The hosts are spunks.
Co-hosts Andrew G and James Mathison are music nuts from Channel [V]. "He's definitely a bit of a glamour boy," laughs James of Andrew. "I often say that when it comes to girls I'm the seagull who picks up the scrapes."

So how did I get involved with Australian Idol? Well, let me put it this way (big breath in): Got a call from someone I don't know from I company I didn't recognise asking me to a meeting regarding something she couldn't tell me about; got to meeting; signed confidentiality clause; watched a few videos; had a chat, told them that I work for [V], love working there, always want to work there and didn't want to do anything to jeopardise that, but I was interested; left it with them; Went on first holiday in a year to Canada...

... Spent three weeks there; busted my knee snowboarding; met cute girls who say oot and aboot; drank lots of beer; had a blast; got back home to find Idol was in the pipeline; went to Tahiti to cover the Billabong Pro for [V]; couldn't believe that I get paid for doing stuff like this; why would I ever work anywhere else?! I am the luckiest person in the world; get back to find my brilliant bosses have been up to midnight for the last two weeks bashing out the deal across boardroom tables with the Idol people and it's all systems go; leave five days later for the national Idol Audition Tour; I am the luckiest person in the world.. That's about it. : )

It's barely begun, but Australian Idol has already uncovered two crossover stars: pay-TV gagsters Andrew G and James Mathison, who share presenting duties...

ANDREW G

Music buff Andrew 'G' Gunsberg's goal came clearly to him in a beer-fuelled vision while rocking out to the sounds of TISM at the Gold Coast leg of 1999's Big Day Out. "Suddenly, I though, 'I want to meet the Beastie Boys,'" he recalls. On the spot the radio presenter decided to apply for a job on Channel V, pay-TV's music network, so that when the band next toured Australia he would get to interview them. Lo and behold, just four months later on May 16, 1999, he was interviewing his favourite band on Channel V. "It was at that moment," he says, "I realised that if you want something, say it out loud and it will come true."

Sounds like a good tip for contestants on Australian Idol, the turbo-charged talent show hosted by G and fellow Channel V presenter James Mathison after Ten requisitioned them from the hip world of pay-TV videodom.

"Andrew comes from a heritage of weekly live TV and he has music-industry credibility," says executive producer Stephen Tate. "He is also very self-assured in driving the show and has a great sense of what is required."

For the good-looking 29-year-old, the hop from cable to network TV is scary. "In a way [it's] like when you go to the Ekka [the Royal Queensland Show] in Brisbane and the dodgy ride operator asks if you've been on this ride before and you go, 'Nope,' and he goes, 'You're in trouble.'"

Already the Scrabble fanatic and snowboarder is noticing the recognition factor - "but it's cool," he says. So, too, is big-budget network television. "Wardrobe bought me a [Ben] Sherman shirt," he almost squeals over his black coffee (a strict vegetarian, he doesn't eat meat, fish or dairy) at the Sydney beachside home of co-host Mathison. "It's beautiful - it cost $260," he says, adding in a whisper, "We actually bought two!"

The younger son of Brisbane doctors Michael, 59, and Ruth, 63, he left St Joseph's College in Brisbane in 1991 and tired to get into the University of Southern Queensland's drama course but, at more than 100kg, was told he was too fat to be an actor. Crushed, he spent time on the dole, took up running and dropped 30kg and in 1994, after a string of odd jobs, landed a job at local radio station B105. His music knowledge and ability to chat to anyone got him on air, then onto SAFM in Adelaide, where he lived for five months before moving to Sydney in April 1999.

Single after splitting nine months ago from his girlfriend of seven years ("She is still my best friend - I owe everything to her"), he is happy to stay on Channel V, "until I become old and irrelevant." And if that ever happens? "I'll just become a snowboard instructor in New Zealand," he says. "Always have a plan B."

Sounds like another top tip.

JAMES MATHISON

"Our job is to guide people through the whole selection process," says James Mathison, cheekily launching into Australian Idol host mode with a pretend entrant. "Here's Felicity with 'Endless Love,'" he says, grinning. "Nice work there, Felicity. So have you had your hopes and dreams shattered so intensely before or is this the first time?"

But seriously, folks, Mathison can relate to the agony of auditions - to an extent. Three years ago he was plucked from a cattle call of 2,800 hopefuls vying for a Channel V job. "I'd gone that morning to the first audition because I had nothing else to do," says the single 25-year-old. "I rocked p and there were people with scripts who were all prettied up and I thought, 'What am I doing here?'" After a week fo work experience, he was hired, and on hearing the news, "I screamed like a schoolgirl," he says. "We all knew that James would just find his own way," says his sister Julia, a lawyer. "And I don't think we ever thought it would be a conventional path."

When he graduated as school captain from St Augustine's College on Sydney's northern beaches, "The only uni course I had high enough marks to get into was sheep husbandry and wool technology at Orange Agricultural College," says Mathison, the only son (he has five sisters) of civil engineer Colin and secretary Kathy, both 60. "It didn't hold a lot of appeal." After an "amazing and terrifying" year on student exchange in Ecuador and a stint in the returns department for the Innovations mail-order catalogue, Mathison was working nights at a service station and days in technical support for Dell computers when he spied an advertisement for The $20 Challenge, a Network Ten reality show that tracked four backpackers surviving three days on $US20. Sent to London, "I was just trying to get fed and find a room," says the eventual runner up. "It became secondary that a camera was there." With a newfound ease in front of the lend, he auditioned for the Channel V job four days after his return.

A highlight? Interviewing the Rolling Stones in Chicago. "Keith Richards was everything I wanted him to be, and more," he says. "Chain smoking the whole time and drinking vodka and Sunkist while he was telling the most candid stories... I could have come back and told them, 'Thanks for having me, but I can retire now.'"

Not so fast. "James puts a twist on things that is great," says Idol's executive producer, Stephen Tate. "He has excellent comic timing." And karmic timing, too. "I've just nodded and smiled a lot and told a few interesting anecdotes that are vaguely witty and things have just kept rolling my way," marvels Mathison. "I think to start thinking about what I want to do next might screw up the system. Why mess with it?