Eighteen applications in two weeks, and the one gap they showed

Eighteen real applications arrived in about two weeks, from Ukraine, the USA, Nigeria, Germany and Ireland. Ages fourteen to eighteen, median sixteen. Eleven speak English fluently or natively. Thirteen attached a video of themselves speaking.

Twelve of the eighteen describe real stage or camera experience, which is more than we expected and changes the shape of the shortlist: the bench for co-host is deep, so the season can afford to cast for range rather than for the first person who can hold a sentence.

The gap is promotion. One applicant, basic English. A season nobody sees is a season that did not happen, so this is now the role we are actively recruiting for, and it is open to anyone 13 to 20 who already runs a page, a channel or a group chat that people actually read.

Five of the eighteen are under sixteen, which means guardian consent before anything is recorded. That is not a formality here, it is the difference between a platform that works with young people and one that uses them.