Simon Phillip Cowell is an English television personality, entrepreneur, and record executive. He has judged on the British television talent competition shows Pop Idol (2001–2003), The X Factor UK and Britain's Got Talent (2007–present), and the American television talent competition shows American Idol (2002–2010), The X Factor US (2011–2013) and America's Got Talent (2016–present). Cowell founded the British entertainment company Syco in 2005, as well as its now-defunct predecessor, Syco Music in 2002.
Pop Idol is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller 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. An immense success when it launched in 2001, Maggie Brown in The Guardian wrote, "the show became a seminal reality/entertainment format once on air that autumn". Series judge Simon Cowell became a major public figure in entertainment, and the show produced instant No. 1 chart hits, including for the first series winner Will Young, whose single "Evergreen" was the fastest-selling debut in UK chart history and the best-selling song of 2002. Pop Idol was subsequently put on an indefinite hiatus after Simon Cowell announced the launch of The X Factor in the UK in April 2004.
Melanie Clare Sophie Giedroyc is an English actress, comedian and television presenter. With Sue Perkins, she has co-hosted series including Light Lunch for Channel 4, The Great British Bake Off for the BBC and chat show Mel and Sue for ITV. In early 2017 Giedroyc co-presented the BBC show Let It Shine. Since 2015 she has held a number of commentating roles for the Eurovision Song Contest.
John Patrick Thomson is an English comedian, narrator and actor best known for his roles in The Fast Show, Men Behaving Badly, Cold Feet, 24 Hour Party People, The Brothers Grimsby and Coronation Street.
Reginald Yates is a British writer and director with a career spanning three decades on screen as an actor, television presenter and radio DJ. Yates played Leo Jones in Doctor Who and has worked at the BBC in radio and television–presenting various shows for BBC Radio 1 for a decade as well as hosting the BBC One singing show The Voice UK, hosting the first two series with Holly Willoughby.
Deborah Lee Duffield, known professionally as Debra Stephenson, is an English actress, comedian, impressionist and singer, best known for her roles as Diane Powell in Playing the Field (1999–2000), Shell Dockley in Bad Girls and as Frankie Baldwin in Coronation Street (2004–2006).
Angellica Bell is a British television and radio presenter, best known for her presenting on CBBC between 2000 and 2006. She is also known for providing occasional cover on The One Show and for co-presenting The Martin Lewis Money Show. Bell won the 2017 series of Celebrity MasterChef.
Fame Gurukul is an Indian reality show on Sony Entertainment Television which premiered on 27 June 2005. The program was produced by the same production house of Indian Idol. The concept of the show was to select a pair of India's best singers/performers.
Sam Nixon and Mark Rhodes, known collectively as Sam & Mark, or simply Smark, are an English popular music and television presenting duo. They previously competed on the second series of Pop Idol in 2003, where they finished third and second, respectively, behind winner Michelle McManus. Since then, Sam & Mark have had a successful career in radio and television in the UK.
Campus SuperStar is a Singaporean reality television singing competition to find new singing talent, contested by aspiring singers drawn from public auditions. The show began on 2 January 2006 and is broadcast on MediaCorp Channel U. It is a spin-off of Project SuperStar, and contestants comprise students from secondary schools, junior colleges and institutes of technical education.
The first series of Fame Academy, a BBC reality talent search, was first broadcast in the United Kingdom over ten weeks in October - December 2002. It was won by David Sneddon. The live shows were presented by Cat Deeley and Patrick Kielty.
This second series of Fame Academy was broadcast in the UK over thirteen weeks from July to October 2003. It was won by Alex Parks. The judging panel of the show consisted of Richard Park, Carrie Grant, David Grant and Robin Gibb during the live shows. Jonathan Ross was a judge on the final giving his opinions on the acts.
How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria? was a British reality television talent show that documented the search for an undiscovered musical theatre performer to play the role of Maria von Trapp in the 2006 Andrew Lloyd Webber and David Ian stage production of The Sound of Music.
Comic Relief Does Fame Academy is a spin-off of the original Fame Academy show where celebrities students sing as students of the Academy. The programme was launched in 2003 to help raise money for the charities supported by Comic Relief, with the final of the show occurring on Red Nose Day.
The first series of British reality television show Pop Idol was broadcast on ITV in the United Kingdom during the winter months of 2001 and 2002. The show was a singing competition open to people aged between 16 and 26 years old, with the winner receiving a £1 million recording contract to release their debut album. Pop Idol received ratings of as high as 10 million viewers for shows before the live final. The footage of the program's opening titles, as well as the live final of this series, was used in the first season of American Idol, in which Kelly Clarkson won the season.
Pop Idol was a British television talent show that ran for two series, in 2001 and 2003. The show was produced for ITV in a reality television format and aimed to unearth a previously undiscovered singer who could become an international success. Will Young was the winner of the first series and was awarded with a £1 million music recording contract. Young became the most successful contestant with a series of top-five hits, including his debut single "Anything Is Possible" / "Evergreen", which peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart in 2002 and broke chart sales figure records. During the next seven years he recorded two further number-one singles, while two of his four albums were number-one in the UK Albums Chart. In the second series, Michelle McManus emerged victorious. Her debut single "All This Time" charted at number one in January 2003. Her second single, "The Meaning of Love", charted at a peak of number 16 and an album of the same name reached number three in the UK Albums Chart.
Popstar to Operastar [sic] is a British television programme in which pop stars were trained to sing opera. The show began airing on ITV on 15 January 2010 at 9pm. The show was repeated on TV3 Ireland on Saturday evening. The programme was produced by Renegade Pictures.
Popstars is a reality music competition series that was broadcast on ITV in early 2001. It was the first UK series of the international Popstars franchise, and was billed as a documentary on the formation of a modern pop group. The programme began with audition rounds of aspiring singers performing covers of classic songs before a panel of judges. The best performers were selected to come to London for further rounds of auditions. Over the weeks, the judges eliminated various singers from the auditions until just a few singers were left in contention. In the final weeks, five contestants were chosen by the judges to form the new pop group Hear'Say. The programme then showed the group recording and promoting their first single, documenting their first ventures into the music industry.
Pakistan Idol was a Pakistani reality singing competition that was a part of the Idols franchise created by Simon Fuller and owned by 19 Entertainment and FremantleMedia. It was the 50th adaptation of the familiar reality competition format introduced in the British series Pop Idol in 2001. It is developed for the Pakistani entertainment market by Geo TV.
Comic Relief Does Fame Academy, a spin-off of the original Fame Academy show where celebrities students sing as students of the Academy to help raise money for the charities supported by Comic Relief, returned for a second live airing on 26 February 2005. It was once again hosted by Patrick Kielty and Cat Deeley. During the Comic Relief show on 11 March, Edith Bowman was announced as the winner.
