Ultimate Idol (Season 1)

The first season of Ultimate Idol premiered at the end of March 2013. It is the debut season of the franchise and is in partnership with 'Janelle's X Factor. 'The season sets out to find a solo artist that has the whole package and can claim a gift at the end of the season. The competition is based on the format of ''American Idol/Pop Idol. ''

The judging line up for the first season consists of four very talented professionals who are experienced within the music industry. Thomas, who is the current head judge/mentor and excecutive producer on the partner show Janelle's X Factor is a judge, he is also the creator of the franchise. Janelle, a long-term trusted friend and collegue of Thomas' she is the creator of Janelle's X Factor and has been a judge on it for four seasons. Katia, the host and creator of a similar music based competition Idol: Tengaged Edition which is on its second season. Finally, Ryder is a experienced judge on another music based competition Tengaged (Karaoke) Idol which is in it's eigth season. The four experienced judges will help the season debut.

Regional auditions
Auditions were held in Atlanta, Chicago,, Dallas, Miami, New York City and Seattle in March/April of 2013.

At each audition date ten contestants will audition in front of the judges and try to impress them. The contestants need the majority of the judges to say 'YES' in order to receive their goldeon tickets to Hollywood. However, if the judges do not say 'YES' as a majority the contestant will go no further. There may be a possible 'call back' date added depending on how many contestants receive a golden ticket to Hollywood.

Hollywood week
This stage of the competition takes place in Hollywood. The number of contestants that get through to this round is dependent on the amount the judges put through in the auditions stage. The contestants will be tested in a certain area to see how well they work with it and their versatility, The judges will score each act out of 10, without commenting on them. The 14 highest scoring contestants will be able to advance straight to the semi-finals, the next 20 are sent to Las Vegas for one more chance to get into the semi-finals while the rest are cut from the competition and will not advance no more.

Task 1: '45 seconds to impress'
The 42 contestants that made it through auditions and into Hollywood were all called on stage for their first task of Hollywood. They were told that they could perform whatever song they wanted, but it had to impress the judges right of the mark as each contestant only had a 45 second time frame to perform. The judges would then each score the contestants out of 10. It was then revealed that the 10 highest scoring contestants this round would advance straight into the semi-finals.

At the results, the contestants were called onto the stage. It was announced that Chris Brown, Toby Keith and Ke$ha were to be immediately cut from the show. Nickleback were also disqualified for being a band. Ten people then auto-advanced into the semi-finals, Christina Aguilera, Cascada, Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, Beyonce, Olly Murs, Mariah Carey, Bruno Mars and '''Whitney Houston. '''The remaining 28 contestants were sent to task 2, for another chance to get into the Semi-Finals.

Task 2: 'Judges Decision'
The 28 contestants that never auto-advanced to Hollywood, but never got cut were called back on stage for their second task at Hollywood. They were split into four groups of 7, and had to perform a solo song, a judge would 'head' each group and at the end send one of the contestants into the semi-finals (in total 4), however they would also need to cut two of them (in total 8). The other 4 (in total 16) will head to Las Vegas to battle it out for one last time. The selection of what happens to each contestant is down to the judge heading their group solely.

Las Vegas round
This stage of the competition takes place in Las Vegas. 16 contestants that never scored high enough to advance to Hollywood, but were too good to cut get one final chance to make it into the semi-finals. The contestants are given another task again, half will go home while the other half join the semi-finalist's.

Task: 'Groups'
The 16 contestants going to Las Vegas for a last chance of 10 spaces in the semi-finals were split into 4 random groups of four. They were told that they would have to perform a live song together, the judges would score the groups as a whole and then rank them alone from best to worst. The two groups that score the highest overall from the judges will all advance, then the highest rankers from the losing groups will also advance, making up ten.

Semi-finalists
The following is a list of semi-finalists who failed to reach the finals

Semi-finals
The Top 24 will perform in three groups over 3 days, eight per show. The public vote for their favorite and the three highest scoring from each show are revealed, along with six wildcards the day after the 3rd show.

Semi-Final Group 2 - Billboard Hot 100 hits
The Top 4 from group 2 advanced due to a tie for 3rd place, as a result only one wildcard was selected from this group.

Wild Card Round - 'Give Me A Second Chance'
Six contestants that didn't make it to the live shows (two from each group) are given a second chance to impress the judges, the act that impresses the judges the most joins the other nine to form the Top 10 finalists.

Finals
This season there are 9 live shows that the contestants perform in, each week someone being eliminated. The Top 3 are announced in no paticular order. The bottom 3 are also revealed, the judges each vote to save one of the three and put into next weeks show, then the contestant with the least amount of votes is sent home.

Judges Save
After a contestant is eliminated they have 1 final chance to sing for survival. If the judges unanimously decide that they want to void the publics decision and put them back in the competition, the next showis a double elimination. The save can only be used once a season and up to the Top 5.