'' 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).
Elena Juatco assumed the role for season four, and Dave Kerr has the role in season five.
The show begins with a cross-Canada tour in which singers ,
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. After the final two perform, viewers have more than two hours to vote. The next day (or five days later in season 4), the competitor with the most votes is declared the winner. The show is taped at the
John Bassett Theatre in
Toronto ,
Ontario .
See Also: Canadian Idol (Season 1)
In the first season, which debuted on ,
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 .
's Debut Album,
Home .]]
See Also: Canadian Idol (Season 2)
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, and the performance is generally considered the best group number ever to appear on Idol worldwide.
,
Jacob Hoggard (an album with his band
Hedley ),
Jason Greeley ,
Shane Wiebe , and
Joshua Seller . Porter is the first CI winner to have a second cd released by Sony BMG ('Wake Up Living' launches August 28, 2007). Jacob Hoggard to release his sophmore CD (Universal) with his band HEDLEY. The first single She's So Sorry was released to radio August 20th, 2007.
's debut album,
219 Days .]]
See Also: Canadian Idol (Season 3)
,
Ben Mulroney (top),
Sass Jordan (bottom), Jon Dore (top),
Zack Werner (bottom), and
Jake Gold . Jon Dore was replaced by
Elena Juatco in Season 4.]]
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.
Melissa O'Neil ,
Rex Goudie ,
Aaron Walpole , and
Suzi Rawn have released albums; while
Casey LeBlanc ,
Ashley Leitao and
Amber Fleury have released an album as a group called
Braided .
Josh Palmer is also working on an album release.
See Also: Canadian Idol (Season 4)
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 closest 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 .
See Also: Canadian Idol (Season 5)
In
December 2006 ,
CTV announced the plans for the fifth season of Canadian Idol. It started off in
Vancouver on
February 3 , and visited nine more cities across Canada in a 10-week trip. This year, the network announced that the auditioners can play along with their instrument in their audition. The network also indicated that Dave Kerr will replace Elena Juatco in the co-hosting role for Season Five. Season Five premiered on June 5th, 2007. On
July 11 2007 Canadian Idol voters picked their top ten.
The Boys are:
The Girls are:
- Two out of four of the Canadian Idol winners have been from Alberta: Kalan Porter (Season 2; Medicine Hat) and Melissa O'Neil (Season 3; Calgary).
- Two contestants from Newfoundland finished second, Rex Goudie (Season 3) and Craig Sharpe (Season 4).
- Kalan Porter, Season 2 winner, had the biggest selling single in Canadian history with Awake in a Dream.
- Newfoundland is one of few provinces to have a contestant in the top 6 in every Canadian Idol season to date (Jenny Gear (5), Jason Greeley (4), Rex Goudie (2), Craig Sharpe (2) and Tara Oram (6).
- Kalan Porter's first cd, 219 Days, was certified double platinum two months after it was released. Season 1 winner, Ryan Malcolm had his first cd go platinum. Melissa O'Neil's album went Platinum after more than a year and Eva Avila's album has gone gold but is still selling.
- Ryan Malcolm holds the record for most weeks at #1 among all Canadian Idol winners. His coronation single, "Something More", spent 14 weeks at the top of the SoundScan singles chart
- Only 3 Quebecers have made it to the Top 10: Eva Avila, the winner of the fourth series, Audrey DeMontigny, a season 1 contestant and Khalila Glanville from season 5. It is assumed that many Quebecers don't even tune into the series since it is not televised in French , although auditions have been held in Montreal in each season. One CTV executive stated that there are more people in Newfoundland watching Idol than in Quebec, even though Quebec has 7 million more people.
- Season 4 had the closest deciding vote in Canadian Idol finale history. 3.3 percent separated the winner, Eva Avila, from runner-up Craig Sharpe.
- Shane Wiebe from Season 2 and Steffi D from season 4 are the only contestants to have been in the bottom three or two five times, with each bowing out in 5th place.
- Kalan Porter is the first winner to have a second album released by Sony BMG. The CD was recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Capital Records VP Brian Malouf who has previously produced CD's for Michael Jackson and Madonna. It is scheduled to be released August 28, 2007.
