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AboutStar Search is an American television show that was produced from 1983–95, hosted by Ed McMahon, and created by Alfred Masini. A relaunch was produced in 2003–04. The show was originally filmed at the old Earl Carroll Theatre (now known as Nickelodeon on Sunset), at 6230 Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood and later at the Disney Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida.
1983-1995 version
Eight categories are contested per show. Potential contestants audition to be on the show. If selected, they will compete. In each category, two people compete, a champion and a challenger. Usually the challenger performs first, while the champion performs second. In later seasons, the champion performs first.
All acts are judged by a panel of four judges, each judge can award an act from one to four stars (later changed to five stars). Once both acts are complete, Ed reveals the scores, best average wins. If there is a tie, a studio audience vote breaks the tie in which the results are revealed at the end of the show.
Any performer must win at least several shows in a row, depending on the number of shows left in the season, to earn an entry into the next round of the competition; usually this was three or four wins in a row. In later seasons, three match winners were automatically retired. In this case, two new performers compete in that category the following week.
In most seasons, two semifinal shows took place, one in the fall, the other in the spring, prior to the championship show. Each semifinal uses five judges. No scoring is used, and the judges' votes aren't revealed, but the acts that win their semifinals then compete in the championship show.
On the championship show, winners of Male Vocalist, Female Vocalist, Vocal Group, Comedy, and Dance, are awarded $100,000 but unlike American Idol, no record contract was guaranteed. Many Star Search winners from the early seasons secured recording contracts within a few weeks of the end of the competition – first season vocal group winner Sawyer Brown, first season male vocalist champion Sam Harris and second season male vocalist champion Durell Coleman were the first three, and were later followed by second season vocal group winner Limited Warranty, third season female vocalist champion Linda Eder, second season junior male vocalist champion Jimmy Salvemini, whose album was produced by Luther Vandross, fourth season male vocalist champion David Slater, and first season (1985) junior female vocalist runner-up Tiffany. Despite not winning her competition (she lost to Melissa Moultree), Tiffany, performing on Star Search as 'Tiffany Renee', was the first Star Search alumna(-us) to land a #1 hit, with her cover of the Top 5 Tommy James & the Shondells' hit "I Think We're Alone Now" — actually improving on the original single's chart performance. The winner of the Spokesmodel category is awarded $100,000 and a contract with a well-known modeling agency. The first Spokesmodel winner was Tracey Ross, who later became a leading actress on the soap opera Passions. Winners of Junior Vocalist, Junior Dance, Teen Vocalist, and Teen Dance win $10,000. The youngest person to ever win that category was 5-year-old Kata Hay, then Kata Huddleston.
In early seasons, before the three match limit rule was adopted, the grand champions were determined by how long a champion held their title. While it is believed that Sam Harris holds the record for longest championship, at 14 weeks in Season 1, Harris was actually defeated by singer Beau Williams on Harris' 14th attempt. This record is actually held by singer Durell Coleman (1985), who won the $100,000 on Season 2 with 15 wins and no defeats.
2003-2004 version
In the wake of American Idol's success, Arsenio Hall hosted a new version of Star Search, which ran for two years: 2003 and 2004 on CBS, before ending up in reruns on cable channel GSN for one year from 2004 to 2005. This new version was judged by four panelists, including Ben Stein, Naomi Judd, Ahmet Zappa and a rotating celebrity panelist (which in at least one case was McMahon himself). Among the winners were singer Tiffany Evans, comedian John Roy and singer Mark Mejia.
The revival consisted of four series. For the first series, the categories were Adult and Junior Singer, Comedy, and Modeling. In series two and three, Modeling was replaced with Dance. In the final series, the Comedy category was scrapped altogether and only the singing and dancing categories remained.
For the first three series, two new competitors faced off. The three house judges, along with the one celebrity judge, gave each contestant a score on a scale from 1 to 5 stars, making a maximum studio score 20 stars. During each commercial break, the home audience went to www.cbs.com/star to rate the competitors who just performed. Each performer could earn up to another 20 stars from the home audience. In the climactic moment before the score from the home audience was revealed, Hall would often say, "Hit me with the digits!".
