The audition dates for the 12th season of Idols in 2016 have been announced and people who want to enter will get the chance to do so in Durban, Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town.
After a massive spike in voting from 24 million votes in 2014 to almost 79 million votes for the just completed season in which Karabo Mogane won, it looks as if Idols is going to become a Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) show only, although M-Net has not yet confirmed it.
Since the 7th season in 2011 Idols has been a co-production between M-Net (DStv 101) and Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) for the past four seasons.
As the viewership demographics of Idols changed over the past few years due to the dual broadcast on both channels, and with M-Net that picked up The Voice South Africa that will start at the end of January 2016 and be shown only on M-Net, it's looking increasingly likely that Idols will be moved off M-Net to a Mzansi Magic reality competition show only.
M-Net declined to give a definite answer on Sunday when asked if M-Net is going to stop showing Idols and if the show is moving to just Mzansi Magic in 2016.
"Idols has done phenomenally well on both M-Net and Mzansi Magic," said Gideon Khobane, the M-Net director for general entertainment channels.
"What we do know is there will be a season 12 of Idols next year and there will be The Voice SA next year."
"We haven't made any announcements yet or any final decisions regarding it. We just want to see how the last voting went and ratings. There's enough space in South Africa to do both shows because we've got so much talent," said Gideon Khobane.
Idols auditions in 2016 will start at the end of January.
Durban, The Playhouse, Saturday 30 January 2016
Pretoria, The State Theatre,Saturday 6 February 2016
Johannesburg, Carnival City, Sunday 28 February 2016
Cape Town, Grand West Casino, Saturday 5 March 2016
