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Soapstar Superstar
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Soapstar Superstar is a reality singing competition produced by Granada Television for series 1 and ITV Productions for series 2 which first aired on British television station ITV in 2006. In the competition, ten soap opera actors perform in front of a celebrity panel, which included Cilla Black, Billy Sammeth and Chris Cowey. The contestants are judged on their singing ability, in a format similar to Pop Idol and The X Factor.
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Encyclopedia
Soapstar Superstar is a reality singing competition produced by Granada Television for series 1 and ITV Productions for series 2 which first aired on British television station ITV in 2006. In the competition, ten soap opera actors perform in front of a celebrity panel, which included Cilla Black, Billy Sammeth and Chris Cowey. The contestants are judged on their singing ability, in a format similar to Pop Idol and The X Factor. However in this show, the audience decided which song contestants would sing in the next round. The two with the fewest votes were then put up for the public vote, and the one with the fewest votes from that round was eliminated from the competition. However, the eliminated contestant did get the honour of being part of the judging panel for that show and they got to save one contestant and decide which song they got to sing. Series one was presented by Fern Britton and Ben Shephard, with the ITV2 coverage presented by Jayne Middlemiss and Duncan James. The Voice Over was provided by Peter Dickson
The second season began on Friday 5 January 2007. Zoë Ball became the new host on ITV, with the ITV2 show being fronted by Mark Durden-Smith, Sheree Murphy and Rob Deering. Billy Sammeth and Chris Cowey returned as judges. However, Martine McCutcheon and Michael Ball replaced Cilla Black as judges. David Gest was also a guest judge for one episode. This was due to Michael Ball coaching the stars on how to sing songs from musicals. The Vocal Academy based in Manchester supplied the vocal coaching for the stars. The second season coaches were Joe, Jerone & Mandy.
On May 25, 2007, ITV confirmed that the show would not be returning for a third series in 2008, citing that it had reached "natural conclusion". It has therefore been axed.
Series 1
The actors who took part were:
Series 2
The actors who took part were:
Note: Leon Lopez was a replacement for Ben Freeman, who was banned by ITV because he'd been suspended from Emmerdale as he had a court case abroad, and so he was not in the country.
Trivia
- Each year the producers also sign up back-up soap stars to step in if any of the main soap stars have to pull out for any reason. These celebs have to prepare in the same way that the main ones do until the beginning of the competition. In the run-up to series 2, the back up celebs were Brookside's Leon Lopez, Hollyoaks's Kevin Sacre and EastEnders Carly Hillman with only Lopez being needed.
Controversy
On October 18, 2007, after an in-depth investigation of ITV phone-in shows by Deloitte, it was revealed that phone-in votes for songs and even votes for contestants to go through to the next round had been manipulated by the programme makers. This involved some 20% of the viewers' votes for songs being ignored, and Jane Danson and Tupele Dorgu being put up for eviction in the first episode when the bottom two contestants by votes were actually Verity Rushworth and Leon Lopez.
As a result, ITV1 aired an Ofcom summary of findings announcement just before the final of the second series of Britain's Got Talent on May 31, 2008. It was shown again on June 8, 2008 before that night's episode of Coronation Street.
International versions
The Polish edition of Soapstar Superstar, Jak Oni Spiewaja (How They Sing) aired from 3 March until 2 June 2007. It was won by Agnieszka Wlodarczyk (Weronika Potoczny from "Plebania"). The second season ran from 8 September until 15 December 2007. The winner was Joanna Liszowska (Dorota Lewkiewicz from "Na Dobre i Na Zle"). The third season aired from 8 March until 31 May 2008. It was won by Krzysztof Respondek (Michal Jelen from "Barwy Szczescia"). The fourth season ran from 6 September until 6 December 2008. It's winner was Artur Chamski (Patryk from "Na Wspólnej").
In Belgium, the third season of Steracteur Sterartiest is currently airing on één, all editions were hosted by Katja Retsin and Thomas Vanderveken.
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