New Zealand Idol, also known as NZ Idol, was the New Zealand version of the Idol series originated as the hit British TV series Pop Idol. New Zealand first saw the Idol format when TV2 aired American Idol 2, which garnered impressive ratings. After Australian Idol also received good ratings in New Zealand, TVNZ decided to order the first season of NZ Idol, which was broadcast on TV2. After the third season in 2006, TVNZ made a decision not to fund or broadcast a fourth season, thus placing New Zealand Idol on indefinite hiatus, with no plans to run a fourth season. NZ Idol was produced by South Pacific Pictures in association with Grundy Television and developed by Fremantle Media. Season one The show was hosted by TV presenter Dominic Bowden and the panel of judges consisted of Frankie Stevens, Fiona McDonald and Paul Ellis. The first episode was watched by over 1.15 million viewers. The competition was tough in the final few rounds of NZ Idol but it was finally whittled down to the top ten. Nine of these were voted in by the public through three heats (Camillia Temple, Ben Lummis and Filipo Saipani; Michael Murphy, Luke Whaanga and 'Big' Dave Houma; Robin Johnson, Sela Mahe and Eddie Gaiger). Jessie Cassin was added by the judges as a wildcard. Ben Lummis eventually won the competition despite being in the bottom 3 in the first, third and fourth round of the competition, while Michael Murphy who eventually came second in the season had not been in the bottom 3 at all. Camillia Temple, the oldest contestant at 28, who had been a favourite to win, ended up in third place. Ben Lummis released his idol-winning single "They Can't Take That Away" which spent 7 weeks at #1, selling over 40,000 units. His Album 'One Road' debuted at #1 on the album charts, selling over 30,000 copies. His second single, "I Love You Love Me" failed to make radio playlists and the single was shelved. His video for the single, however, did play on video music channels. Semi Final Qualifyings Top 24 Format: 3 out of 8 making the final each week plus one Wildcard Bottom three statistics Season two Auditions for the second series of NZ Idol began in June 2005. The show was once again hosted by Dominic Bowden, with Jackie Clarke replacing Fiona McDonald, who was pregnant