''World Idol'' (Germany: ''SuperStar Weltweit'', Arab World: ''SuperStar El Alaam'') is a one-off international version of the singing competition television show ''

Pop Idol ''Pop Idol'' is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and par ...

'', 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 Fountain Studios was an independently owned television studio in Wembley Park, northwest London. The company was last part of the Avesco Group plc. Several companies owned the site before it was bought by Fountain in 1993. Originally a film st ...

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 Diana Karazon ( ar, ديانا كرزون; born October 30, 1983) is a Jordanian singer of Arabic pop, television host, and actress. She won ''Superstar'', the Arabic version of ''Pop Idol''. Karazon was born in Kuwait City, Kuwait, but her or ...

, who sang in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

. British presenters

Ant and Dec Ant & Dec are a British television presenting duo, consisting of Anthony McPartlin (born 18 November 1975) and Declan Donnelly (born 25 September 1975), from Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Formed after their meeting as child actors on CBBC's ...

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 The CTV Television Network, commonly known as CTV, is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. Launched in 1961 and acquired by BCE Inc. in 2000, CTV is Canada's largest privately owned television network and is now a divis ...

used ''

Canadian Idol ''Canadian Idol'' is a Canadian reality television competition show which aired on CTV, based on the British show '' Pop Idol''. The show was a competition to find the most talented young singer in Canada, and was hosted by Ben Mulroney. Jon Do ...

'' host

Ben Mulroney Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett or Benson, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben (in he, בֶּן, ''son of'') forms part of Hebrew surnames, e.g. Abraham ben Abraham ( he ...

(with the show on Fox, which used Ant and Dec as hosts, was not

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simul ...

with the CTV feed, to prevent Canadians from calling the American

toll-free A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number from a landline is free of charge. A toll-free number is identified by a dialing pref ...

number to vote for their idol, Ryan Malcolm).

Victoria Beckham Victoria Caroline Beckham (; born 17 April 1974) is an English fashion designer, singer, and television personality. She rose to prominence in the 1990s as a member of the girl group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Posh Spice. Wi ...

performed her UK No. 3 hit " Let Your Head Go" during the results interval. The show was broadcast on 11 television broadcasters worldwide.

Broadcasters

*Germany:

RTL Television RTL (from '), formerly RTL plus and RTL Television, is a German-language free-to-air television channel owned by the RTL Group, headquartered in Cologne. Founded as an offshoot of the German-language radio programme '' ,'' RTL is consider ...

*United Kingdom: ITV *Norway: TV 2 *United States: Fox *Canada:

CTV CTV may refer to: Television * Connected TV, or Smart TV, a TV set with integrated internet North America and South America * CTV Television Network, a Canadian television network owned by Bell Media ** CTV 2, a secondary Canadian televisio ...

*Australia:

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of fiv ...

*Belgium: vtm *Poland: Polsat *The Netherlands:

RTL 4 RTL 4 (Radio Télévision Luxembourg 4) is a Dutch free-to-cable television channel; it is the most-watched commercial station in the country, popular especially with those aged between 20 and 49. RTL 4 is a general entertainment channel with in ...

*Arab States: Future TV *South Africa:

M-NET M-Net (an abbreviation of Electronic Media Network) is a South African pay television channel established by Naspers in 1986. The channel broadcasts both local and international programming, including general entertainment, children's series, ...

*Egypt:

SET Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...

, MBC1 & I.Sat *Sudan & Eritrea: VTV

Results

The points were awarded in a similar fashion as the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

, i.e. each country awarded a number of points from 1 to 10 to each other country, using each number once. The results were:

Scoreboard

Each country's Idol automatically gained the maximum 12 points. Therefore, the most points an Idol could gain from another country was 10.

10 points

Below is a summary of all 10 (max) points in the final:

Judges

The judges of the competition were: * Randall Abrahams (South Africa) *

Simon Cowell Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality, entrepreneur and record executive. He is the creator of '' The X Factor'' and ''Got Talent'' franchises which have been sold around the world. He has judged on ...

(representing United States, also judge on original UK show) * (Belgium) *

Ian "Dicko" Dickson Ian Ross Perrygrove (born 28 March 1963) better known as Ian "Dicko" Dickson or simply “Dicko” is an English Australian television and radio presenter, television producer, music journalist and former record company executive and talent sc ...

(Australia) * Shona Fraser (Germany) *

Jan Fredrik Karlsen Jan Fredrik Karlsen (born 17 June 1973 in Slemmestad) is a Norwegian artist manager and television personality. Karlsen has worked in the Norwegian music industry since his late teens working for popular Norwegian comedians/singer/songwriters Her ...

(Norway) *

Elias Rahbani Elias Hanna Al Rahbani ( ar, إلياس حنا الرحباني; 26 June 1938 – 4 January 2021) was a Lebanese musician, composer, songwriter, orchestra conductor, and reality television personality, sitting as judge on a number of talent sho ...

(Lebanon) * (Netherlands) *

Pete Waterman Peter Alan Waterman, (born 15 January 1947) is an English record producer, songwriter, radio and club DJ, television presenter, president of Coventry Bears rugby league club and a keen railway enthusiast. As a member of the Stock Aitken Water ...

(United Kingdom) *

Zack Werner Isaac "Zack" Werner is a Canadian artist, producer, entertainment lawyer and manager. Early life and education Born in Winnipeg in 1960, Werner attended the St. John's-Ravenscourt School. He received a B.A. from the University of Minnesota and a ...

(Canada) *

Kuba Wojewódzki Jakub Władysław Wojewódzki known as Kuba Wojewódzki (; born 2 August 1963 in Koszalin, Poland) is a Polish journalist, TV personality, drummer, and comedian. Career Wojewódzki was a judge on the Polish '' Idol''. He also was the Polish repres ...

(Poland)

Reception

, who judged ''

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to ...

'' 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 percent. 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.

References

External links

* {{Navboxes , list= {{Pop Idol {{American Idol {{Idols South Africa {{Idool {{Idol Norway {{Canadian Idol {{Australian Idol {{DSDS {{Idol series 2003 British television series debuts 2004 British television series endings CTV Television Network original programming Fox Broadcasting Company original programming Idols (franchise) ITV (TV network) original programming Network 10 original programming RTL (German TV channel) original programming TV 2 (Norway) original programming Television series by Fremantle (company)