World Idol

It's job isto get the most money from the highest audiences..... it hasn't (yet) reached it's potential.... it will though.



Anyone else notice the auditionee on Pop Idol last week who also appeared as a potential student on Fame Academy (he didn't get through to either - he was crap)?

Although I really enjoy Pop Idol/Stars audition periods I can't help thinking that it's a bit explotative. About 75% of what has been shown so far has been people who can't sing. Rather than showing the people with talent, they're encouaging us to laugh at the crap singers, wierdos, below average looking or the downright deluded.




It was a moderate success (it made a second series after all), but that's ITV though, they have advertisers to think of - completely different to the BBCs expectations for a series.

It was a moderate success (it made a second series after all), but that's ITV though, they have advertisers to think of - completely different to the BBCs expectations for a series



I've got to hand it to you, Larry - you're doing everything possible to avoid admitting the truth about Fame Academy, i.e. it was a hugely expensive copycat project that was cynically intended to pull mega-ratings to BBC-1, but it flopped big-style.

If Lorraine Heggessey had seriously expected FA to pull just 3-4 million viewers for most of its run, she would NEVER have approved such an enormous budget. She gave the thumbs-up to big money because she thought she was buying a big audience.

No matter how you try and dance around the truth, you can't escape it - Fame Academy was intended to be a ratings blockbuster for BBC-1 from the word go. All that guff about "finding talent" was just a smokescreen; it was a cynical commission that, first and foremost, hoped to leech off the ratings enjoyed by Popstars and Pop Idol.

So what if the first series gave us Dave Sneddon? Most people in this country wouldn't know who he was if they were punched in the face by him, whereas the winner of Pop Idol 2 will become a household name.

It is very exploitative, there is an inside view on what happens at the auditions (ie deliberately picking the worst ones to go through the screening stage) here:
http://www.vheissu.freeserve.co.uk/pop

I haven't really been talking about last years, and I have never said that it wasn't a flop, it did vastly under-perform, as have the Saturday episodes of this series (Wednesdays haven't done too badly). Pop Idol 2 also under-performed in the first couple of episodes of this series.... it beat the programmes on BBC1 but it should have done so by more.

The scheduling of both series could have been better: both in the autumn, both later in the evening and Fame Academy on Friday night (it;s not a Saturday night show). Both also could milk the series more than they have - updates on BBC1 rather than 3, a mid-week programme on ITV1 rather than 2.



And Big Brother of course, FA is as much BB as it is PI.... it's a hybrid between the 2 (and made by the same company as Big Brother)

You're right it wasn't all it was meant to be, I've never said that it was a runaway hit and it wasn't the point of my contribution to this thread in the first place.

But unlike some others I can see the merits in both series, they offer diffrent things, appeal to diffrent people and while one has barely started, the other is almost over.

The whole 'one programme is better than the other' attitude on this forum is a bit silly.... it is actually possible to watch, follow and enjoy both



Or he/she* might disappear without trace after a few months like One True Voice, we can't tell at this stage (especially as they've concentrated on the crap singers rather than the very good ones).

These things do tend to have diminishing returns - look at the first series of Big Brother compared with the other 3 and the first series of Pop Stars with the second.

I don't think the winner(s) this year will get to anywhere near the fame achieved by Will or Gareth. I hope not anyway - we really don't need another bland pretty boy pop-star.


*although Pop Idol will have a male winner due to the high female demographic in the audience

I'm with Larry on the point that you *can* enjoy both programmes. I've watched more FA this time than I did last year. The friction between Keilty and Park is great watching, and I'm very fond of Claudia on BBC3, mostly due to her being *far* too attached to the kids. I cant take anything away from Ant and Dec because those boys are magic.

Its easy to lament the paltry success that Sneddon and One True Voice have had, but lets be honest - its the chase to be the winner the viewers are interested in, not what happens to them after. Although I wish them well I really dont care once the series is over.

There is a letter in this week's Radio Times from someone who went along to a Pop Idol audition and instead of Dr Fox/Simon/Nicky and Waterman, she had 3 spotty researchers as judges.

I wonder how that works then? Surely they don't just select the prettiest/best singers/most eccentric for the televised auditions?

Tonight's Pop Idol is an extended edition as they wittle down to the final 50. Next week sees the start of Pop Idol Extra on ITV2 and the Saturday show allows the viewers to vote for the first time.

Larry Scutta wrote:


Larry, that's exactly what they do! Apparently they only see 1500 people in TOTAL the rest are screened out by producers. This means they have given many of the audition places to people who were doing it for a laugh or who it was clear to the producers had no hope of progressing. In other words being set up for a fall. It's more about laughing at freaks than searching for talent in the first stage.

did you really think the judges saw 20,000 people? the producers or whoever see them, put some good ones through but let a load of crap people through for our "entertainment" because that's what gets the press. http://www.vheissu.freeserve.co.uk/pop/

about tonights show - how did half of these lot get through? some of them are still awfully crap. and i wish ant and dec would stop the unnecessary commentary all the time so we could see more of the contestants at this stage . very pleased nicola gates didnt get through - nice hissy fit tonight.

Excellent show last night I thought and some interesting arguments between Simon & Pete, especially as to whether to let some of the larger ladies through. Although maybe not particularly pop star types, they have fantastic voices, and deserved to be put through.

Without doubt there is some brilliant talent amongst the final 50, with a couple of dubious exceptions, namely Tariq.

I don't think the fat ladies should be put through. Rik Waller has an excellent voice but just look at the way he's being treated by the public!

They arn't quite as fat as he was though!

Indeed, I liked it when Nicki told off that Tariq one, she was just like a school teacher telling off a naughty boy!

So next week the public voting starts!