Television

Australian Idol revamp revealed   Author: eNews staff and agencies | Feb 28, 2006, 10:53

Will Idol make the cut in 2006?

Australian Idol is vital to the financial and ratings health of the Ten Network.

While Big Brother does great numbers and provides the raunch and the edge for the 16 to 39 demographic, Australian Idol, with its more wholesome approach, softens that image and adds a financial oomph to the end of the year, with a final ratings lift that makes the next season a bit easier to sell.

Well, that was the plot in 2005, except Ten made some near fatal mistakes such as starting Idol as Big Brother was finishing, selecting a poorly structured judging panel (which they are going with again this year) and not understanding that after the success of 2004, viewers understood very well how the program worked.

So viewers stayed away each week in their hundreds of thousands. Even the finals were not as popular as 2004. The average audience in 2005 was down 34% on 2004 and the finals failed to make the 2 million average level, a drop of more than 45%.

So it's against that backdrop and the resultant ‘make goods’ for advertisers that cost the network a lot of money, that Ten has made some significant changes to the 2006 format for Idol.

The changes so far identified are so far reaching that Idol this year will not be the same as Idols in the past.

Ten has already revealed that the upper age limit will be lifted form 25 to 30.

Without saying so, Ten is trying to increase the range of older singers with better voices who would appeal to new viewers in the mid to upper years of the target 16 to 39 age group. Past Idols have been won by teenagers who appeal to the 17 to 23 group.

Now Ten has decided to scrap the Inside Idol program and revamp the Sunday and Monday performance and elimination rounds.

Camera crews will on tap on the Sunday night performance rounds to shoot as much as possible to turn it around for the elimination round on Monday nights.

This will be split between an Inside Idol-type of program from the night before for the first half, seguing to the elimination part in the second half.

Inside Idol as a separate program didn't do well last year and at times seemed to be nothing than a poor attempt to ape the Big Brother Uncut approach without a lot of the silly raunch.

Another change planned will aim at concentrating the conclusion of Idol and generate more publicity and interest.

Idol will not start until Big Brother is over. Ten has learnt that lesson from the spluttering start to 2005.

On present planning 2006 Idol will have a shorter season than the 20 week extravaganza last year.

The semi final series will be shortened and run over a week (four nights) rather than on successive Sundays.

The plan is for the Final will be run soon after. That way Ten feels it get generate a tremendous level of viewer interest in the shortest possible time, without any dilution (read turn-off) happening.

That's what afflicted the entire Idol series in 2005, especially the finals which dragged over several weeks.

These are all in the planning, some might change but it’s an indication of Ten's determination to try and save Idol.

There are several changes in the finals that will be even more dramatic that are being whispered. They have something to do with the performance criteria for the finalists.

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