ABSTRACT
Toward the end of the 2008 series of Australian Idol, the music industry judge Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson commended one of the male, rock-oriented contestants by saying: ‘Even the most hard-bitten snobby hacks in the music industry at large are beginning to admit that Idol this year is beginning to produce some sensational fruit’. Dickson’s comment was symptomatic of Australian Idol’s evolving self-conscious narrative about its credibility. The first two seasons of Australian Idol (2003 and 2004) brought high ratings and record sales from pop-oriented contestants. From 2005, Australian Idol’s audience share and ability to generate pop stars began to diminish prompting a period of reinvention in the format (see also the chapters by Pia Majbritt Jensen and Henk Huijser about Australian Idol in this volume).
