''Fame Story'' is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

reality TV Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 199 ...

show that was a licensed version of

Endemol Endemol B.V. (stylized in all lowercase) was a Dutch-based media company that produced and distributed multiplatform entertainment content. The company annually produced more than 15,000 hours of programming across scripted and non-scripted gen ...

's ''

Star Academy ''Star Academy'' is a Dutch-developed reality television talent show format that first aired in the Netherlands as '':nl:Starmaker (televisieprogramma), Star Maker''. Format There are many versions of the show, each country having its own sl ...

'' originally broadcast on the

ANT1 Antenna, better known as ANT1, is a free-to-air television network airing in Greece. The alternate spelling is wordplay in Greek; ''ena'' (ένα) is the Greek number ''1'' (one), thus ''ANT1'' is pronounced the same as ''Antenna'' (Αντένν ...

network. It has been one of the most successful Greek television shows and is credited for having helped foster the careers of some of the show's contestants, which have gone on to produce chart topping hits in the Greek market. The contestants gave a weekly performance in a 2½–3 hour episode in which the contestants were judged and where one contestant was voted off after a week-long televote. On the other 6 days of the week, the best footage of the day was compiled in a late night episode from inside the academy's studios and from the adjacent house where the contestants lived for their entire stay on the show inclusively. The show's seasons ran for 3½ months, except for season three which ran for 6½ months. The show is one of few ''Star Academy'' franchises, along with the UK's ''

Fame Academy ''Fame Academy'' was a British television talent competition to search for and educate new musical talents. The winner would receive a chance to become a successful music artist and part of the international franchise ''Star Academy'' known un ...

'', to feature the iconic song " Fame" originally performed by

Irene Cara Irene Cara Escalera (March 18, 1959 – November 25, 2022) was an American singer and actress who rose to prominence for her role as Coco Hernandez in the 1980 musical film '' Fame'', and for recording the film's title song " Fame", which reach ...

in the 1980 film of the same name. However ANT1 later commissioned popular songwriter

Phoebus Apollo is one of the Olympian deities in ancient Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, ...

to write the original song titled "You can be a star", and the famous Cara song was used in TV spots and montages instead. ANT1 premiered ''

The X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for '' Pop Idol'' (2001–200 ...

'' in its Fall 2008 lineup, thus switching to competitor

FremantleMedia Fremantle Limited (), formerly FremantleMedia, is a British multinational television production and distribution company based in London. The company was founded as Pearson Television in 1993 when publishing and education company Pearson ...

's ''

'' franchise. Ιn March 17, 2017, a spin-off show titled ''

'' premiered on E Channel. The judges were

Anna Vissi Anna Vissi (, , ; born 20 December 1957) is a Greek Cypriot singer. She studied music at conservatories and performed locally before moving to the professional scene in Athens, in 1973, where she signed with Minos EMI#Merger with Minos Matsas ...

, Nikos Mouratides, Petros Kostopoulos and

Natalia Germanou Natalia Germanou (; born 22 June 1965) is a Greek songwriter, television hostess, radio producer and journalist. Germanou has written lyrics for many popular singers such as Anna Vissi, Despina Vandi, Mihalis Hatzigiannis, Notis Sfakianakis, ...

, and the host was Menios Fourthiotis. This was the least commercially successful season and a critical failure, receiving negative reviews and an audience share of just 1%. TV presenter and producer Nikos Koklonis announced that the show would come back in September 2023 on

Star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

and CyBC. The winner of the fifth season will earn a €50,000 prize, will be signed to the label Panik Records, and was originally intended to be chosen to represent at the 68th edition of the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

. Placed under review after Greek national broadcaster ERT raised objections to Star having the right to air the event in Greece, the

EBU The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

reportedly expanded the official rules regarding the organization and production of national selections, effectively barring the use of the format as a national final. This was ultimately confirmed by Star. The show was then moved from CyBC to Omega TV, as for other Star programs broadcast in Cyprus. It began airing on 30 September 2023. The four new judges are

Antonis Remos Antonis Remos (, ; born Antonios Paschalidis, ; 19 June 1970) is a Greek singer. Biography Early life He was born in Düsseldorf, West Germany. Later his family moved back to their native Thessaloniki, Greece, where he finished school. During h ...

Eleni Foureira Eleni Foureira (; born Entela Fureraj, ; 7 March 1987) is an Albanian-born Greek singer. She began her music career in 2007 as a member of the Greek girl group Mystique, pursuing a solo career after the group disbanded in 2009. She has released ...

, Giorgos Arsenakos and Light.

Series overview

As ''Fame Story''

As ''Star Academy''

Cast

Hosts

Color key: : – Hosts : – Hosts (Replacement)

Judges

Color key: : – Judges : – Judges (Replacement)

Contestants

Series 1

# Since Live Concert 7 # Since Live Concert 8

Series 2

# Since Live Concert 6 # Since Live Concert 7

Series 3

# Since Live Concert 6 # Since Live Concert 13 # Since Live Concert 17

Series 4

Series 5

16 contestants were selected for the fifth season, with one elimination in each weekly show. # Since Live Concert 5

References

External links

* * {{Star Academy ANT1 original programming 2002 Greek television series debuts 2006 Greek television series endings Greek reality television series Star Academy