The race to find the very first Nigerian Idol is now on. Last week, the Idol train made their first trip to Enugu to begin the search for talents. The attendance in Coal City was impressive and the contestants, as expected, varied from the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

“Are you a Christian? Do you speak in tongues? I think you just did” was judge Audu Maikori’s curt assessment of a less than impressive contestant.

However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom, gems were discovered in the Coal City as the judges, comprising seasoned singer/songwriter Yinka Davies, Chocolate City CEO Audu Maikori and Jeffrey Daniels (one-time choreographer for Michael Jackson) continued to dig. “I am dying to see your future as a solo act”, gushed judge Jeffrey, as he gave out the first golden ticket of the day.

The Idol train moves to Abuja this weekend for the second round of auditions to be held at Nicon Luxury. After Abuja, the next set of auditions will hold at Cultural Centre, Calabar on October 22 and October 23, before the train journeys back to Lagos on October 29, 30 and 31 at D Box Studios, Omole.

When the show eventually airs on HiTV, host Misi, an OAP with a Lagos based radio station, will take viewers through the auditions stage all the way to finals. Nigezie presenter, Anis Holloway, will be co-hosting the show with Misi. The inaugural Nigerian Idol will run on TV from November 2010 to March 2011.

Even though producers are yet to disclose the number of people selected from the Enugu auditions, they assured us that from October 15, 2010, fans of the franchise show will be able to watch behind the scene episodes on a designated channel on HiTV.