World Idol


World Idol is a one-off international version of the singing competition television show Pop Idol, featuring winners of the various national Idol shows around the world competing against each other.

Background

The performance show was broadcast on Christmas Day 2003, with the results show aired on New Year's Day 2004. It was produced in the United Kingdom at Fountain Studios in London, using the set from the recently completed second series of Pop Idol. After presenting the competitors, viewers from the 11 participating countries were allowed to vote by telephone, but not for the participant from their home country.
All participants sang in English except for Diana Karazon, who sang in Arabic.
British presenters Ant & Dec hosted the show on most English speaking countries, while local presenters hosted for their own country in the local language. Additionally, Canada’s CTV Network used Canadian Idol host Ben Mulroney. Victoria Beckham performed her UK No. 3 hit "Let Your Head Go" during the results interval.
The show was broadcast on 11 television broadcasters worldwide.

Broadcasters

The points were awarded in a similar fashion as the Eurovision Song Contest, i.e. each country awarded a number of points from 1 to 10 to each other country, using each number once. The results were:
RankPerformerCountryPointsSongOriginal artist
1Kurt NilsenNorway106"Beautiful Day"U2
2Kelly ClarksonUnited States97" A Natural Woman"Aretha Franklin
3Peter EvrardBelgium83"Lithium"Nirvana
4Heinz WincklerSouth Africa80"I Don't Want to Miss a Thing"Aerosmith
5Will YoungUnited Kingdom72"Light My Fire"The Doors
6Ryan MalcolmCanada62"He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother"The Hollies
7Guy SebastianAustralia56"What a Wonderful World"Louis Armstrong
8Alicja "Alex" JanoszPoland55"I Don't Know How to Love Him"from Jesus Christ Superstar
9 Alexander KlawsGermany45"Maniac"Michael Sembello
9 Diana KarazonArab States45"Ensani Ma Binsak"original song
11Jamai LomanNetherlands36"Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word"Elton John

Spokespersons

Each country appointed a spokesperson to announce their respective country's points.
Each country's Idol automatically gained the maximum 12 points. Therefore, the most points an Idol could gain from another country was 10.
PerformerGERAUSPan-
Arabia		CANNEDRSAPOLUSABELUKNORTotalRank
Alexander Klaws 1211014241721459
Guy Sebastian 212266556363567
Diana Karazon 641251118142459
Ryan Malcolm 359125724258626
Jamai Loman 1212124324143611
Heinz Winckler 788721269876804
Alicja Janosz 837333123535558
Kelly Clarkson 9959988129910972
Peter Evrard 476876971289833
Will Young 563489756127725
Kurt Nilsen 1010410101010101010121061

10 points

Below is a summary of all 10 points in the final:
N.ContestantVoting nation
9NorwayAustralia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States
1GermanyArab States
1United StatesNorway

Judges

The judges of the competition were:
, who judged American Idol as well as the original Pop Idol, was very critical of the format. He went as far as to say he hated it, in that it made the winners from the ten other Idol competitions into losers. Cowell also thought many of the judges were trying to copy his abrasive style. Television critics also panned the programme, particularly as the UK phone voting was profit-making, whereas tradition dictates that Christmas specials of such programmes donate profits to charity.

Ratings

In Canada, the special was watched by 1.9 million viewers. In Poland, World Idol was the highest-rated in its timeslot, 4.5 million viewers, and 28.6 share per cent. In the United States, World Idol was the number-one show of the night among adults from 18–34 but drew a disappointing 6.5 million viewers overall. In Australia, it was the highest-rated show of the night, it had about 2.4 million viewers. In the Netherlands, it was the No. 1 rated show in its timeslot. In the UK, over 4 million tuned in, but the show was beaten by other popular programs that aired Christmas night.