FanBoy's Blog
High School Musical: The Series

ABC announced their Summer schedule and it looks like they are finally joining the Disney Channel bandwagon by announcing High School Musical: Summer Session.  Here is what the press release says:

The multi-episode competition reality series will hold unique nationwide casting sessions that will appear in the show, with plenty of surprises from global sensation “Disney’s High School Musical.” This much-anticipated series brings the phenomenally successful “High School Musical” experience to life. The casting scouts welcome anyone and everyone ages 16-22 who has dreamed of being center stage -- the high school quarterback who’s never tried out for a play but has a song in his heart, the drama club extrovert looking to break into the big time, someone looking to trade the chess club routine for a dance routine -- all are invited to “Get’cha head in the game,” as the hit song says! The finalists will ultimately participate in a summer music program to hone their skills. After eliminations, the winner will be given the opportunity of a lifetime, but details of the grand prize are still under wraps.

The series premieres on Sunday, July 20, and will air Sunday and Monday nights at 8:00 p.m. for three weeks, and then continue on Mondays at 8:00 p.m. through the end of the summer. “High School Musical: Summer Session” is executive-produced by Jay Blumenfeld and Tony Marsh (both of “Here Come the Newlyweds”) of “The Jay and Tony Show.” Hosts and judges will be announced at a later date.

Disney Channel’s “High School Musical” has been seen by over 250 million viewers and the sequel, “High School Musical 2,” has been seen by over 195 million viewers in 24 languages around the world. The movies spawned stage productions at schools and in professional theatres around the world, multi-platinum CDs, DVDs and books, a successful consumer products franchise at mass retailers, a themed show at Disneyland Parks in Anaheim, Orlando and Paris, a sold-out 42 date arena concert tour in North America and Latin America and a popular touring ice show around the world.

 It's about time ABC tried to capture a little bit of that special Disney Channel magic.  Hopefully this hot franchise can bring some life to ABC which has done terrible during the summer recently.  Set your Tivos now.

I also want to recognize the following Disney properites for winning Kids Choice Awards:

• Animated Movie- Ratatouille
• Female Singer- Miley Cyrus
• Music Group- Jonas  Brothers
• TV Actress- Miley Cyrus

I want to thank Nick for recognizing franchises that were not their own.  This kind of makes up for trying to compete with Disney by greenlighting production of a musical, called Spectacular.  I don't mind the competition, because I have no doubt Disney will always create a better product than Nickelodeon.

Hope everyone enjoyed Spring Break.  I'll see you tomorrow!