''Idols South Africa I'' was the first season of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

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interactive Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...

talent show based on the British talent show

Pop Idol ''Pop Idol'' is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and par ...

. It started as the second international spin-off of the original series just days after the first

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season in Poland. However, as it ended earlier the winner

Heinz Winckler Heinz Carl Heinrich Winckler (born 22 March 1978) is a South African singer and the winner of the first series of South African '' Idols'' and is also an actor. Born the eldest of three children in Stellenbosch, South Africa, he went on to study ...

is the second Idol winner after the original ''Pop Idol''

Will Young William Robert Young (born 20 January 1979) is a British singer-songwriter and actor who came to prominence after winning the 2002 Pop Idol (series 1), inaugural series of the ITV (TV network), ITV talent contest ''Pop Idol'', making him the f ...

Simon Cowell Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality, entrepreneur and record executive. He is the creator of ''The X Factor'' and ''Got Talent'' franchises which have been sold around the world. He has judged on t ...

, judge of the original series was guest judging during the theater round when the Top 50 was chosen. The remaining contestants where then split in 10 groups of 5 where the most vote getter would move on to the top 10. However, as a voting error occurred during the voting for the first group, Melanie Lowe (who was a close second behind Brandon October) was saved by the producers making it a top 11 instead.
In the beginning the show was hosted by Matthew Stewardson and Candy Litchfield. However halfway through the season Stewardson was axed and replaced by Sami Sabitiin. Soon after that Stewardson checked himself into a rehab center. The show saw a tragic incident when the programme's main photographer suddenly died during the competition. In the course of the season complaints about the results of votings and technical problems became loud and created a mistrust from the audience which eventually lasted over the upcoming seasons.

Finals

Finalists

(ages stated at time of contest)

Elimination Chart

*Note: The results of every second semifinal group were announced together.

Live show details

Heat 1 (10 March 2002)

Heat 2 (17 March 2002)

Heat 3 (24 March 2002)

Heat 4 (31 March 2002)

Heat 5 (7 April 2002)

Heat 6 (14 April 2002)

Heat 7 (21 April 2002)

Heat 8 (28 April 2002)

Heat 9 (5 May 2002)

Heat 10 (12 May 2002)

Live Show 1 (19 May 2002)

Theme: Movie Magic

Live Show 2 (26 May 2002)

Theme: My Own Idol

Live Show 3 (2 June 2002)

Theme: Proudly South African

Live Show 4: Semi-final (9 June 2002)

Theme: Judges' Choice

Live final (16 June 2002)

References

External links

Idols I website on IOL

Profiles of the Top 50 contestants
{{Idols South Africa Season 01 2002 South African television seasons