Pop Idol

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Pop Idol
Format	Talent Show
Created by	Simon Fuller
Presented by	Ant & Dec
Judges	Simon Cowell, Pete Waterman, Nicki Chapman, Neil Fox
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	46
Production
Producer(s)	19 Management Thames Television
Finalists	(With dates of elimination)
Season 1	(2001-02)
Will Young	Winner
Gareth Gates	February 9
Darius Danesh	February 2
Zoë Birkett	January 26
Hayley Evetts	January 19
Rosie Ribbons	January 12
Laura Doherty	January 5
Aaron Bayley	December 29
Jessica Garlick	December 22
Chris "Korben" Niblett	December 15
Season 2	(2003)
Michelle McManus	Winner
Mark Rhodes	December 20
Sam Nixon	December 13
Chris Hide	December 6
Susanne Manning	November 29
Roxanne Cooper	November 22
Andy Scott-Lee	November 15
Kim Gee	November 8
Marc Dillon	November 1
Brian Ormond	November 1
Kirsty Crawford	October 26
Leon McPherson	October 26
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV
Picture format	16:9
Original run	October 5, 2001 – December 20, 2003

Pop Idol is 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. A second series was broadcast in 2003.

The Idol series has become an international franchise, although a legal dispute with the makers of Popstars meant that the word "Pop" had to be excluded from the title. As such, spin offs have included American Idol, Australian Idol, Latin American Idol, Idols (Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, South Africa, Serbia-Montenegro & Macedonia), Canadian Idol, Idols West Africa, Indian Idol, Indonesian Idol, New Zealand Idol, Hay Superstar, Nouvelle Star (France) , "American Juniors", Pinoy Idol (Philippines), Deutschland sucht den Superstar, Singapore Idol, Malaysian Idol, Vietnam Idol, Music Idol (Bulgaria), Ídolos Brazil, Ídolos Portugal and Super Star (Arab World).

Unusually, the format was created not by TV producers but by music impresario Simon Fuller, in 1998. Having initially seen the project as 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.

[edit] Series format

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 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 allowing only telephone and Internet voting and not making use of texting or the "red button".

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

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 sang one song for the judges, accompanied only by a piano. Each judge offered their opinion, and at the end of the pre-recorded show phone lines opened for votes. Later the same evening a live show followed in which the voting results were revealed, the top two earning a place in the final ten. In series 2, a wildcard round (an innovation that originated on American Idol) was added, in which the judges selected ten rejected contestants and gave them a second chance. In this special edition, one contestant (Susanne Manning) was selected by the viewer vote, and one (Sam Nixon), 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 more lavish TV set, where all remaining contestants sang on live television, accompanied by either a backing track or live band. Most editions had a theme, with contestants singing 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 was 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.

[edit] Results and legacy

The first series was won by Will Young, with Gareth Gates coming in second. Michelle McManus won the second series. However, after the second series 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 immense and led 19 Entertainment and Fremantle Media to roll the format out globally; currently there are 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 contestants from series 1 had number 1 singles in the UK. Will Young continues to be a credible recording artist. Darius Danesh had two hit albums and has appeared in the West End musicals Chicago, playing the role of Billy Flynn, and Gone With The Wind, originating the role of Rhett Butler, he 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.

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, The X Factor, and the BBC's Fame Academy, only Will Young, Fame Academy's Lemar, Popstars' Girls Aloud, and The X Factor's G4 (who were financially the most successful group to ever come out of a reality show), Leona Lewis and Shayne Ward have gone on to achieve notable success, whereas other nations' contests, most notably American Idol, produced singers who have gone 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, American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson and Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian, 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 running for only two series, the show's legacy is huge, having spawned 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.

[edit] Series one (2001/02)

Pink indicates eliminated contestant. The winner is highlighted in green. Numbers in brackets indicate number of times in the bottom two/three.

• according to voting totals released in Pop Idol book

[edit] Series two (2003)

• according to voting totals released in Pop Idol book

Note: Not in every case were these the people announced by the hosts in the results show as being in danger and having to wait for their verdict the longest!

[edit] Relaunch of Pop Idol

On 1 October 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. [1]

[edit] Related programmes

Main article: Idol series

The Idol format has been launched in dozens of nations worldwide, and there have been many imitations of the programme.

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 four series so far of The X Factor. After Popstars producers threatened 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.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

• Pop Idol: The Big Band Album
• Karaoke
• Popstars
• The X Factor (the successor of its series)
• Fame Academy
• Starmania

[edit] External links

• Pop Idol at the Internet Movie Database

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