World Idol

William Hill have announced odds on the Christmas No.1 this year, the Pop Idol winner is the favourite, followed by the Lame Academy winner, here's the full list. No sign of that Irish long haired Pop Idol reject

So, I take it from this, that the Pop Idol winner will be declared well in advance before Christmas as it takes a while to produce the track and release it doesn't it ?

William Hill Christmas Number One odds:

4/1 Pop Idol 2003 winner

7/1 Fame Academy 2003 winner

7/1 Girls Aloud

8/1 Justin Timberlake

9/1 Busted

10/1 Westlife

12/1 Robbie Williams

14/1 Kylie Minogue

16/1 Christina Aguilera

20/1 David Sneddon, Elvis, Britney Spears

25/1 Gareth Gates, Madonna

33/1 Cheeky Girls, Eminem, Liberty X, Sir Cliff Richard

I see Lame Academy has been shunted to Sunday next week, presumably due to the England International on BBC One. What chance it might stay there, with Pop Idol dominating on a Saturday night ?

Yes and its in a very early slot too.

Watch out for the BBC and the Media Guardian claiming victory and pointing out that it won its slot and got X million more than ITV. This because it is up against the Regional News, Regional Programme and ITV News

so, last of auditions shown tonight.

"You've seen this years Pop Idol." we've been told.

Really? I'm not impressed at all to be honest. Especially since I personally have hardly seen any good singers. Just a large bunch of crap singers and ant and dec.

Don't be absurd, some good singers have gone through, on the basis of an initial 30 second audition. It'll be the next step of the competition that will see the talent come to the fore.

At least Pop Idol is a more complete experience, we get to see several weeks of auditions, watching the artists improve, ultimately to the crowning of the Pop Idol.

Highlight of tonight was the "I believe I can fly" bloke, and when he came out and said that Simon Cowell was [bleep] [bleep] and [bleep]. Dec said "you can't say that on ITV1!"

And as Square Eyes says, the last four weeks hasn't been about the good singers, these develop during the next stage

I've just been reading this review on the Off The Telly website, comparing Pop Idol to Fame Academy. I couldn't have put it better myself, anyone else agree?
http://offthetelly.users.btopenworld.com/reviews/2003/fameacademy.htm

Yes, a well written article. People can dress it up how they want, in order to give it some kind of public service remit, but at the end of the day, Fame Academy has become a poor copy of the Pop Idol format, without the charm and entertainment value.

So much for nurturing talent, what it boils down to is a talent contest, they've stripped out it of it's different elements and now it doesn't provide anything that hasn't already been done commercially.

Oh yeh, apart from the attempt to justify it with this bursary scheme.

Yup, I couldn't stop laughing tonight, Shame they couldn't have unbleeped it, but it was so funny when the The Matrix guy walked out and he just started, but I kinda find it odd that there was a guy dressed as Keanu Reeves with a Bolton accent.

But that guy and his "twin" brother were either really stupid or funny, it was all **** in the end, frankly I thought that Ant and Dec looked more alike than those two guys. But Ant and Dec's Hints and Tips at the start were pretty funny too.

For me, I thought the segment on people that sounded like sheeps or goats was the best.

I enjoyed Pop Idol last night after missing 2 weeks due to being on holiday – I thought it was so funny when that guy pretended to have a twin brother – the lengths some people will go to become the next Pop Idol.

The programme was classic last night, I loved the fact that Tareq got through by simply talking his way through to Simon Cowell!! They were obviously desperate for those last 100.

It was rather entertaining on Pop Idol Extra - the "I believe I can fly" song at the end was great with lots of production staff, Ant & Dec, the judges and even Kate Thornton herself singing a line or two. Great stuff!!

Pop Idol Extra was good when it last accompanied the series, but I think this year is a lot better, and having Kate Thornton at the auditions being able to talk to people more than Ant & Dec do is genius. Great that she's going to be in London too where they all do that weird singing in groups of 10 on stage and then they have to pick the final 50 with lots of polaroids on the desk and then the usual fight over one of the contestants between Simon and Pete.

You wouldn't want it any other way.