Australian Idol 2008 is set to begin this Sunday. This season, there have been quite a few changes to the shows format.

For starters, they went overseas in search of expat Aussies talented enough to join the competition. Initially, they had planned on going to L.A. and London, but they had to cancel L.A. because of the sheer volume of contestants in London. They recruited Tina Arena and Darren Hayes to assist in the judging roles for London.

As you may already be aware, Mark Holden has gone, bringing the show back down to 3 judges; Marcia Hines, Ian "Dicko" Dickson and Kyle Sandilands. James Mathison and Andrew G are still hosts, and they have the added assistance of ex Idol contestant - Ricki-Lee Coulter.

The series is starting a little later than usual this year to make way for the Olympics. In the meantime, channel Ten has been showing viewers snippets of information along the way, including a video which names the Top 24 contestants for this series.

Starting this Sunday the 24th August, at 7:30 pm, channel Ten will air 6 straight nights of auditions, which will bring us, at the end of next week, to the Top 100.

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