Sponsor of World Idol announced

Oracle has confirmed that there are loose spots available to advertisers as for the UK's 2nd season of Idols currently on the Series Channel. Idols 1 and 2 drew audiences beyond all expectations, with Idols 2 drawing a total of eight million votes. World Idol is expected to do no less.

World Idol will be broadcast throughout the African continent on Wednesday 24th December at 20h00, when the winners from the completed first series in each country will step up onto the global stage to compete against one another. World Idol will be staged in London and broadcast to participating countries, each of which will take part in the voting to determine the overall winner. Immediately after the first show, telephone lines will be open for 24-hours for South African audiences to vote. All other participating countries will conduct similar 24-hour voting to select the winner of World Idol.

The first evening will feature live performances from each of the 11 Idols with the results being announced on the second evening. In the same manner as with Big Brother Africa weighting, the percentage of votes gained by each Idol from each country will be totalled. The Idol who receives the highest total of all the percentages will be the winner.

The 11 participating Idols and their respective countries are as follows:
- Pop Idol, UK (ITV) Will Young
- Idols, South Africa (M-NET) Heinz Winckler
- Idol, Poland (Polsat) Alicia Janosz
- American Idol: the Search for a Superstar, USA (Fox) Kelly Clarkson
- Idols, Netherlands (RTL) Jamai Loman
- Deutschland sucht den Superstar (RTL) Alexander Klaws
- Idol, Norway (TV2) Kurt Nilsen
- SuperStar, Pan-Arabic region (Future TV) Diana Karazoun
- Idol, Belgium (VTM) Peter Evrard
- Canadian Idol, Canada (CTV) Ryan Malcolm
- Australian Idol, Australia (Network 10) Winner to be announced

The international contest will include localised segments, with presenters from each of the participating countries hosting and linking their own country's broadcast from London. South Africa's own Mr Nasty, Randall Abrahams, will join representatives from the other 10 countries who will all sit on an international jury.

The final results show will be broadcast on M-Net on Wednesday 7th January 2004.

NOTE: You can catch the second season of UK Pop Idols on the Series Channel every Monday and Friday at 19h00.