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Australian Idol: Verdict Show

Idol says it has revamped its Monday night Verdict show. Really? Here's the verdict (Warning: spoilers).

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“Idol’s Monday night was always a bit of a naff for the audience because it was really just 15 minutes of content rolled out over an hour, but we’ve recognised that and strengthened it,” Dicko said two weeks ago.

To borrow a Big Brother phrase: I don’t think so.

Instead, Monday night’s Verdict edition consisted of 15 minutes of content rolled out over 70 minutes.

This year Idol decided to flag the bottom three at the top of the show and re-open the voting lines (ker-ching) to close at 8pm AEST. Viewers in WA had previously been encouraged to check the Idol website to learn the name of the bottom three for voting that closed at 6pm WST. In South Australia and Northern Territory, the voting closed at 7pm CST -which is actually 30 minutes earlier than the equivalent time elsewhere, of 7:30pm CST. Sorry, Adelaide & Darwin.

That process has only dragged out the results even more.

The show resorted to interviewing its ‘bottom three’ no less than three times: when they were announced, after they had sung a second time by Ricki-Lee backstage, and then on the couch a third time. How many times can you say you weren’t happy with your performance

Meanwhile the show played ‘journey’ video packages, interviewed some of the other finalists, saw the Idols share their week in video packages (including a plug for a car), a song from American Idol winner Jordin Sparks and finally – finally – at 8:30pm, returned to the point of the night: revealing the results.

Meanwhile viewers of 90210, Burn Notice and Torchwood were forced to wait an additional ten minutes for their shows – a risk indeed when some of them are barely registering decent numbers.

Clearly the Verdict show is dependent on two immovable things: its 8pm voting cut-off and tallying the votes. But after six years there was far too much excess.

On the basis of this it would seem TEN is indeed more interested in dragging its viewers across to 8:45pm (when it finally ended) and avoid losing viewers to City Homicide or alternate programming.

For the record, Idol‘s first contestant voted off was Jonny Taylor, ahead of Teale and Sophie.

Australian Idol Show Watch

46 Responses

  1. Agree with all the comments above saying if you don’t like it don’t watch. Personally I think it’s great that we know who’s safe within 5 minutes of the show starting. Happy to see the group performances gone, cos they were always lame anyway. They’ve got a really good bunch this year (aside from 1 or 2) which made the sunday night show great viewing. To all you haters – Idol won’t be going anywhere, anytime soon – as much as that p*****s you off – I’ll happily watch Idol for years to come. It’s a great show. Haters: SWITCH OFF. (Oh that’s right, you already do – and then whinge on here like idiots)

  2. Reply to slydoggie [“TEN actually barely make any money off the SMS. It’s something like 2c out of each text message. Hardly going to make you rich”]

    I dunno how it works this year, if telstra aren’t a sponsor (no idea tbh) – but in previous years, I think it was a 50-50 split of the 55c charge for the sms/1902 line.

  3. Never mind all that. How was Kyle ripping off Holden’s “Touchdown” on Sunday night? I couldn’t believe it, and what a poor imitation it was too. I hear Holden has trademarked the touchdown, but has given the show permission to use it.

  4. I loved it last night. The only thing missing was the Group Song which as terrible as the song choices can be, its still nice to see.

    I’m sick of everyone bitching about it all the time, just don’t watch it if you don’t like it 🙂

    Dak.

  7. TEN actually barely make any money off the SMS. It’s something like 2c out of each text message. Hardly going to make you rich.

    Why can’t they just make this half an hour. Punchy, cut to the chase, keep your viewers. I’d go half hour Idol, half hour comedy, 90210, Burn Notice. Keep them all running on time. The hour long boredom fest is a great way to kill a franchise…I wonder how So You Think You Can Dance Australia 2009 will go given the massive over exposure of the latest American series? Or House given the 300 rpts we’ve now had to put up with?

  8. I loved the new format. Made it clear who was the worst of the night right away. I liked it.

    I also liked they got a second chance to sing again. People who heard them sing the night before and thought they were crap could listen again and go ‘oh no wait. I’m hearing the song live again and it sounds better than i thought. i’ll vote again for them’.

    Yes, a 30 min show would be better but viewers out there also want to get to know the idols and see what they do during the week. it’s no good if you just hear them sing and you think ‘oh they’re sweet’ and then backstage they’re like ‘f**k you dicko. i hated your comments’ and ‘shut the hell up marcia’ or something like that.

    it’s good we see a backstage side to them and interview all the contestants. a 30 min show would be so quick. we could even do an ad break if that’s what people wanted.

    okay, the bottom 3 are ‘1,2,3’ and then australia has voted out ‘1’. then we go to a commercial about ‘napisan plus’. is that what you what? how much shorter do you want the idol shows?

    i mean please, there is 20 million people in australia to please. i mean, if idol can please at least 1/20th of them they’re doing good.

    so tune in later or don’t watch at all and check on the idol website at 9pm to see who got out. i mean, who’s holding the gun to your head forcing you to watch the show every week.