When the scores were tallied, the higher scoring performer won. If the score was tied, then Hall would read off each performer's score rounded to the nearest hundredth (the at home score was initially rounded down to the nearest star, unless there was a tie). That performer would then go on to the next round of competition. The only real exception to this format during the first three series was that three people competed in the semi-final rounds, not two. After the first two series, a special, "Battle of the Best" show took place, where the two Adult Singer, Junior Singer, and Comedian Grand Champions (Modeling was only the first season, and Dance had only been around for one season) were brought back to face off for an additional $100,000.
For the fourth and final series, three contestants in Adult Singer, Junior Singer, and Dance were brought back to initially compete (Comedy was dropped, jokingly because Naomi gave many comics only one star). The three brought back in each category were not necessarily the Grand Champions of their series. The show scrapped the celebrity judge and had three house judges for the entire series: Naomi Judd, MC Lyte and Matti Leshem.
As in past series, two new contestants competed. With only three judges, 15 stars was possible, and ties were broken by a majority vote between the three. This is where the former contestants came in. Initially, in each category, these three performers made up the "Winner's Circle". The winning challenger then had the chance to challenge one of the three performers in his or her respective winner's circle. The winner's circle performer then had to beat or tie the bar set by the challenger- ties were automatically given to the Winner's Circle performer. If they couldn't beat the score, they were out of the competition, and the challenger took his or her place in the Winner's Circle.
Halfway through the series, the three performers in each Winner's Circle competed against each other in a special show. The winner in each category not only received a trip home, but a free pass to the final show. From then on, there were only two people who could be challenged in each Winner's Circle. In the final show, the three people in each Winner's Circle competed against each other for $100,000. This, along with the Free Pass show, were the only two shows which re-adopted the at-home voting concept.
This remake lasted two years before its cancellation in April 2004.
At the same time, a spin-off called Star Search – Das Duell der Stars von Morgen was produced and aired in Germany, but with less success than the more popular show Deutschland sucht den Superstar, the German version of the Idol series.
1983-1995 version
Eight categories are contested per show. Potential contestants audition to be on the show. If selected, they will compete. In each category, two people compete, a champion and a challenger. Usually the challenger performs first, while the champion performs second. In later seasons, the champion performs first.
All acts are judged by a panel of four judges, each judge can award an act from one to four stars (later changed to five stars). Once both acts are complete, Ed reveals the scores, best average wins. If there is a tie, a studio audience vote breaks the tie in which the results are revealed at the end of the show.
Any performer must win at least several shows in a row, depending on the number of shows left in the season, to earn an entry into the next round of the competition; usually this was three or four wins in a row. In later seasons, three match winners were automatically retired. In this case, two new performers compete in that category the following week.
In most seasons, two semifinal shows took place, one in the fall, the other in the spring, prior to the championship show. Each semifinal uses five judges. No scoring is used, and the judges' votes aren't revealed, but the acts that win their semifinals then compete in the championship show.
On the championship show, winners of Male Vocalist, Female Vocalist, Vocal Group, Comedy, and Dance, are awarded $100,000 but unlike American Idol, no record contract was guaranteed. Many Star Search winners from the early seasons secured recording contracts within a few weeks of the end of the competition – first season vocal group winner Sawyer Brown, first season male vocalist champion Sam Harris and second season male vocalist champion Durell Coleman were the first three, and were later followed by second season vocal group winner Limited Warranty, third season female vocalist champion Linda Eder, second season junior male vocalist champion Jimmy Salvemini, whose album was produced by Luther Vandross, fourth season male vocalist champion David Slater, and first season (1985) junior female vocalist runner-up Tiffany. Despite not winning her competition (she lost to Melissa Moultree), Tiffany, performing on Star Search as 'Tiffany Renee', was the first Star Search alumna(-us) to land a #1 hit, with her cover of the Top 5 Tommy James & the Shondells' hit "I Think We're Alone Now" — actually improving on the original single's chart performance. The winner of the Spokesmodel category is awarded $100,000 and a contract with a well-known modeling agency. The first Spokesmodel winner was Tracey Ross, who later became a leading actress on the soap opera Passions. Winners of Junior Vocalist, Junior Dance, Teen Vocalist, and Teen Dance win $10,000. The youngest person to ever win that category was 5-year-old Kata Hay, then Kata Huddleston.
