| Popstars | |
|---|---|
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| Genre | Reality competition |
| Presented by | Davina McCall (finale) |
| Judges | Nigel Lythgoe Nicki Chapman Paul Adam |
| Narrated by | Daniel Hill |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60–120 minutes (inc. adverts) |
| Production company | LWT |
| Original release | |
| Network | ITV |
| Release | 10 January – 18 March 2001 |
| Related | |
| Soapstars Popstars: The Rivals | |
| Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) | |
Popstars is a reality music competition series that was broadcast on ITV in early 2001. It was the first British series of the international Popstars franchise and was billed as a documentary on the formation of a modern pop group. The programme began with audition rounds of aspiring singers performing covers of classic songs before a panel of judges. The best performers were selected to come to London for further rounds of auditions. Over the weeks, the judges eliminated various singers from the auditions until just a few singers were left in contention. In the final weeks, five contestants were chosen by the judges to form the new pop group Hear'Say. The programme then showed the group recording and promoting their first single, documenting their first ventures into the music industry.
The first series of Popstars proved popular with audiences, and a second series (named Popstars: The Rivals) followed in late 2002, but used a vastly different format, heavily influenced by Pop Idol, which had aired in the interim, to even greater success. Another follow-up (aired prior to The Rivals), Soapstars, used the original Popstars format to find actors for a new family in ITV's hit soap Emmerdale, but neither the show, nor the winners' roles in Emmerdale, were deemed a success.