World Idol

The story

World Idol was the title of a one-off international version of the television show Pop Idol, featuring winners of the various national Idol shows around the world competing against each other.

The performance show was held on Christmas Day 2003, with the results show held on New Year's Day 2004. It was made in the UK, using the set from the recently completed second series of Pop Idol. After presenting the competitors, viewers from the 11 participating countries were allowed to vote by telephone, but not for the participant from their home country. All participants sang in English except for Diana Karazon, who sang in Arabic.

British presenters Ant and Dec hosted the show in all English speaking countries, while local presenters hosted for their own country in the local language. The only exception to Ant and Dec's English speaking role was that CTV edited the show in Canada to use Canadian Idol host Ben Mulroney instead. Victoria Beckham performed her UK #3 hit Let Your Head Go during the results interval.