Pop Idol show appeared for the first time on British television and became enormously popular right away. The main reason of so huge success of this show was probably caused by the interactivity. Unlike regular talent contest British Pop Idol contest was a sort of reality show and viewers could take part in it by voting for their favorite contesters. This show was produced by Simon Fuller (he is known to be the manager of Spice Girls) and the judge's team included such famous people as Pete Waterman and Simon Cowell. In the first season of Pop Idol show only phone and Internet vote was possible and still such an opportunity made this show one of the most profitable on British television. It received the highest ever number of votes in a single night.
The second season of the British Pop idol show was less popular than the first one so for now there were no further seasons. The winners of British Pop Idol show were Will Young in the first season and Michelle McManus in the second one.
Because of the huge popularity of the British Pop Idol show; similar national shows were also launched in different countries world wide. One of the most well-known of these shows is the American Idol show. Just by checking the American Idol show overview of several seasons you can understand that it became even more popular than original British show. And of course at any American idol show season winners gained huge popularity not only in America but world wide.
Unlike the British version, the American Idol show is still on - there have already been four seasons but producers think to continue. For now they want to produce at least five more seasons of American Idol show.
The American Idol show is performed in several stages. At the very first stage auditions are performed - contesters have to perform in front of three judges. That stage is performed in various cities across the United States of America. And all the contesters selected at that stage of American Idol show then go to Hollywood. There judges carefully choose only 24 contesters for the semifinal.
After a number of different tests and performances only 12 contesters go into final stage of the American Idol show. In final contesters have to perform live in primetime. Different well-known compositions are used in these performances. And contesters have a chance to work with authors of these compositions. And then only three finalists perform with three different songs (one chosen by contester, one chosen by judges and one chosen by record executive).
Of course, all the information about all the seasons is easily available on the internet. You can easily find detailed information on all the winners and even download some examples of their performances.
But of course, the American Idol show is not the only one - there are many other national contests like Canadian Idol show and Australian Idol show.
And in 2003 (December) an international version of the Pop Idol show took place. Viewers from eleven countries were able to vote for competitors. All the contesters were performing songs in English except for pan Arabia contester (Diana Karazon). Norway (Kurt Nilsen) won this Pop Idol contest.