Joseph Gatehau
| Broadcast from | 6 August – 26 November 2006 |
|---|---|
| Judges | Kyle Sandilands Marcia Hines Mark Holden |
| Host(s) | Andrew G James Mathison |
| Broadcaster | Network Ten |
| Finals venue | Sydney Opera House |
| Damien Leith | |
 |
|
| Origin | Dublin, Ireland |
| Song | "Night of My Life" |
| Jessica Mauboy | |
| Australian Idol (season 4) | |
| Finalists (with dates of elimination) | |
| Damien Leith | Winner |
| Jessica Mauboy | 26 November |
| Dean Geyer | 13 November |
| Chris Murphy | 6 November |
| Ricky Muscat | 30 October |
| Lisa Mitchell | 23 October |
| Bobby Flynn | 16 October |
| Lavina Williams | 9 October |
| Guy "Mutto" Mutton | 2 October |
| Klancie Keough | 25 September |
| Reigan Derry | 18 September |
| Joseph Gatehau | 11 September |
The fourth season of Australian Idol began on 6 August 2006 and concluded on 26 November.
Changes for the fourth season of Australian Idol included the cancellation of "Inside Idol", "streamlined" semi-finals (replaced with a variant of the 12 females, 12 males format popularised by American Idol), and the contestants were able to bring instruments with them on stage for some of the final shows. The fourth season's television promos promised a change in the viewers' role in the show, which was revealed to be an SMS service called 199-JUDGE which allows viewers to SMS their opinions on the judges' reactions.
The show opened with average ratings (1.4 million) that were on the whole up from the previous year's ratings. The semi-final shows averaged 1.5 million viewers per night; the ratings remained consistent until the Top 8 show, which averaged 1.89 million viewers, much higher than any of the Top 12 shows the previous year, making it the most watched show on Australian television for that week. The Top 7 Show, which was "acoustic night", was watched by 1.92 million and the final by over 2.1 million people, with the audience peaking at 10.13pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time) attracting 2.4 million viewers.
The auditions for the fourth season of Australian Idol started in March 2006 in Mount Isa, Queensland, and concluded on 4 June 2006 in Sydney. Auditions were held in thirteen towns and cities across Australia: Adelaide, Albury-Wodonga, Alice Springs, Brisbane, Broken Hill, Byron Bay, Hobart, Melbourne, Mount Isa, Newcastle, Perth, Sydney, and Townsville. Many of the audition sites had a much smaller population than previous seasons' sites, and producers declared that they wanted to "unearth" rural talent in 2006. The auditions identified 124 hopefuls who then participated in a culling process in Sydney. After group performances and a solo performance from each contestant, the judges cut down the number of contestants to 24. For the first time, contestants were told face-to-face and usually by themselves whether they had made it through to the semi-finals (in contrast to previous years when contestants were divided into groups of three, two of whom got through).
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