For the past 21 years, Australians of all ages have enjoyed gathering around the TV and playing an active role in either helping to make or break a budding singer’s career.
It all began with Guy Sebastian on the first season of Australian Idol back in 2003. Since then, the show has helped launch the careers of a formidable list of entertainers, many now household names.
Think Shannon Noll, Jessica Mauboy, Matt Corby and Anthony Callea to name a few.
With anything spanning across decades, a few nips and tucks here and there are expected. The trick, however, according to the Seven Network’s director of content, Majella Hay, unscripted, is to ensure the bones of the building remain untouched.
“This is a brand with a huge legacy and following,” Hay told Mediaweek.
Guy Sebastian and Shannon Noll.
“When you’re looking at any of these formats that have a really loyal following, you want to keep reinvigorating them, but they still have to feel like what the viewer knows – so it’s always a balancing act of making sure that you freshen them up, but not to the point that they become so foreign or removed that people don’t know what they’re watching,” she said.
Last year saw the Australian iteration of the brand introduce a world first element – with the number of ‘Golden Tickets’ handed out cut from 50 to 30.
For the uninitiated, receiving a Golden Tickets allows contestants to advance in the competition – without the threat of further eliminations at the audition stage. Not everyone gets one, and some may be asked to perform again before earning it.
Hay said it’s the brains behind the changes we “really happy” with them last season and have only moved to “refine” them for 2025. “The thing we decided we needed for this year was to take things up a notch,” she said. “That includes giving our judges (Kyle Sandilands, Marcia Hines and Amy Shark) a bit more leeway, giving them a bit more playfulness.”
Kyle Sandilands, Marcia Hines and Amy Shark.
This season the show will also retain focus on contestants so people can “really invest in the characters”.
Hay explains: “You don’t just see someone in episode one and then not see them again until episode eight or nine. We want to really make sure that that person that you fell in love with on the first Sunday in February, you’re still seeing regularly and peppered throughout the next episodes before they move into that top 30 and then into the live space. We know that people fall in love with these characters”
Watch Australian Idol Sunday’s at 7pm on Channel 7 and 7plus.