American Juniors


American Juniors is an American reality television singing competition series that was broadcast for one season from June 3 to August 19, 2003, on Fox. The series was a spin-off of American Idol, but with younger contestants, and had the same production team as American Idol: it was created by Simon Fuller and 19 Entertainment, along with FremantleMedia, and directed by Bruce Gowers, and produced by Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick.
However, unlike American Idol, the goal of the competition was not to find a single winner, but rather to create a singing group of five of the contestants. In this way, American Juniors more closely resembled the British series S Club Search, which had produced the group S Club Juniors.
The show spawned the singing group American Juniors, which disbanded in 2005 after their self-titled studio album's lackluster sales.
The show was filmed in Los Angeles, California.

Structure

Auditions (June 3 and 10)

Two thousand young people auditioned for the show. From there, a selected group of kids and their parents were flown out to Hollywood to participate in "Hollywood Week." During "Hollywood Week", several cuts took place, eliminating all but 20 of the young people who originally auditioned. These young people were shown on TV during 2 top-20 episodes, which each showcased 10 participants.

Live performances

For each top-20 episode, America voted for the 5 participants they wanted to see in the top-10. Once the top-10 was formed, people across the U.S. voted each week for the one contestant they wanted to put into the group. The results were aired the following evening with the next round beginning the following week. Taylor Thompson was the first contestant voted into the group. She was eventually followed by her younger sister, Tori Thompson, Chauncey Matthews, Lucy Hale, and Danielle White.

Top 20 Semi-Final 1: Contestant Choice (June 17 and 18)

;Results:
ContestantSong Result
Jordan McCoy"Stupid Cupid" Top 5
Lucy Hale"Get Here" Top 5
Quinton Caruthers"You Are the Sunshine of My Life" Eliminated
Lauren Klena"L-O-V-E" Eliminated
Chantel Kohl"Open Arms" Top 5
Brennan Hillard"That Thing You Do" Eliminated
Mercedes Ruiz"Can't Fight the Moonlight" Eliminated
Taylor Thompson"The Shoop Shoop Song " Top 5
Canyon Grove"You've Got a Friend" Eliminated
Tori Thompson"Let 'Er Rip" Top 5

;Results:
Advanced to Top 10 Finals: Tori Thompson, Taylor Thompson, Jordan McCoy, Lucy Hale, Chantel Kohl
ContestantSong Result
AJ Melendez"My Cherie Amour" Returned
Katelyn Tarver"I'll Never Fall in Love Again" Returned
Jordan McCoy"More Today Than Yesterday" Returned
Chantel Kohl"You've Made Me So Very Happy" Top 2
Chauncey Matthews"This Guy's in Love With You" Returned
Morgan Burke"Build Me Up Buttercup" Returned
Lucy Hale"I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" Returned
Tori Thompson"Bad Moon Rising" Top 3
Danielle White"Good Morning Starshine" Returned
Taylor Thompson"Proud Mary" 1st

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American Juniors became one of the highest-rated television shows of the summer season, with approximately 11.9 million viewers on June 3, though the numbers dropped 40% toward the end of July. Nonetheless, the producers were satisfied of the strong teen demographic. A second season was planned for fall 2003, later postponed to the summer after the third season of American Idol, then called off.

Following the show

The show led to the creation of the five-member group American Juniors. The group made a brief appearance on the December 2003 American Idol Christmas special, An American Idol Christmas. Their debut album American Juniors was released on October 26, 2004, after a year's delay from its original scheduled date.
The group American Juniors disbanded in 2005, after having received relatively little publicity.
Lucy Hale is currently by far the most successful contestant from American Juniors, having acted in a number of films and television shows, most notably the series Pretty Little Liars. She returned to her musical roots after a number of years in 2014 with the release of the country album Road Between for Disney Music Group's "Nashville" label.
In 2011, Tori and Taylor Thompson resurfaced on NBC's The Voice as a singing duo. They were selected and coached by Cee Lo Green but were voted off in the first live show.
Katelyn Tarver released a short-length album as well as her debut album Wonderful Crazy and her debut EP A Little More Free. She also got her big break in acting as Jo Taylor in Big Time Rush. In 2019, she appeared on NBC's Songland.
Jordan McCoy was signed to Diddy's label, Bad Boy Records, having only released demos. She was part of the revival of the defunct girl group, Dream, now called Lady Phoenix.
In 2020, Grace Leer auditioned for season 18 of American Idol. She made it to Hollywood after singing "Crowded Table" by The Highwomen. She eventually was eliminated at the Top 11.