In early seasons, before the three match limit rule was adopted, the grand champions were determined by how long a champion held their title. While it is believed that Sam Harris holds the record for longest championship, at 14 weeks in Season 1, Harris was actually defeated by singer Beau Williams on Harris' 14th attempt. This record is actually held by singer Durell Coleman (1985), who won the $100,000 on Season 2 with 15 wins and no defeats.
2003-2004 version
In the wake of American Idol's success, Arsenio Hall hosted a new version of Star Search, which ran for two years: 2003 and 2004 on CBS, before ending up in reruns on cable channel GSN for one year from 2004 to 2005. This new version was judged by four panelists, including Ben Stein, Naomi Judd, Ahmet Zappa and a rotating celebrity panelist (which in at least one case was McMahon himself). Among the winners were singer Tiffany Evans, comedian John Roy and singer Mark Mejia.
The revival consisted of four series. For the first series, the categories were Adult and Junior Singer, Comedy, and Modeling. In series two and three, Modeling was replaced with Dance. In the final series, the Comedy category was scrapped altogether and only the singing and dancing categories remained.
For the first three series, two new competitors faced off. The three house judges, along with the one celebrity judge, gave each contestant a score on a scale from 1 to 5 stars, making a maximum studio score 20 stars. During each commercial break, the home audience went to www.cbs.com/star to rate the competitors who just performed. Each performer could earn up to another 20 stars from the home audience. In the climactic moment before the score from the home audience was revealed, Hall would often say, "Hit me with the digits!".
When the scores were tallied, the higher scoring performer won. If the score was tied, then Hall would read off each performer's score rounded to the nearest hundredth (the at home score was initially rounded down to the nearest star, unless there was a tie). That performer would then go on to the next round of competition. The only real exception to this format during the first three series was that three people competed in the semi-final rounds, not two. After the first two series, a special, "Battle of the Best" show took place, where the two Adult Singer, Junior Singer, and Comedian Grand Champions (Modeling was only the first season, and Dance had only been around for one season) were brought back to face off for an additional $100,000.
For the fourth and final series, three contestants in Adult Singer, Junior Singer, and Dance were brought back to initially compete (Comedy was dropped, jokingly because Naomi gave many comics only one star). The three brought back in each category were not necessarily the Grand Champions of their series. The show scrapped the celebrity judge and had three house judges for the entire series: Naomi Judd, MC Lyte and Matti Leshem.
As in past series, two new contestants competed. With only three judges, 15 stars was possible, and ties were broken by a majority vote between the three. This is where the former contestants came in. Initially, in each category, these three performers made up the "Winner's Circle". The winning challenger then had the chance to challenge one of the three performers in his or her respective winner's circle. The winner's circle performer then had to beat or tie the bar set by the challenger- ties were automatically given to the Winner's Circle performer. If they couldn't beat the score, they were out of the competition, and the challenger took his or her place in the Winner's Circle.
Halfway through the series, the three performers in each Winner's Circle competed against each other in a special show. The winner in each category not only received a trip home, but a free pass to the final show. From then on, there were only two people who could be challenged in each Winner's Circle. In the final show, the three people in each Winner's Circle competed against each other for $100,000. This, along with the Free Pass show, were the only two shows which re-adopted the at-home voting concept.
This remake lasted two years before its cancellation in April 2004.
At the same time, a spin-off called Star Search – Das Duell der Stars von Morgen was produced and aired in Germany, but with less success than the more popular show Deutschland sucht den Superstar, the German version of the Idol series.
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