OK, here's my idea for a new format. As I said earlier, I'd like repechage rounds. So I'm thinking of something like this:
24 contestants. 12 qualifying rounds, with two tracklistings competing in each round. The 12 winners qualify automatically for the main competition's heats. The 12 losers qualify for four quick-fire repechage rounds, with three tracklistings in each repechage. The winner of each repechage qualifies for the four remaining places in the main competition's heats.
The main competition then begins and it's sudden death. 16 contestants, thus 8 heats. Winners advance to the quarter finals, then semis, then grand final.
Thoughts? How long should each round be? Should the repechages all be held at once and try to get them straight out of the way, or just make them shorter than normal rounds but following each other consecutively? Could the repechages be done another way? We just need to maintain the pattern of 2 people in the grand final, 4 in the semis, 8 in the quarters.
Or does somebody have a completely different format they want to propose? I'm open to new ideas.