When Seven Network’s director of content, Unscripted Majella Hay, talks, people listen.
That is, unless you’re Kyle Sandilands.
Hay is the brains behind the decision to relaunch The Australian Idol brand on Seven, 14 years after it was dumped by 10, and given her insight into the heritage brand, audiences would be forgiven for thinking Hay may be in the judges’ ears urging them to up the ante and subsequent drama.
But when asked by Mediaweek if she gave any kind of directive to the likes of Sandilands or fellow judges Marcia Hines and Amy Shark, Hay laughed.
“Do you really think I could tell Kyle or Marcia what to do?” she said. “I’d be a fool to bring people like that together and then impose my thoughts on them.” Instead, Hay believes the key is to “empower them [the judges], to stand by their decisions and to be invested and engaged.”
Australian Idol judges Marcia Hines and Kyle Sandilands.
While Hay and the rest of the production team stay silent – there is one group of people the judges are forced to listen and take advice from – the viewing public.
“I think sometimes they [the judges] do get a bit frustrated with what the audience decides once we get into the live shows,” Hay admitted. “Sometimes those decisions can be contentious, but I think that’s the beauty of the show. Ultimately, it is up to Australia to decide their Idol.”
Staying relevant
The show’s premiere in early February hit the ground running, coming in as the second most watched program of the day – after Married at First Sight’s debut – and launching with a total TV national reach of 2,256,000 and a BVOD audience of 83,000.
With viewership down slightly on Idol’s Monday and Tuesday shows – averaging out at around 1,692,000 total TV national reach – the franchises’ Sunday offerings have not only remained steady, they’ve increased since debut ,recording a total TV national reach 2,287,000 on Sunday 9 February.
Seven Network’s director of content, Majella Hay, unscripted.
It might be early days, but the ratings are already bucking the usual trend of a viewership decline after a premiere, especially in reality and competition shows.
Its consistency, arguably, an extraordinary feat for such a long running show.
Breaking the rules
With anything spanning across decades, a few nips and tucks here and there are expected. The trick, however, according to Hay is to ensure the bones of the building remain untouched.
“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.
This year, however, Hay said the team basically had their work done for them by the contestants.
“We realised very quickly this was going to be the season of surprises,” she said. “Even our judges were going, ‘I didn’t see that coming’.”
“For both Marcia and Kyle, who have done the show for so many years, to continue to be utterly and genuinely surprised is incredible.
Even now they often say to us, ‘we want to do something different here’ or ‘can we break the rules?’ and sometimes we let them and sometimes we don’t, but to have the judges so invested in the talent is exciting,” she said.
Watch Australian Idol Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at 7pm on Channel 7 and 7plus.