The Glee Project

The Glee Project
Format	Interactive reality talent show
Created by	Ryan Murphy
Presented by	Robert Ulrich
Judges	Ryan Murphy Robert Ulrich Zach Woodlee Nikki Anders Ian Brennan
Narrated by	Ian Brennan
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	13 (plus 2 specials)
Production
Executive producers	Michael Davies Shauna Minoprio Ryan Murphy Dante Di Loreto
Producer	Ryan Murphy
Location	Los Angeles
Running time	44 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Oxygen
Original run	June 12, 2011 – present
Other
Related shows	Glee
Website	The Glee Project

The Glee Project is an American reality television series from Oxygen. It serves as an audition for the Fox TV series Glee, and the prize for the winner is a seven-episode arc in the following season of the show. The first season of The Glee Project premiered in the US on June 12, 2011 and concluded on August 21, 2011. In Canada, the series began airing on Slice on June 26, 2011, and in the UK, the series began airing on Sky One on July 14, 2011.

Glee executive producers Ryan Murphy and Dante Di Loreto are executive producers for The Glee Project. Glee's casting director, Robert Ulrich, is casting director for the project.

Contest Process

Each episode of The Glee Project is given an overall theme and covers events that have taken place in about the time span of a week.

Homework assignment

Contestants are given a "homework assignment" that entails learning and practicing segments of a chosen song. At the beginning of each episode, contestants perform their respective parts of the song in front of a mystery guest judge from the Glee cast. The contestant that completes the homework best is given a one-on-one session with the guest star and a principal part in the music video.

Music video (group performance)

Contestants then create a music video "inspired by the performances on Glee". In preparation for the music video, contestants record parts of a song in a professional studio with vocal producer Nikki (née Hassman) Anders. They also learn choreography from Zach Woodlee and/or Brooke Lipton, his assistant. The entire process is overseen by Glee's casting director Robert Ulrich.

Callbacks

During callbacks, the bottom three are revealed. They are critiqued by Robert Ulrich and Zach Woodlee (in Ep. 8 of the first season replaced by Nikki Anders, who would also join the critiques in the second season) about their performances. They are then assigned a song that they will perform in hopes of being "saved".

Last chance recital

The bottom three of the week perform their assigned songs in front of Ryan Murphy himself. With input from Woodlee, Ulrich, and Anders (in the second season) a decision is made and one of the bottom three is eliminated.

Final callbacks

Unlike most reality competition shows, contestants are not directly informed of their elimination. Rather, the bottom three are notified when "the list is up" and discover their fate as they find their name on the list. Following the final callbacks, the eliminated contestant sings lead vocals in "Keep Holding On" by Avril Lavigne with the remaining contestants singing the background vocals.

Season One

Although originally planned to begin broadcasting in late May 2011, The Glee Project premiered on June 12, 2011, and aired a two-hour extended premiere where the first hour showed the audition process and selection of the twelve contenders, and the second hour was the first episode of the series. The Canadian and UK premieres were also in the same two-hour extended format: in Canada, the series began airing on Slice on June 26, 2011, and in the UK, the series began airing on Sky One on July 14, 2011.

Damian McGinty and Samuel Larsen were both proclaimed the winners of the first season, each winning a seven-episode arc. Runners-up Lindsay Pearce and Alex Newell were given prizes of a two-episode arc on Glee, and Cameron Mitchell, who quit the competition in episode 7, won the "fan favorite" competition and the associated $10,000 prize.

Season Two

Casting for a second season was announced after the first season finale. The season pickup was confirmed on January 17, 2012, at which time it was stated that the second season would feature fourteen contestants, an increase of two from the twelve in the first season. On January 21, 2012, Lea Michele revealed that she would be the guest mentor for the season premiere. Other guest mentors will include season 1 co-winner Samuel Larsen (Joe Hart), Cory Monteith (Finn Hudson), Naya Rivera (Santana Lopez), Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester), Amber Riley (Mercedes Jones), Chris Colfer (Kurt Hummel) and returning season 1 mentors Darren Criss (Blaine Anderson) and Kevin McHale (Artie Abrams).

The second season premiered in the US on June 5, 2012, and will run for eleven weeks.

International syndication

Country / Region	Channel	First aired
Australia	Eleven (season 1)	July 15, 2011
	Network Ten (season 2)	June 16, 2012 (except VIC)
Brazil	Fox Brasil	June 26, 2011
Canada	Slice Global	June 26, 2011
France	W9]	February 29, 2012 (canceled after episode 2)
Japan	Skachan Fox Japan	June 29, 2011 September 25, 2011
New Zealand	FOUR	August 8, 2011
Philippines	ETC, Jack TV	June 13, 2011
	STAR World	October 17, 2011
Portugal	Fox Life	November 25, 2011
Southeast Asia: Hong Kong Indonesia Malaysia Myanmar Singapore Republic of China Thailand Vietnam	STAR World	August 15, 2011
Turkey	Fox Life	December 12, 2011
United Kingdom	Sky1 PickTV	July 13, 2011
USA (original run)	Oxygen	June 12, 2011

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