Instant Star
Genre	Teen drama/Comedy
Created by	Linda Schuyler
Starring	Alexz Johnson Tim Rozon Laura Vandervoort Kristopher Turner Simon Reynolds Mark Taylor Tyler Kyte Wes Williams
Narrated by	Alexz Johnson
Theme music composer	Jody Colero, Jim McGrath & Stephen Stohn
Country of origin	Canada
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	52 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Stephen Stohn
Producer(s)	Stephen Stohn
Location(s)	Toronto, Ontario
Running time	30 minutes (with commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel	CTV (Canada), The N (United States)
Original run	September 15, 2004 – June 26, 2008
External links
Official website

Instant Star was a Gemini Award-winning Canadian television program starring Alexz Johnson as adolescent music competition winner Jude Harrison. After its release, the program's popularity rose amongst teenagers, particularly in Canada and The United States. The show chronicles Harrison's experience in the recording industry whilst focusing upon character development.

Linda Schuyler and Stephen Stohn of Epitome Pictures produce the show. The program began to air on CTV in Canada prior to being picked up by Viacom-owned teen network channel The N in the United States. The show became the second most popular program on The N with Degrassi: The Next Generation, a Canadian show also produced by Schuyler and Stohn, ranking as most popular.

In 2005, after its first season, Instant Star was nominated for three Gemini Awards in the category of Best Children's or Youth Fiction Program or Series. Nominations included: (1) Best Series; (2) Best Performance (Jude Harrison); and (3) Best Direction (Graeme Campbell). The show won the award for Best Direction for the episode You Can't Always Get What You Want.^[1]

On August 28, 2007, the show received three more Gemini Award nominations, in the category of Best Children's or Youth Program or series. Alexz Johnson has again been nominated for Best Performance (for the episode, "I Fought the Law"); and there are two more nominations for Best Direction - Graeme Campbell (for "I Fought the Law"), and Pat Williams (for "Personality Crisis").

Four seasons of the show (each with 13 episodes) were produced. CTV and The N both pulled funding following the fourth season and the execs chose to end the show. The show was supposed to conclude in the 5th season. Upset fans started a petition.^[2] The 4th and final season of the show concluded on June 26, 2008.

Contents 1 Series plot 2 Episodes 3 Music 4 Broadcasters 5 DVD releases 6 References 7 External links 7.1 Official websites

[edit] Series plot

In each episode of the show, Jude Harrison must deal with the problems and challenges of both her musical career and her personal life, as one weaves into the other. She also faces dilemmas and choices in her relationships, dividing her feelings between the loves in her life, such as Tommy Q., Jamie, Spiederman, and Shay, while also recording with G-Major Records. These people are important to her music - the one thread that ties her life together. Her best moments are when she is working with others in creating and performing her music. In addition to her music and her loves, there is much else going on in her personal life and in the lives of those around her.

[edit] Episodes

[edit] Music

Each episode of the series features a new song performed by Alexz Johnson. Usually, the song is about something that occurs in the episode, however, in some episodes there is no direct explanation to the lyrics. Some episodes can feature more than one song, but there is only one song per episode that is to be featured on the soundtrack for that season. For instance, there are 13 episodes per season, which means there are 13 main songs. One of the songs, "Perfect" was written by Canadian synth pop artists Lights.

Alexz Johnson has done the vocals on both soundtracks, while even co-writing some of the songs with her brother Brendan. For the third and fourth soundtracks, it has been mentioned that Alexz will not be featured for all of the songs on the CDs, because of the release of her upcoming debut album.

Just before the broadcast of the second season on The N, viewers had a chance to see Alexz Johnson in concert in a show called "Instant Star: Backstage Pass", singing two of the songs from each season of the show, accompanied by her band from the show, Spiederman Mind Explosion.

[edit] Broadcasters

Instant Star was broadcast in over 120 countries.

Coverage

Country	Broadcaster
Australia	Nickelodeon
Austria	ORF
Belgium	Ketnet
Brazil	Multishow
Bosnia and Herzegovina	FTV
Bulgaria	NovaTV
Canada	CTV
	MuchMusic
Estonia	TV3
Finland	Sub
France	FillesTV
	Virgin 17
Germany	VIVA
Hungary	Viasat3
Israel	Arutz HaYeladim
Italy	Italia 1
Latvia	TV3
Lithuania	Tango TV
Malaysia	8TV
Mexico	MTV Latin America (Formerly)
Morocco	2M TV
New Zealand	TV2
Norway	TVNorge
Peru	MTV Latin America
Poland	ZigZap
Portugal	MTV Portugal
Russia	MTV Russia
South Africa	GO
Spain	MTV Spain, 8Neox
Sweden:	TV2
USA:	The N
Venezuela	Televen

[edit] DVD releases

The first two seasons of the series has been released on DVD, Season 1 on May 22, 2007 and Season 2 on December 4, 2007. In The US, a combination of the first two seasons was released on June 2, 2009^[3]. The third season will be released on January 19, 2010^[4], with the last season planned for a March 2010^[5] release.

DVD releases

Season	Release date
1	May 22, 2007
2	December 4, 2007
1&2[3]	June 2, 2009
3	January 19, 2010
4	March, 2010

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Instant Star at the Internet Movie Database
• Instant Star at TV.com

[edit] Official websites

• Official website (CTV)
• Episodes Online (Canada only)
• The N's Instant Star show page