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Pop Idol

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Television

          This article is about the British television series. For general
          popular culture icons, see pop icon.

                          Pop Idol
   Pop Idol logo
         Genre       Talent show
     Presented by    Ant & Dec
       Starring      Judges:
                     Simon Cowell,
                     Pete Waterman,
                     Nicki Chapman,
                     Neil Fox
   Country of origin Flag of United Kingdom  United Kingdom
     No. of series   2
                          Broadcast
   Original channel  ITV1
     Original run    October 5, 2001 – December 20, 2003

   Pop Idol is a British television series which debuted on ITV1 on
   October 5, 2001; the show was a talent contest to decide the best new
   young popular music 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 Idol, American Idol, Idols, Canadian
   Idol, Australian Idol, Idols West Africa, Indian Idol, Indonesian Idol,
   New Zealand Idol, Philippine Idol, 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 '90's 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, 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.

   In the Saturday night primetime show, hopefuls first auditioned 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, judges narrowed down the performers to a
   final 50, themselves narrowed down in weekly heats to ten (in the
   second series twelve) finalists by a viewer vote. After that, each
   contestant performed live. Viewers had several hours following the
   broadcast of the show to phone in their votes for their favorite
   contestant. On the night's second episode (live again), the contestant
   with the fewest votes was sent home. The show was presented by British
   TV personalities Ant & Dec.

   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.

Series one

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

   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'. Also at the start of the second season of 'Pop
       Idol' on the August 9, 2003 episode Many people who auditioned for
       series one tried out again.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_Idol"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
