Nepal’s first international franchise singing reality show—Nepal Idol Sea­son 1—was a rollercoaster ride, from being everyone’s favorite one moment to being a topic of controversy in another. Nepal Idol is gearing up for the second season of its musi­cal journey. In fact, the audi­tion for Season 2 was com­pleted this month.

 

“Fewer people came to the audition this year compared to last year,” says Suresh Pau­del, the director and project head of Nepal Idol. “But those who did come were genuine singers,” he added. Suresh Paudel took up the direction of Season 2 after Laxman Pau­del decided to part ways with AP1 HD television.

 

Overall, various changes were made in this season of Nepal Idol.

 

“This season we decided to award talented signers a Golden Microphone during the audition itself. The con­testants the judges deemed competent enough to appear directly in the gala round were given the green light. Four contestants received the Golden Microphone in the audition round. Each of them is fantastic,” he shared.

 

Further, the judges’ author­ity was also changed. Last sea­son, only the voters had the right to decide a contestant’s fate, but from this season, there is an equal distribution of authority between the judges and the voters.

 

In the first season, a lawsuit was filed against Nepal Idol for airing a ‘No elimination’ episode in which the elimina­tion of a particular contestant was postponed for a week. Paudel attributes the error to many people not knowing the format, but he believes that the situation has changed now. As Freemantle Media has given various rights to Nepal Idol this year, the viewers will get to see new twists and turns such as ‘Double Elimination’, ‘No Elimination’ and a sur­prise wild card entry.

 

Talking about the contro­versy on social media last year when Nepal Idol failed to broadcast the live telecast of the Grand Finale in Qatar, Paudel accepts the mistake.

 

“We had planned every­thing but perhaps we weren’t professional enough,” says Paudel. Explaining the prob­lem, he says that the plan was to bring DSMG—Satellite broadcasting device for live transmission—via Dubai. But due to the Saudi-led blockade on Qatar, the Dubai authori­ties didn’t cooperate.

 

“So we decided to broadcast the event via the internet. But on the day, thousands of peo­ple came, and the signal of the tower was divided. It weak­ened the internet strength and caused a failure in live trans­mission.”

 

“We failed to anticipate the problem. Everything seemed to falling apart at the same time,” says Paudel. “The venue was miles away from the city. We tried getting a dedicated signal, but it just wasn’t possible in the short time we had.”

 

The Season 2 of Nepal Idol is set to air on July 26 with hosts Reema Bishwokarma and Asif Shah. The judge trio are Indira Joshi, Kali Prasad Baskota and Nhyoo Bajracharya.

 

“We will from now on hold the Grand Finale right here in Nepal,” says Paudel