Australian Idol is the latest search for a musical superstar. Australian Idol is a 17-week reality program which seeks to find Australia's next singing star. Over 50,000 people had auditioned for the program during the recent auditions in capital cities. Australian Idol 6 will follow the landslide success of the first five series in Australia. Five years ago, the first Australian Idol launched the careers of Guy Sebastian and Shannon Noll. The year after that, the second series, launched the careers of Casey Donovan, Anthony Callea, and Ricki-Lee. This year, who knows who will be transformed into a nationally known superstar! Season 6 sees auditions in London for Aussies Who live there as well as all the state capitals. New elements will be added to this years Idol show including a Live audience for the Sydney Top 100 round and instruments will still be prominent in the auditions. / While Australian's are no stranger to popular reality doco-soap Popstars, with four series having been screened on Channel Seven, Australian Idol program differs by allowing viewers the chance to decide who will receive a record deal and contracts with SonyBMG based on live weekly shows and a national phone vote similar to Big Brother evictions. Despite the previous success of Popstars, Network Ten is convinced that the Idol phenomenon is a winning formula, "The key difference is that Australian Idol is predominantly studio-based, it's predominantly live and it's 100 percent about talent." / Judges Marcia Hines, radio personality Kyle Sandilands and former BMG executive Ian "Dicko" Dickson are responsible for choosing the 24 finalists from a field of around 100 of the best from the national auditions, before Australians vote for their favourite contestant in a series of rounds. / The 24 finalists will be narrowed to 12 as the show progresses. These 12 contestants will each perform various songs live to a national audience each week. The group may also perform a song together which is not judged. Contestants compete for the major prize with viewers determining the winner through telephone voting and possibly through other media such as- SMS and Internet voting. The three Judges also play a part in determining the winner in each round. The finalist with the least votes is eliminated each week until two contestants are left. The final contestant left standing will be crown the Australian Idol and will receive a recording contract with SonyBMG. Currently 8.7/10