Canadian Idol

Canadian Idol
File:Canadianidoltitlecard.png Canadian Idol Title Card
Created by	Simon Fuller
Starring	Ben Mulroney Jon Dore (2003-2005) Sass Jordan Farley Flex Zack Werner Jake Gold
Country of origin	Canada
No. of episodes	26 (season 1) 33 (season 2) 33 (season 3) 33 (season 4)
Production
Executive producers	John Brunton Barbara Bowlby
Running time	Varies
Original release
Network	CTV
Release	June 1 2003 – Present

Canadian Idol is a reality television show on the Canadian television network CTV, based on the popular British show Pop Idol and its American counterpart American Idol. The show is a competition to find the most talented young singer in Canada. It is hosted by Ben Mulroney. Jon Dore was the "roving reporter" for the first three seasons (appearing in comedy skits throughout the show), and Elena Juatco is assuming the role for season four.

The show begins with a cross-Canada tour in which singers audition in front of four judges: Jake Gold, Sass Jordan of Montreal, Quebec, Zack Werner of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Farley Flex of Ajax, Ontario. Eventually the performers are narrowed down to 10 finalists (11 in season one due to a near-tie), with each competitor performing live. Viewers have two hours following the broadcast of the show to phone in their votes for their favourite competitor. On the following night's episode (live again), the competitor with the fewest votes is sent home. The show is taped at the John Bassett Theatre in Toronto, Ontario.

In the first season, which debuted on June 9, 2003, Ryan Malcolm of Kingston, Ontario won, with Gary Beals of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia coming in second. Malcolm released his debut album entitled "Home" in October 2003, which included his first single from Canadian Idol: "Something More". In fact, eight members of the Season One Top 11 have released their own solo albums, including Gary Beals, Billy Klippert, Audrey De Montigny, Jenny Gear, Toya Alexis, Mikey Bustos, and Karen-Lee Batten.

Auditions were held in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Winnipeg, Halifax, and St. John's.

The second season of Canadian Idol debuted on June 1, 2004, and became the most watched show in Canada, drawing in over 3 million viewers each week.

Auditions were held in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Halifax, Regina, and St. John's. The season provided an Idol first when the final six contestants played their own instruments during a group performance of the Gordon Lightfoot classic "Canadian Railroad Trilogy". No other Idol show in the world had done that before.

Kalan Porter of Medicine Hat, Alberta won the series, and Theresa Sokyrka of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan was the runner-up. In November 2004, merely two months after the competition, Porter released his debut album entitled 219 Days - the number days spanning from his first audition to the release of his CD. Other Competitors from Season Two's Top 10 who have released albums include: Sokyrka, Jacob Hoggard (an album with his band Hedley), Jason Greeley, Shane Wiebe, and Joshua Seller.

In December 2004, CTV announced that they would be producing a third season of Canadian Idol in 2005. Auditions began in February and finished in April 2005 and the show debuted May 30, just days after the conclusion of the fourth season of American Idol but did not follow suit yet on the new change to that show.

Auditions were held in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Winnipeg, London, Sudbury, Saskatoon, St. John's, Moncton, Charlottetown, Sydney, and Whitehorse.

This season introduced a twist in the Wildcard semi-final round. On the group 4 results show, after the results were revealed, 11 previous competitors were brought out. (CTV had advertised the broadcast as having 12 competitors, but one dropped out at the last minute.) The judges expressed how they felt about each competitor, and each competitor had a chance to show why they should sing in the Wildcard, whether it be through song or a plea. Then, the public had a chance to vote which would decide which of the 11 competitors would sing in the Wildcard.

After the closest final vote of the 3 up to that point, Melissa O'Neil of Calgary, Alberta was crowned the winner; with Rex Goudie of Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador the runner-up. Both O'Neil and Goudie have released albums. Aaron Walpole, Josh Palmer, and Suzi Rawn are also working on album releases; while Casey LeBlanc, Ashley Leitao and Amber Fleury will be recording one as a group called Braided.