  9. Part of me was glad that burn notice was late cause i was watching media watch (i wish they would put that on iView, as i can never be bothered with the other format) and forgot burn notice was on so i turned the telle off.

    The other part of me hated it because i had to get up and find a tape (yes, i still use a good ole VCR, on analogue tv, i figure i still have 4ish years before i need a pvr) so i could tape the end of burn notice because boston legal was about to start (and Ch7 starting a show before 10 means 10 is running very very late).

    As for the actual format, i couldn’t care less, i don’t watch it as i don’t like the show full stop, but im not going to whinge about it, Top Gear is on at the same time and i much prefer that.

  11. Yeah it was a horrible verdict show. Made no difference. I even checked the website at 7pm as i live in Adelaide and they didn’t even have who was in the bottom three on it. I even checked it again 15 minutes later and still not there, and then again 15 minutes later and not there again.
    If they say they are going to do something they should really do it. Even though I wouldn’t have voted.

  12. Most of us have a PVR.
    And if anyone is going to Idol to search for integrity in our Industry, then that person is just as nutz as the singer who rocks up thinking that Idol will help them in anyway.

    And as for getting 15secs of life back because of a remote control button….. alarm bells are ringing…

  13. I just watched the verdict show on my PVR. 75 minutes of dross dispensed with in less than 20 minutes. Gotta love the 15-second-skip button 🙂

    What got me annoyed was that the cash-grab “extra vote” was actually pretty pointless – as Monkeyboy.. err I mean James… said at the start, the votes from last night’s show still count and these extra 10 minutes’ worth of votes are just added on – not a chance of there being a sizeable enough number of votes to make any difference. The singers perform the same song, and are just as loathsome as last time. Why bother?

    Sophie deserved to go, as she is rubbish. But Jonny, making noises about “being forced to sing covers” and “being naked without my guitar” was doomed from the start.

    Anyone notice Monkeyboy said at the start “no more after-this-break stuff” only to read out the name of the first safe contestant… after this break. And the eliminated contestant… after this break.

    Trust me people. Buy a PVR. You get lots of your life back.

    Dan, Stevie G: group performance? NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! HELL NO! The one thing I was relieved about was the dropping of the weekly Young Talent Time / School Revue number. Nauseating, embarrassing tripe. Idol producers, pay no attention to them! 🙂

  14. Idol and Ten are only trying to please their bank accounts. Its a s**t idea, and they’ll realise it. Verdict shows like Idol would most likely get more rating with reducing the time of their show, not expanding it. They are doubling the amount of voting you have to do each week and creating a group of viewers who will most likely dismiss the show and deem it as a waste of time. If we wanted to know about their lives, we’d have asked them to be on Big Brother. But no, they are on a singing show, we just want to hear them sing.

  15. Ohh tonight’s episode was soo boring! i prefer the old format, as tedious as that was!! If it weren’t for Jordin Sparks (who is fabulous), I would have switched over!

  16. I didn’t like the new format, it really is pointless. If they have to sing for their lives, they should be singing a different song to the one that put them there in the first place. I mean they could just show the footage from the previous night if we have to here those terrible songs again.

    I use to like the group performance as well.

  18. Ugh.. The verdict show made me want to rip my hair out!!

    Personally I would do it like this: Start the show and announce the bottom three, reopen voting lines, have a group performance or something, interview the bottom 3, close voting lines, have the guest performer and then do the verdict.

    Could easilly be done in ~30 mins.

  20. And they still insist on the farewell song at the end to the person voted out? If Australia didn’t want to hear them sing again, we surely don’t want to hear them sing for a THIRD time in 2 nights, especially singing along to John Foreman and his Casio Keyboard….

    Just say, “You’ve been voted out, goodnight Australia!”

  24. I thought it was great, much better than previous years. If people don’t like the format i’d advise them to tune in at 8.25pm for the verdit… I wish people would stop criticising everything, TEN and Idol can’t please everyone! Just get on with life.

  25. What a joke – If you say you are going to do things different, then do things different. call me cynical but as soon as I heard that you would now have to vote again for the bottom three, i just thought of the money that Ten would be making from it. So basically, there will be three contestants each week who will be voted for twice !!!

    The verdict show could go for 30 minutes and close off the lines as the show starts- surely by now they have the technology to work out who has gone in 20 minutes.

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