Is Popstars set to return to our screens?

WITH Australian Idol set to be unlocked from the television vault comes news Popstars may also be exhumed for a return to our TV screens.

Bardot

WITH Australian Idol set to be unlocked from the television vault comes news Popstars may also be exhumed for a return to our TV screens.

In his regular spot on the Kyle and Jackie O radio show this morning, former Big Brother contestant turned showbiz commentator Peter Timbs set his sights on Kyle Sandiland's TV career.

When Timbs asked Sandilands whether he would be part of the line-up for any upcoming reality shows, the broadcaster was upbeat.

"Popstars has been mentioned,  but a different version of it," Sandilands told his listeners.

"Popstars was the first of them all, before Idol, before all of these things."

It was Popstars back in 2000, which featured Jackie O as a judge, that spawned the band Bardot which featured Sophie Monk, Belinda Chapple and Tiffani Wood.

It was also Popstars that produced Scandal'Us, that featured Tamara Jaber, who went on to become Mrs Sandilands.

But network execs have said the 'shiny floor quota' of TV shows is full. (Shiny floor are big budget entertainment and talent series.)

“Nine has The Voice and AGT,  Seven has The X Factor, Dancing with the Stars and Celebrity Splash and Ten, potentially, has Idol again,’’ said the network source.

"I don't know where Popstars could really fit in unless it went to subscription TV, of course," said the source.

But that is not happening, according to Foxtel's Director of Television Brian Walsh.

"No, not Foxtel," he assured news.com.au.

Meanwhile Australian Idol, which produced names like Guy Sebastian, Jessica Mauboy, Shannon Noll and Ricki-Lee Coulter, looks set to return, four years after it was packed away.

Ten's chief programming officer Bev McGarvey said a return to Idol was being contemplated: "Like all networks, we're always looking at new options and shows," she recently said.  "Australian Idol is a consideration, as are many, many other things, but it would be wrong to say it will definitely return to Ten."

So is Kyle - both derided and admired in equal parts - being considered as a judge on any of these series?

"I have had . . . not me personally but my representation has had conversations for some of these shows," Kyle told his 2DayFm audience.

Would he be part of the Nine Network's version of Australia's Got Talent, the show where he judged alongside Brian McFadden and Dannii Minogue?

"I like to read in the paper that me and Brian McFadden won't be doing it but I wouldn’t be ruling it out," he said.

And what about Australian Idol? "It has been mentioned," he told his listeners.

Time will only tell...

Bardot