Idols (South Africa)

Idols (South Africa)

Idols is a television show on the South African television network M-Net, based on the popular British show Pop Idol. The show is a contest to determine the best young singer in South Africa.

It was presented by Candy Litchfield and Matthew Stewardson in Season 1. Halfway through the season Stewardson was replaced by Sami Sabiti. After Colin Moss and Letoya Makhene hosted together in Season 2, Moss went solo for season 3. Liezl van der Westhuizen became the host in season 4 and was sidekicked by ProVerb in season 5 who hosted the semifinal rounds.

In 2006 the show had a spin-off on sister channel KykNet where exactly the same format was executed. However the entire programme was in Afrikaans as well as the songs that were performed. So far there has only been one season of Afrikaans Idols. It was hosted by Sean Else.

After several auditions the performers are narrowed down to 100 in the theatre rounds. After that the semifinalists perform live and are chosen by the audience to qualify for the round of the last 10-12 finalists. There were four judges (Randall Abrahams, Dave Thompson, Marcus Brewster and Penny Lebyane in season one; Brewster and Lebyane did not return for the second season and were replaced by Mara Louw-Thomson and Gareth Cliff) who provided critiques of each contestant's performance. Viewers have several hours following the broadcast of the show to vote by phone, SMS or online for their favourite contestant. On the following night's episode, the contestant(s) with the fewest votes is sent home.