pre-recorded at this stage of the competition) would follow in which the voting results would be revealed, the top 2 earning a place in the final 10. For series 2, a wildcard round was added, an addition that originated on American Idol, in which the judges selected 10 rejected contestants who were given a second chance. In this special edition, one contestant was selected by the viewer vote, and one (Susanne Manning), chosen by the judges. This meant that the next stage began with twelve contestants, rather than the ten in series 1.

The final stage moved to a far more lavish TV set, where all remaining contestants would sing on live television, either with a backing track or live band. Most editions would have a theme, with contestants having to sing songs from a particular genre or artist (no original songs were performed at any stage in the competition). Again, the judges offered comments, but the results were decided by viewer voting. Again, a live results show was broadcast later in the evening, but this time the singer with the lowest votes would be eliminated, the rest continuing to the following week, until only the winner remained.

Exceptions to the usual format were limited. In series 1, Darius Danesh was promoted to the live shows when Rik Waller dropped out. Danesh was third in the results for the group where Waller had won his place. Also, the first two live shows of series 2 saw two contestants leave, in order to rebalance the numbers after the addition of the two extra performers from the wildcard show.

Results & Legacy

In the first season, Will Young won, with Gareth Gates coming in second. Michelle McManus won the second season contest. However, after the second season Simon Cowell was contracted to produce the first series of The X Factor for ITV (Cowell's Syco TV owns the rights to The X Factor) and the channel decided to focus on this new show, placing Pop Idol on indefinite hiatus. However, its impact was intense and led 19 Entertainment and Fremantle Media to roll the format out globally, currently with over 50 versions in 110 countries. ITV's licence to produce Pop Idol has since expired, meaning that other channels could theoretically acquire the series. Despite rumours (see below), no broadcaster has since acquired the rights to the format in the UK.

All of the top three from series 1 had number 1 singles in the UK. Will Young continues to be a credible recording artist (to the extent that many forget his career was started by a TV show). Darius Danesh had two hit albums and has appeared in a West End musical. Chicago, playing the role of Billy Flynn. He has also appeared in the touring version of Guys and Dolls as Sky Masterson. Gareth Gates initially had great success, which later dried up. However, he released his third album in June 2007 which charted at No. 23. Series 2 contestants enjoyed significantly less chart success, which many believe damaged the credibility of the show, and helped hasten its demise in its home country.

Indeed, with the exception of Will Young, it has been common to suggest that the UK is actually the nation where the alumni of such shows are least successful, as between Popstars, Pop Idol, X Factor, and the BBC's Fame Academy, only Will Young and Popstars's Girls Aloud have gone on to achieve notable success, whereas other nations' contests, most notably American Idol, produced singers who go on to much greater success than their UK counterparts.

Immediately after the second series of Pop Idol, the same set was used to host World Idol, in which winners of various Idol series around the world, including original Pop Idol winner Will Young, and American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson competed in a one-off competition, complete with a large judging panel featuring one judge from each country (Simon Cowell officially representing American Idol, with Pete Waterman the "official" UK judge). Surprise winner was Norway's Kurt Nilsen, who proceeded to minor UK chart success. Cowell was strongly critical of World Idol, and it is highly unlikely to be staged again.

Despite only running for two series, its legacy is huge, both with Cowell's own similar series The X Factor, and the many adaptions of Pop Idol around the world, notably American Idol, again featuring Cowell as a judge.

Series one

Note: Not in every case were these the people announced by the hosts in the results show!

Date	Bottom Three
15 December	Korben	Laura Doherty	Jessica Garlick
22 December	Jessica Garlick (2)	Laura Doherty (2)	Rosie Ribbons
29 December	Aaron Bailey	Rosie Ribbons (2)	Laura Doherty (3)
5 January	Laura Doherty (4)	Rosie Ribbons (3)	Zoë Birkett
12 January	Rosie Ribbons (4)	Hayley Evetts	Darius Danesh
Date	Bottom Two
19 January	Hayley Evetts (2)	Darius Danesh (2)
26 January	Zoë Birkett (2)	Darius Danesh (3)
2 February	Darius Danesh (4)
9 February	Gareth Gates	Will Young

Series two

Date	Bottom Three
25 October	Leon McPherson	Kirsty Crawford	Mark Rhodes
1 November	Brian Ormond	Marc Dillon	Kim Gee
8 November	Kim Gee (2)	Roxanne Cooper	Michelle McManus
Date	Bottom Two
15 November	Andy Scott-Lee	Susanne Manning
22 November	Roxanne Cooper (2)	Susanne Manning (2)
29 November	Susanne Manning (3)	Mark Rhodes (2)
6 December	Chris Hide	Mark Rhodes (3)
Date	Top 3
13 December	Sam Nixon
20 December	Mark Rhodes	Michelle McManus

Relaunch of Pop Idol

On October 1st 2006, ITV's licence to produce Pop Idol in the UK ran out and its creator Simon Fuller, with co-producers FremantleMedia and 19 Television, began talking to UK broadcasters about reviving the show in a revamped format on a different channel. Sky One and Five have both expressed interest in buying the show.

Related programmes

See Idol series for more information The Idol format has been launched in dozens of nations worldwide, and there have been many imitations of the program.

A World Idol international television special was held in December 2003, featuring national first series Idol contest winners competing against each other; viewers worldwide voted Norwegian Idol's Kurt Nilsen "World Idol".

The similar Popstars format preceded Pop Idol, and was succeeded in Britain by one series of Popstars: The Rivals and three series so far of The X Factor. After Popstars producers threathened legal action, a deal was struck that, among other clauses, does not allow the use of the word "pop" in the title of Pop Idol editions outside of the UK.

Trivia

During the second season of 'Pop Idol' the American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson made a guest appearance on one of the live finals of the show, performing 'The Trouble With Love Is' from the movie 'Love Actually'.
At the start of the second season of 'Pop Idol' on the August 9 2003 episode many people who auditioned for series one auditioned again, though many did not pass to the next round.

Pop Idol