MUMBAI: Star World's American Idol returns to Star World now in its fourth season. The talent show is scheduled to air on 19 January at prime time 8 pm.

The latest edition of American Idol 4 aims at being captivating with some surprising changes to the format of the show. A few established pop stars and rock veterans will join the three judges during the US nationwide auditions.

LL Cool J, Brandy, Kenny Loggins, Sugar Ray front man Mark McGrath and Kiss’ Gene Simmons will guest judge when American Idol goes on cattle calls around the US, touring Cleveland, St. Louis, Washington D.C., New Orleans, Orlando, Las Vegas and San Francisco.

The new format also sees the number of semi-finalists reduced to 24 (eight fewer than previous seasons’), who are then split into two groups by gender.

During each week of the semi-final round, there will be two performance shows for the two groups respectively, followed by one voting results show – eliminating the bottom two contestants from each group.

Thereby the final will be made up of six male and six female contestants all vying for the honour of the next American Idol.