Fast tracking Australian Idol Season 6 is making me dizzy!

The new season of Australian Idol (6) is making me very exhausted. They changed the format. It's both good and bad. Good for the show, bad for this viewer (who wasn't able to follow the episodes as soon as it aired).

Let's see if I got this right ---

• The audition rounds were shown for one hour every night the other week. This equalled to 6 episodes on the first week.
• The Sydney rounds (equivalent to the Hollywood round) aired immediately a day after the audition round, making this the 7th episode. They also revealed the Top 24 during this episode.
  
• The heats (or the group rounds) are coming up this week, which technically is just the second week of AusIdol's sixth season run.
  

In fact, they've already chosen their first two finalists today. Or four...I've lost count because everything is happening so fast. And guess how many episodes I've seen so far? FOUR! Out of 9 (and counting) I have to follow! In two weeks of AusIdol!!!

It bothers me I have so many backlogs for this show!

On the other hand, speeding this up means we're getting down to the actual talent competition really fast. The Top 12 heats is going to start Sept. 14 already...AusIdol is wasting no time. And it's not making viewers sit through all those bad auditions that takes a month and a half for American Idol to do. And AusIdol will go back to the weekly format by this time. Whew. At least I can take a break.

The one other thing they've changed this year is the manner in which viewers get to vote off a contestant:

... once announced the bottom 3 of the week, the voting line will be opened again for voting for the people who are in the bottom 3, in order to save the best 2 out of the 3 and keep the best singer in the competition.

It is what New Zealand and Bulgarian Idol are supposedly doing, per Wiki. It does make sense, doesn't it? Something to think about, Pinoy Idol....

Anyway...

I don't know if it's because I've marathoned four episodes at once tonight...but it seems I don't have an early pick for favorite yet. I've heard good singers and seen bad ones yet I've forgotten who they are now!

So...am torn.

I don't like having to catch up and seeing the episodes pile up. This is the kind of show I wanna watch as soon as it happens.

But evidently, it's all going to mellow out in two weeks time and really, that's when the fun starts.

Is the change good or bad?

Does it matter? I'm gonna keep watching anyway.

I just answered my own stupid question.