Adapting Idols: Authenticity, Identity and Performance in a Global Television Format

Since the first series of Pop Idol aired in the UK just over a decade ago, Idols television shows have been broadcast in more than forty countries all over the world. In all those countries the global Idols format has been adapted to local cultures and production contexts, resulting in a plethora of different versions, ranging from the Dutch Idols to the Pan-Arab Super Star and from Nigerian Idol to the international blockbuster American Idol. Despite its worldwide success and widespread journalistic coverage, the Idols phenomenon has received only limited academic attention. Adapting Idols: Authenticity, Identity and Performance in a Global Television Format brings together original studies from scholars in different parts of the world to identify and evaluate the productive dimensions of Idols. As one of the world’s most successful television formats, Idols offers a unique case for the study of cultural globalization. Chapters discuss how Idols shows address particular national or regional identity politics and how Idols is consumed by audiences in different territories. This book illustrates that even though the same television format is used in countries all over the globe, practices of adaptation can still result in the creation of unique local cultural products.

Author Biography

Koos Zwaan, Inholland University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands, and Joost de Bruin, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand Joost de Bruin, Koos Zwaan, Sukhpreet Singh, Martin Kretschmer, Pia Majbritt Jensen, Jinna Tay, Tess Conner, Vaclav Stetka, Plamena Kourtova, Henk Huijser, Mary Ghattas, Jeroen de Kloet, Stefan Landsberger, Tom ter Bogt, Nicholas Carah, Ruth A. Deller, Vebjorg Tingstad, Stijn Reijnders, Gerard Rooijakkers, Liesbet van Zoonen.