Asian Idol Update

RCTI will first promote the competition among the winners of Indonesian Idol to choose the country's representative to Asian Idol, which Indonesia will host. Featuring the best Idols the Asian region, Indonesia will compete with Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, and India.

Daniel Hartono, Project Director of Asian Idol for RCTI, explained that this competition will begin around mid-December. "We are really happy that finally our wish to spread out Asian Idol has fulfilled," he said in a press conference for MNC Group in Jakarta yesterday.

Hartono explained that to determine the Indonesian representative, their group will produce a selection process among four Indonesian Idol winners, namely Delon, Mike, Ihsan, and Rini. The four champions will battle it out in a "Choose Your Idol" special, which will be shown live by RCTI.

"This selection special among the four Idols will be held in Kemayoran this coming November 24," according to Asian Idol's public relations chief Hafni S. Damayanti during a phone interview with Republika in Jakarta.

Damayanti disclosed that the results of the Choose Your Idol program will be revealed a week after the competition or coincided on December 1, 2007. He added that he hoped this special selection process would eventually result in choosing the best representative for Indonesia.

The voting process, according to Damayanti, would be the same as how it was done in choosing Indonesian Idol as shown in RCTI. "We will continue to ask the viewers to vote for their favorite on live broadcast," he explained.

Before Asian Idol starts, continued Damayanti, they will have a series of special programs called "Asian Idol Extra." This will be shown in RCTI everyday for half an hour from 4:30pm WIB from November 26 to December 16, 2007.

On December 8, Asian Idol contestants from six participating countries will be introduced through an Idol Showcase presentation. "This serves as kind of a warm-up among the contestants," explained Damayanti. "They will introduce themselves and at the same time choose their own songs."

Meanwhile, Rini, the winner of Indonesian Idol 2007, said that she felt really happy with the attendance of the spectacular Choose Your Idol presentation. She hoped that she would become the representative for Indonesia. "I do wish to become the Indonesian representative, and I really hope the people would make my wish come true," she said to Republika just recently.

Damayanti continued that the Asian Idol license still belongs to Fremantle. Whereas for RCTI, the success of Asian Idol in terms of viewership will add a special value in seizing the hearts of every Indonesian TV viewer.

Remember that Indonesian Idol was the country's leading variety show for the last three years until it was sidelined by Mama Mia that was shown in rival network Indosiar.

However, with the coming Asian Idol, the prestige of this program will increase and RCTI hopes that it will lead the ratings among other TV programs

thanks to starczamora for the translation