Almost 10 months after her run on Canadian Idol ended in the top 10, former Londoner Ashley Coulter is tuned to the 2007 edition of CTV's pop vocal contest.

"I can relate to their nervousness and I can see it in the competitors -- sensing that excitement," Coulter says from Toronto, where she moved recently.

Today's 90-minute episode at 8 p.m. includes Idol hopefuls who took their best shot at auditions at White Oaks Mall in March.

Last week, Coulter was one of about two million Canadian viewers who welcomed back Idol for its fifth season. The Season Five premiere episode peaked at 2.06 million viewers, finishing with 1.6 million.

"Taking it day by day is probably the best advice I can give," she says of the contenders who make it through the auditions.

Idol includes instrumentalists as well as singers this season.

Coulter took her bluesy voice and admiration for singers like Sheryl Crow and Patsy Cline all the way to No. 6, before losing out in the fan voting last year.

"It was an amazing ride . . . but it ends quickly."

Coulter, 24, is working at a Toronto music store on Queen Street and putting together a band.

"Working in music . . . chasing the dream."

The job at the store has already helped win her a spot in a Smarties ad. A photographer working on the advertisement met Coulter at the store.

"He didn't even know that I was on Canadian Idol," she says. "You will probably see me holding a Smarties box in print."

A few hundred London fans had a chance to meet-and-greet Coulter at Centennial Hall in March. She dropped by to visit 2006 Idol winner Eva Avila, whose tour played the venue.

Coulter still has ties to the London music scene. She has been dating Adam Thibert, a guitarist in London bluesman Chris Chown's band, for about five years. She often attends rehearsals.

The other leading London-region contender last year was Kati Durst of the Goderich-area community of Nile, who finished at No. 10.

In the first four seasons, the best finish by a London-region Idol has been third place. Aaron Walpole of Paynes Mills, near Talbotville, was No. 3 in 2005.