IDOLS 'SHOCKER' SPOILER ALERT! The upcoming top reveal on Sunday is not going to be a 'Top 15' contestants list but a ...

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Idols on M-Net alluded to a big ''shocker'' and secret coming in Sunday's new episode (M-Net, 17:30) of the 7th season when the Top 15 contestants will be revealed, but psuedo hype has a price and the producers and editors - in their over zealousness to tease - gave the game away.

I know and can say with 99,99% certainty what the third episode at Theatre Week will reveal to viewers next week on M-Net. When you edit ''coming up next'' teasers in such an overly-dramatic fashion, a TV critic such as myself can then puzzle out.

Idols producers will do well to remember that visual video literacy in South Africa has increased since the days of Die Beertjieboot and Grizzly Adams on TV1. Viewers don't stare mindlessly at TV screens like in Apple Macintosh's ''1984'' commercial (anymore). When you make television, you have to be more clever, or show less - or the viewer will catch on.

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Let me decode the visual puzzle and tell you what Idols is actually saying / hinting at / showing to me as a TV symbologist looking at The Da-Idols Code. Since I'm not in the business of doing consumer TV programming spoilers, you'll have to click on READ MORE BELOW if you want to know what you'll see next week.
Although Idols said a Top 15 will be chosen, based on the upcoming episode teaser, I'm completely certain that the 7th season of Idols on M-Net will announce a Top 16 contestant list on Sunday as its big ''shocker'' since the judges appear to be unable to decide between two final black girls as contestants. They are going to end up including both of them. That will make Idols' would-be Top 15 list the Top 16 contestants.

The decision to include both black girls in the South African reality show because the judges are unable to decide who's better wouldn't be without president on South African television. In September 2005 Tokyo Sexwale couldn't choose and chose both black women in the live finale of The Apprentice SA which I attended at the time. This is somewhat different from then, in that this Sunday's episode - the final episode covering Theatre Week at Idols, is not the final episode.

''The judges reveal the most dramatic twist in seven seasons,'' says the voice-over by Idols host ProVerb as the camera frames two black girls sitting next to each other.

''We're finding it really difficult to choose between the two of you,'' says Idols judge Gareth Cliff. ''We can't choose.''

Then both girls are standing together in the sunlight, looking happy and says, ''Idols is full of surprises.''

Contestants so far who I can safely guarantee will definitely make the cut of the Idols Top 16 contestants, will include, based on the judges' reaction (and I will only give the ones I'm 100% sure of):

Crushanda Forbes (23) from Johannesburg,
Dave van Vuuren (20) from Johannesburg,
Erin Fourie (27) from Pietermaritzburg,
Kelly Fortuin (21) from Cape Town.