- Judge Sass Jordan and vocal coach Debra Byrd (also seen in American Idol) performed in the finale of Season 3, becoming two 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). That was also Byrd's first performance on an Idol show.
- Only three women (Theresa Sokyrka, Eva Avila and Melissa O'Neil) have made it to the finale. Seasons 1 and 5 had no women in the finale.
- Canadian Idol Season 2 finalist Jacob Hoggard and his band Hedley is the only contestant in Canadian Idol to sign with an American label, Capitol Records . Their self-titled debut album was released in the United States in September 2006.
- Kalan Porter had the most successful concert tour of any Idol winner or finalist. He sold out 65 dates across Canada and had crowds upwards of 15,000 at some of his summer festival concerts.
- The record for the highest vote total is 4.3 million., during the Top 4/Top 3 results show in Season 4.
- TV ratings for Canadian Idol peaked for Season 2 averaging over 3 million viewers. The audiences for Seasons 3 & 4 declined each year.
- Five contestants have received a standing ovation from all the judges: Jacob Hoggard, in season 2 during his encore performance of I Want You to Want Me, Amber Fleury, in season 3, during the top 32 round, Eva Avila on the Season 4 performance finale, Greg Neufeld during his elimination in Season 5 and Brian Melo during the My Own Idol perfomance, singing Karma Police during Season 5.
- Kalan Porter, Season 2's winner, is the only Canadian Idol winner that had never been in the bottom 2 or 3.
- American Idol Winner Ruben Studdard performed his hit single " Flying Without Wings " on the Canadian Idol first season finale; Many other American Idol finalists have also appeared on the show, like Carrie Underwood and Kimberley Locke . Kelly Clarkson is set to appear on the Top 5 shows of season 5. The only Canadian Idol to appear on American Idol is Ryan Malcolm, who appeared twice (once on An American Idol Christmas which was edited out of the US broadcast; the other time in the audience)
- Abbotsford, British Columbia is the hometown of 4 Top 10 competitors: Karen Lee-Batten in season 1, Jacob Hoggard and Shane Weibe in season 2, and Greg Neufeld in season 4 & 5.
- Rob James (of McMaster And James ) was the first representative of Manitoba in the Top 10. He made top 7 in season 4. James is still the only person from Manitoba to be in the Top 10 even though they have had auditons every season in Winnipeg (Manitoba's Capital).
- The first contestants to release their second album are Billy Klippert, Theresa Sokyrka and Rex Goudie; Klippert placed 3rd in Season One, while Sokyrka was the runner-up of Season Two. Rex Goudie released his second album (Look Closer) in December of 2006. Canadian Idol Ryan Malcolm released his second album in 2007. Canadian Idols Kalan Porter and Melissa O'Neil will release their second albums later this year (2007). Hedley will also be releasing their 2nd album in October of 2007.
- For 4 consecutive seasons, females are the first one to be eliminated in the top 10. Brandy Callahan, Emily Vinette, Kati Durst and Mila Miller have all been eliminated the first week. Likewise, the second person eliminated in the top 10 are all female from season 2-5, Manoah Hartmann, Ashley Leitao, Sarah Loverock and Khalila Glanville.
- Host Ben Mulroney disagreed after the elimination of Greg Neufeld in season 5, and sparked controversy for doing so: some felt he should have remained neutral, while others cheered his remarks.
- Greg Neufeld, Season 5, is so far the only contestant to make it to Top 22 two years. Season 4 placing in Top 16, and Season 5 placing 7th. Current (2007) Canadian Idol rules allow a contestant who doesn't make it to Top 10 in one year to re-apply in subsequent years. Valerie Jalbert was also in the semi-finals twice. She made the top 32 in season 2, and in the top 22 in season 4.
- Dwight d'Eon, Season 5, is the second consecutive Nova Scotian to finish in fourth place. The first being Chad Doucette in Season 4
- Carly Rae Jepsen is the first woman to be eliminated at Top 3.
- Fictionally, Harold Green from '' The Red Green Show '' once tried out for this show (episode "False Idol" {Link without Title} ) but he got stage fright and couldn't go on.
