It must be remembered that MAFS first slotted into the Q1 slot in 2017 (?) - back when Seven had the Australian Open and MKR was still rating well.
That year, Seven had a very strong start to the year not losing its first week until July - at which point it only needed one or two more weekly wins to claim the year on weeks won (which it eventually did).
Only once Nine secured the AO rights in 2019 did MAFS start to outrate MKR and anything else Seven (and to some extent Ten) has pitted against it - and they haven’t looked back since.
Though I also have this theory that Idol would be a better alternative for younger viewers whose parents wouldn’t allow them to watch MAFS, remembering that television these days tend to be more adult-oriented.
Rikki Lee Coulter talked about Australian Idol coming back for a second season on the Nova Drive show this afternoon. She confirmed that she and Scott Tweedie will be back and she will be involved in auditions which are coming up soon.
Rikki said that the next season will be screening in 2024.
Don’t people say this every year? It never does and is still the only show on TV that gets even remotely close to 2 million per episode (when regionals / BVOD are added in).
I’d like Seven to try Idol after Easter. I’m not sure what they’d put against MAFS though.
I guess they could look at Idol 2 ways. Holding it to mid or later in the year could give it it’s best chance of success with less competition. Although given that Seven can’t even get half of the Idol audience with some of it’s recent shows, they might think that 450k odd against MAFs (the biggest show in Australia) isn’t too bad and anything else they put there will only do worse.
Do we know if Seven are committed to the same judges (e.g. were they signed for a 2 year deal)? Given that Meghan Trainor is having a baby in the next couple of months - I’d think there’s a good chance that she wouldn’t want to be over here filming auditions in the back half of this year (if the show remains in Q1).
Marcia Hines was received extremely well when she was on the panel, this could be a good opportunity to get her a full spot on there.
Interesting that Seven asked American Idol host Ryan Seacrest and judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan to record messages inviting people to audition for next season of Australian Idol. The clip is now on Instagram.
Interesting or odd? What’s the point of that? It’s not like the American version has more viewers in Australia than the Australian version. It doesn’t even screen here, does it?
It used to, I remember Ten aired episodes within a week of them airing in the US in the noughties.
If it was to air on Australian television, which I strongly doubt, 7mate, 7flix or 7bravo would be the channel for it (similar to how 9Go! aired the American version of Weakest Link for a while before it was abruptly dropped from their schedule).
Seven also never aired overseas versions of The X Factor despite the massive success the UK version generated (think One Direction, Little Mix, Ella Henderson, James Arthur etc.).
This is what the Ts&Cs for the next series say: f) Will be available for the production for a minimum period of 40 days during the period from 1st September 2023 to 31st March 2024;
