Idol Mania

American Idol and all other national idols out there (Pop Idol, Arabian Idol, South African Idol, Australian Idol, Indonesian Idol, Malaysian Idol, Singapore Idol, Indian Idol, Canadian Idol), use the same format. The original was the UK series, Pop Idol, which soon spread to a lot of other countries. The format involves various stages in this vocal competition. The first stage is the audition stage, where the hopefuls face the judges and sing acapella to pass the auditions and move on to the next round. The next round is where the top 100 is selected, usually in some high class place (Hollywood for America), after the nation-wide audition stage is passed. This is then narrowed down to the top 24, whereby most of the control of the judges expires.

At the top 24 level, the competitors perform live on TV and viewers vote for their favourite. The competitors with the highest number of votes then moves on into the final 12 stage. Various set ups have been used at the top 24 stage. The first three seasons in American randomly assigned competitors to the three different rounds (each with different competitors on a week by week basis). From the pool of candidates that did not make it pass this round, hope comes in the form of the wildcard round where 8 to 12 are brought back for one last chance at the final 12. The judges pick 3 and viewers one competitor to go on.

American Idol's season 4 and 5 divided the top 24 into male and female weeks to even out the gender playing field in the final 12. Instead of the top 2 competitors from each week moving on to the final 12, the viewers now watch 12 males/females sing and then vote. The competitor with the lowest votes then is eliminated. Each week sees two competitors of a certain gender eliminated. There is no wildcard round (that I can recall) for the last two seasons.

At the final 12 stage, the competitors fight it out, live, on a much larger stage. Viewers vote once again and the results are then announced. From the remaining contestants, the three with the lowest number of votes are called down to the elimination floor. One by one, those with the higher number of votes are allowed to return until the person with the lowest number of votes is left on the elimination floor. A video then plays, marking various milestones in the competitor's journey thus far, the judges give some constructive advice and the contestant sings one last time. This format follows until the winner is announced. All voting from TV is done overnight with a results show the following day.

Part of American Idol that has gotten me disenchanted with the series is the introduction of the new top 24 round elimination. I would rather prefer we see mixed batches and from there, the contestant with the highest number of votes from each gender moves onto the next round. The current format takes too long and it gets dreary after awhile. Part of the excitement of being in the final 12 was getting to know the contestants better in terms of full singing ability. With the new format, one already knows of the contestant's singing abilities and the final 12 stage is just a repeat of the top 24 stage, only with the shows being themed to a particular music taste. Another way to divide it up would be one week for females, one week for males and one week mixed. The fourth week would be the return of the wildcard round.

Also, production during the final 12 stage has waned. There used to be live performances and MTVs played during the results show. They also used to show videos of what the contestants were up to that week. But this has mostly fizzled out and we're left with a vocal competition in the very purest form. This has made American Idol dry for me.

The next reality show feature? Big Brother.

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