It wasn't an easy TV show to watch. If the contestants weren't having a go at the largely terrible Celine Dion-type songs used to show off voices, they were probably having a bash (and I mean bash) at your favourites. So keen were they to demonstrate their talent that even some of the good ones went into unnecessary histrionics during their auditions. And I haven't even got to those highly irritating judges.
Yet, love it or hate it, Australian Idol was a phenomenon. Fans may have spent far too much time obsessing about who was going to stay on each week but many detractors also found themselves somehow knowing the relevance of names such as Guy, Paulini, Millsy and Dicko.
But how could this attempt to cash in on - sorry, produce a live version of the show - compete with the Schadenfreude, shock and drama of the TV series?
Wary of the inevitable absence of such factors, the producers of
Australian Idol - Live! have still put together a slick show. It smartly
mixes up the performance aspect of the TV program with projected video of the
show's finest moments (available on a tie-in DVD, naturally), with a few
surprises thrown in.
The finalists stream onstage like a kind of Jackson 12 to take it in turns to get their lines from Robbie Williams's Let Me Entertain You heard over the deafening screams.
They are all present and correct, and all looking terrific, even if some are occasionally a little amateurish performance-wise. The nervous kids whom we saw gaining confidence so painfully slowly over the weeks are suddenly nearly there, shining under sharp new hairdos and dressed like bona fide pop stars.
During the rest of the first half of the show, each of the dynamic dozen get the stage to themselves - accompanied, of course, by the musical director, John Foreman, and his crack band - to sing a couple of songs and, wisely, they each play to their strengths.
The chunky Peter goes smooth with Beatles and Farnham songs. Kelly spunkily rocks out, Paulini is a soul powerhouse and Cle, who gutsily sings a song of her own (even if it's technically boosted by couplets from Kelis's ace Milkshake), is somewhere between the two. Levi and the contest runner-up, Shannon, set pulses racing before they even open their mouths, and the 'fro is almost as exciting as winner Guy Sebastian's glorious voice.
Part two goes for broke with a greatest hits sequence (culminating in a dynamite Crazy in Love), a cheeky cameo from a contestant who didn't make the final 12 - drag star par excellence Courtney Act - and the big Australia Day finale: a rousing medley performed by the finalists featuring the songs of Farnham, Minogue and Goodrem, among others.
It's no wonder the TV show judge and industry bigwig Ian "Dicko" Dickson - who was on hand to host on this night rather than criticise, and who has the option of releasing records by this lot - looks so chuffed.