Season 2 • Episode 20
LatestPop Idol is a British television music competition which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer in the UK based on viewer voting and participation. Two series were broadcast - one in 2001-2002 and a second in 2003. Pop Idol was subsequently put on an indefinite hiatus after "Idol" judge Simon Cowell announced the launch of the The X Factor in the UK in April 2004. The show has become an international TV franchise since, spawning multiples of Idol series worldwide. In the mean time a legal dispute arose with the makers of Popstars, which eventually led to the word "Pop" being excluded from the titles of all the spin-offs, such as American Idol, Australian Idol, Indonesian Idol, New Zealand Idol, Latin American Idol and Idols.
Production
Blue-tinted montages invented a whole visual language of desperation.
Direction
Fuller's ruthless efficiency in packaging human dreams.
Creator
Simon Fuller
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Pop Idol didn't invent the singing competition—Popstars did—but Fuller perfected the emotional manipulation. The 'journey' montage, the dramatic pause before results, the fake intimacy: this is the DNA of everything from Drag Race to Love Island.
The legal war with Popstars producers was so bitter that 'Pop' got nuked from all spin-offs. American Idol exists because lawyers said so. Imagine explaining that to the aliens.
GB
