Those crafty and always-ahead-of-the-curve producers of Canadian Idol have introduced some huge tweaks to the show for Season 6. The first change had online auditions become part of the process of the nationwide search. One of those online auditioners, Gary Morissette, made the Top 24. And speaking of the Top 24, that’s new this year too. In the past, CI had a Top 22, evenly split between girls and boys.
But wait, there’s more. Not only is there a Top 24, but the gender split is not equal! Fifteen boys and 9 girls made the cut. Of course this changes how the semi’s will play out. The two nights of performances will not separate the boys from the girls, but mix everyone one up. The cast will be split into two groups, each group auditioning on different nights. Additionally, the groups will be different from week to week. Of course, the producers hope to keep the lists a secret. As if! Heh.
Not a given? The number of contestants to be eliminated could be different from week to week.
It certainly mixes things up in an interesting way, don’t you think?
The producers claim that more boys (and older boys) auditioned than girls this year, hence the uneven gender split. Hm. Not buying that exactly. I’m thinking the producers know that talented boys capture the imaginations of the viewers more so than talented girls. Think of the AI seasons that were light on boy talent–AI 3 and AI 6–least popular seasons of AI evah–at least as far as internet buzz and the stalwart AI fans were concerned. It’s all about the ratings, and it appears that the CI producers felt that major changes were necessary to keep things fresh.
American Idol producers have been known to follow the lead of Canadian Idol, allowing contestants to play instruments, for instance. Are the AI producers watching and taking notes? We’ll see come next year.
Source: Jam!
The Canadian Idol Semi-final round lasts 3 weeks and begins tonight on CTV, and continues tomorrow night. The results show airs Thursday night. Check the blog for Video of each episode at around 10 pm ET.
