On Wednesday, September 19, 2012, Nigerian Idol held a fun competition to engage its media stakeholders. Tagged, ‘Press Idols’, it discovered the hidden talent in journalists at the Shaba Events Centre Ikeja. This was done as a kick off to the search for brilliant and outstanding singers for the third season of the show in Abuja, Owerri, Port Harcourt, Benin, Ibadan and Lagos.

The one-off ‘Press Idol’ was anchored by Optima Media Group, owners of the Idols property in West Africa, with sponsorship from Etisalat.

“We thought to ourselves: we are very grateful to the media, which has made this Nigeria’s number one reality TV show,” said Tiwa Medubi, the project manager.

“So why not reward them… by putting them on the spot! They are weekly shining the spotlight on the victories and mistakes, challenges and highlights of these contestants, and these was a fun way to enable them live the dream!”

The journalists did not disappoint, putting up thrilling freestyle music performances – popular songs from the old school archives, contemporary hits and plenty of humor and applause as they contested for the grand prize of $1000.

The contestants were randomly picked by Season 3 host, Ill Rymz: the first contestant was Efe Tommy of entertainment show Excite on TV who performed Whitney Houston’s timeless ‘Greatest Love of All’; the others were Hip on TV’s Dayo Ephraim, Yes! Magazine’s Gbenga Saba and Hitz on TV’s Daniel Oramai.

“Let’s just say, some of them chose right when they picked journalism over music,” Medubi said, laughing. “But oh there were amazing pleasant surprises!”

The audience chose the winners – courtesy OMG, first prize of $1000 went to Oramai, the second place to Efe  with $500 – and third place to Shaba – with $200.

“Not a bad one at all,” said Shaba. “Nigerian Idol has constantly engaged and surpassed the expectation of its stakeholders, and it has been an impressive show – this is one more step in a string of surprises we have come to expect from the hit show.”

The launch event also had performances from season 2 winner Mercy Chinwo, runners up Joe Blue and Stephen Onochie and Naomi Mac of season 1, as well as an interactive session and multimedia presentations.

Nigerian Idol season three begins auditions on the 13th of October in the capital city of Abuja, then to Port Harcourt on the 20th; Owerri on the 27th; Benin 3rd November and finally Lagos on the 9th and 10th of November.