In January 2006, CTV announced their plans for a fourth season of Canadian Idol. An 11-week audition tour took place in February, March and April 2006. Auditions were held in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Kitchener-Waterloo, Halifax, Regina, St. John's, and Yellowknife. Season two competitor Elena Juatco joined the show as the roving reporter, while Jon Dore did not return for the fourth season. The season premiered on May 29, five days after the finale of American Idol Season 5. The season finale of Canadian Idol took place on Sunday, September 17, 2006. The finale, originally scheduled for Tuesday, September 12, was moved to help resolve a conflict with ABC's 'Dancing with the Stars', which CTV also carried and which ABC announced would debut September 12. Eva Avila took the title in the cloest final vote of the 4 to date; CTV announced that 3.3% -- which amounted to 131,000 votes -- separated her from Newfoundland's Craig Sharpe.

On Saturday, September 16, 2006, a day prior to the public announcement of the Idol results, Sony BMG Music Entertainment began offering Avila's version of the first single, Meant to Fly, for sale on the website EvaAvila.com. Although the page was subsequently blanked, the artwork for the single can currently be located within the image files of the webpage.[1] This occurrence led to the creation of many rumours regarding the winner of the competition.

Both Avila's and Sharpe's singles were made available for pre-order for the September 26, 2006 release date on Amazon.com.

File:Can6final.jpg Wikinews has related news: Eva Avila crowned winner of Canadian Idol Canadian Idol Series Facts Two out of four of the Canadian Idol winners have been from Alberta. Kalan Porter is from Medicine Hat and Melissa O'Neil is from Calgary. Also an Albertan has made the Top 3 in every season, except Season 4. With his second place finish in 2006, Craig Sharpe became the second consecutive Newfoundlander to finish second. There has been a Newfoundlander in the top 5 in every Canadian Idol season to date. Only 2 Quebecers have managed to be in Canadian Idol top 10. Eva Avila, Canadian Idol Winner 2006 and Audrey DeMontigny, a season 1 contestant have managed to appear in the top 10. Many account this to the fact that many Quebecers dont even tune into the series, mainly because it is not offered in french. One CTV executive stated that there are more people in Newfoundland watching Idol then in Quebec, even though Quebec has 7 million more people, but this can be mainly due to the large French population. Season 4 had the closest deciding vote in Canadian Idol finale history. 3.3 percent separated the winner, Eva Avila from the runner-up, Craig Sharpe. Melissa O'Neil, Season 3 winner became the first female to win Canadian Idol. Shane Wiebe from Season 2 and Steffi D from season 4 are the only contestants to have been in the bottom three/two, five times, with each bowing out in 5th place. Sass Jordan and Debra Byrd (also seen in American Idol), vocal coach, performed in the finale of Season 3, becoming one of the few Idol judges to perform on any Idol stage (the New Zealand Idol judges performed at both the Season 1 and 2 Grand Finals, the first of which occurred prior to the Grand Final of Canadian Idol 3). This is also Debra's first performance on an Idol show. From Seasons 2 to 4, there have only been 1 woman and 2 men in the Final 3. Season 1 had no woman in the final 3. There have only been 3 ladies and 9 men in the Top three for Seasons 1 to 4. Theresa Sokyrka, Melissa O'Neil and Eva Avila have only managed to be in the final three for Seasons 2-4. Canadian Idol Season 2 finalist Jacob Hoggard and his band Hedley is the only contestant in Canadian Idol to be signed with an American label, Capitol Records. The album Hedley will be released in United States on September 2006. Canadian Idol Season 2 finalist Elena Juatco is the new Roving Reporter for Canadian Idol. She replaced Jon Dore who was the Roving Reporter for Season 1 to Season 3. The record for the highest votes on Canadian Idol is 4.3 million. This occurred on the Top 4/Top 3 results show in Season 4. The contestants to have ever received a standing ovation from all the judges was Amber Fleury, in season 3, in the top 32 round and Eva Avila on Season 4 performance finale with her favourite song, "How Come You Don't Call Me". Kalan Porter is the only idol winner that had never been in the bottom 2 or 3 and was named to be the second seasons winner of "Canadian idol". External links Canadian Idol Official Website