I'm kinda in two minds about it for shows like this in today's day and age as i've been watching half live in the background, half catch up and skim through the fluff (I watched Top 6/Results/Grand Finale that way the other night).
There are some things I can see how it still works, but others I think could use a bit of going back to some of the older seasons ways. However some things were even done in a similar way even back then. As I think I mentioned before in Season 1 There were 5 rounds of weekly semi's and then they did 3 lots of double evictions until the Top 6 to fit it in.
If it does come back they might even cut back to one show a week to cut costs, presumably with the elimination at the beginning of the next episode.
They did this During Season 7 (the last on Ten in 2009) and if you look at the episode count on wikipedia, it almost matches 2023's exactly (I guess if you took all of the 'Results' shows from this season and stretched them out for extra weeks of the lives, it might match up. also by that point they were doing a week long semi final's round (as they did this season too).
Guessing you never watch Seven then. I think a big problem was the big promo push came at the end of last "season", so around October - so by the time it began at the very end of January most people probably thought it had aired already.
As much as It could possibly work in other Quarters, I felt part of the hype did connect to this leading up to the Grand Finale to cap off the ratings year at the Opera House in late November (and also for the winner's single to bask in some of that pre-Christmas sales (later ITunes charts and nowadays Streams) lead up).
OTOH maybe a bit of that has moved on and we are getting a little fatigued by these kinda singing show formats (even though Idol itself hasnt been on in Australia for 14 years, It wasn't that long ago X Factor was doing ok in that Slot of the year (ok its been 7-12 years now but still).
Onto the actual show, I must say I was getting kinda tired and rolling my eyes a bit at some of the song 'choices'. Like weve seen these shows long enough to know theres a big book of pre-approved songs to pick from somewhere on that set LOL and that Judge's Choice week was set up as anything if we go off what Kyle said.
I had to laugh and go 'really?' when Amali jumped at the chance to sing 'Titanium' (which is one of those songs that has been done to death on these shows, seriously) - I'm like 'Girl, noooo Maya JUST sang that song in the bottom 4 sing last freakin week, come on.
That being said though a couple of them did do decent jobs of some songs and surprised me a little even though some of them have been so overdone on these shows. Like Said Titanium performance had a bit of pizazz with the staging and arrangement (unless its also done just for the sake of it like was a big thing with Connick Jr with some of the ones this year).
A LOT of Royston's songs I felt were predictable done-a-million-times 'My Big Idol Inspirational Journey' material - I liked how Noora sung the somewhat lesser known Dua Lipa track while Royston goes for: THE CLIMB. Yes its a competition and that works though for some voters. It wasn't like when Reigan Derry sung a niche Karnivool track at the Top 11 point of 2006 and got booted whilst most of the others sang the hits.
That's another thing too, I think a lot of people forget the previous iteration of Idol was for the most part pedestrian AF with minimal staging or background oval screen effects like those ones from windows media player, with occasional glimpses of world class performance.
Remember when they weren't allowed to play their own instruments until like Season 4 (Jess Mauboy's year) and it was a big deal when they could? For every 'The Prayer' or 'Climb Every Mountain', there was Em Rusciano discoing it up in a choice outfit and dance moves, or Anthony Callea doing 'Car Wash' like it was your casual friday night down the bowlo/RSL. Haha.
I even saw Shannon Noll put up a short with a then and now comparision of his original 'What About Me' performance on Idol next to the dance remix version he performed recently at some concert. These days (and it was even a thing last decade on The Voice and X Factor) they have a lot more leeway on staging and effects like it's kinda like Eurovision without the rules.
Anyways It wasn't
that terrible, but yeah could maybe use a few tweaks. We shall see.