Australian Idol began filming for the 2024 season this week, and with that, a fresh look judging panel managed to leak before it was officially announced.
Veteran judge Marcia Hines is back in the hot seat, 20 years after she formed part of the original line-up when the show debuted in 2003, joining Kyle Sandilands and Amy Shark.
For the series reboot last year, which aired on Channel 7, international musicians Meghan Trainor and Harry Connick Jr. were part of the fresh-look panel, but have not returned for the 2024 season.
Idol made its TV comeback earlier this year for the first time since ending its seven-year run in 2009, in which Hines was the show’s debut judge alongside Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson and Mark Holden. Sandilands would later replace Dicko in 2005.
Auditions have been underway at the Sydney Cricket Ground since Sunday, and are set to wrap on Saturday before navigating to other states.
Channel 7 is set to formally announce Hines’ return at their annual Upfronts event next week.
In August last year, Sandilands prematurely announced the return of Idol, and himself as a judge, on The Kyle and Jackie O Show, where he made an on-brand remark about the original panel.
When asked if any of the other original judges would be returning, he said, “No. None of them.”
“I’m the only one who’s still alive, I feel the others have all passed away … I mean alive on TV,” he added.
Idol failed to reach the heights of its glory days when it debuted earlier this year, though that was no easy feat in a changing television landscape.
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The show’s finales in the early 2000s would rake in upwards of 3 million viewers.
After its premiere in January, Idol would consistently run third behind timeslot rivals Married At First Sight and Australian Survivor.
Toward the back-end of the series, Idol attracted an average of around 409,000 viewers across the five-city metro, against MAFS’ 835,000 and Survivor’s 536,000.
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