Post by Inside Australian Idol on Apr 22, 2005 23:29:35 GMT 10
Poised for Idol worship
Sally Jackson
April 21, 2005
WHEN auditions for the third series of Australian Idol start in Cairns on Sunday, one of the key performers won't be singing a note.
The talent cattle call is also the first outing for new Idol judge Kyle Sandilands, 33, who was tapped in February to join Marcia Hines and Mark Holden on the panel of Australia's most popular talent quest after Ian "Dicko" Dickson scrammed to the Seven Network.
Sandilands says Dickson - arguably the biggest star Idol has discovered so far - has given him some advice on how to handle the role: "Just say whatever you feel about each act. Don't try [to] rehearse a line or come up with a stupid catchphrase."
Network Ten has taken a big punt on Brisbane-born Sandilands, a breakfast announcer on Sydney pop station 2DAY FM with limited national profile.
With Ten fighting to retain leadership in its core under-40s audience, it badly needs Idol to fire. Chief executive John McAlpine says his audience expectations for this year's Idol are the same as for series two, which averaged two million viewers on Sunday nights, 1.7 million on Mondays and 3.3 million for its Final Verdict show.
"There has been pressure every year," says Ten's Idol executive producer Stephen Tate. "The first year it was launching a new franchise, the second year it was trying to match the first year. You start every year by taking nothing for granted."
The series is back on air in July with a format almost identical to that of past seasons, except for a change to how the final 30 contestants are decided.
"I really think Australia loves Australian Idol and we shouldn't mess with it," Tate says. However, it will miss Dickson's biting, funny comments, which for the past two years have provided a much needed tartness to balance the sweet Hines and the flaky Holden. Can Sandilands deliver the same blend of humour and spice?
He says he has been given no directives by the network. "They have never said: 'You have to be the nasty judge' or the controversial judge."
Then again, he knows Ten chose him for a reason. "Just by the nature of who I am, I flap the mouth around a little bit," he says. "I don't try to censor what I say."
So far that has worked for Sandilands on radio. He and co-host Jackie Last, who goes by the professional name Jackie O, switched from drive time to 2DAY's breakfast shift this year and after just two surveys are No.2 in FM.
"We'll go No.1 before the middle of the year," Sandilands predicts. "Sydney breakfast radio has been so damn boring for so many years."
The Kyle and Jackie O Show certainly created interest earlier this month when Sandilands conducted an on-air interview with a prostitute, who promptly uttered the immortal line "I love c..k" to an audience of about 500,000 predominantly 10 to 24-year-olds.
Sandilands is unrepentant. "Wasn't that a big beat-up about nothing?" he says.
"It isn't even one of the most edgy things I've ever done." He insists that he doesn't deliberately set out to shock. "I do it because that's what I find entertaining. I don't want to be playing Battle of the Sexes every day."
Tate says he isn't anxious about Sandilands' unpredictability: "It makes him incredibly interesting."
Sandilands also isn't suffering from nerves. "I know I probably should be," he says. "I just hope I don't look like I've got a lazy eye or anything like that."
www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15031546%255E7582,00.html
Sally Jackson
April 21, 2005
WHEN auditions for the third series of Australian Idol start in Cairns on Sunday, one of the key performers won't be singing a note.
The talent cattle call is also the first outing for new Idol judge Kyle Sandilands, 33, who was tapped in February to join Marcia Hines and Mark Holden on the panel of Australia's most popular talent quest after Ian "Dicko" Dickson scrammed to the Seven Network.
Sandilands says Dickson - arguably the biggest star Idol has discovered so far - has given him some advice on how to handle the role: "Just say whatever you feel about each act. Don't try [to] rehearse a line or come up with a stupid catchphrase."
Network Ten has taken a big punt on Brisbane-born Sandilands, a breakfast announcer on Sydney pop station 2DAY FM with limited national profile.
With Ten fighting to retain leadership in its core under-40s audience, it badly needs Idol to fire. Chief executive John McAlpine says his audience expectations for this year's Idol are the same as for series two, which averaged two million viewers on Sunday nights, 1.7 million on Mondays and 3.3 million for its Final Verdict show.
"There has been pressure every year," says Ten's Idol executive producer Stephen Tate. "The first year it was launching a new franchise, the second year it was trying to match the first year. You start every year by taking nothing for granted."
The series is back on air in July with a format almost identical to that of past seasons, except for a change to how the final 30 contestants are decided.
"I really think Australia loves Australian Idol and we shouldn't mess with it," Tate says. However, it will miss Dickson's biting, funny comments, which for the past two years have provided a much needed tartness to balance the sweet Hines and the flaky Holden. Can Sandilands deliver the same blend of humour and spice?
He says he has been given no directives by the network. "They have never said: 'You have to be the nasty judge' or the controversial judge."
Then again, he knows Ten chose him for a reason. "Just by the nature of who I am, I flap the mouth around a little bit," he says. "I don't try to censor what I say."
So far that has worked for Sandilands on radio. He and co-host Jackie Last, who goes by the professional name Jackie O, switched from drive time to 2DAY's breakfast shift this year and after just two surveys are No.2 in FM.
"We'll go No.1 before the middle of the year," Sandilands predicts. "Sydney breakfast radio has been so damn boring for so many years."
The Kyle and Jackie O Show certainly created interest earlier this month when Sandilands conducted an on-air interview with a prostitute, who promptly uttered the immortal line "I love c..k" to an audience of about 500,000 predominantly 10 to 24-year-olds.
Sandilands is unrepentant. "Wasn't that a big beat-up about nothing?" he says.
"It isn't even one of the most edgy things I've ever done." He insists that he doesn't deliberately set out to shock. "I do it because that's what I find entertaining. I don't want to be playing Battle of the Sexes every day."
Tate says he isn't anxious about Sandilands' unpredictability: "It makes him incredibly interesting."
Sandilands also isn't suffering from nerves. "I know I probably should be," he says. "I just hope I don't look like I've got a lazy eye or anything like that."
www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15031546%255E7582,00.html