Stars in Their Eyes

This article is about the ITV television show. For the New Zealand version, see Stars in Their Eyes (New Zealand). For the Just Jack song, see Starz in Their Eyes.
Stars in Their Eyes
Genre Talent show
Created by Joop van den Ende
Henny Huisman
Presented by Leslie Crowther (1990–92)
Matthew Kelly (1993–2004)
Cat Deeley (2004–06)
Harry Hill (2015)
Voices of Peter Dickson
Sally Lindsay
Andrew Brittain
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 17 (main series)
4 (kids series)
No. of episodes 172 (main series)
33 (kids series) (list of episodes)
Production
Location(s) Granada Studios (1990–2006)
Elstree Studios (2015)
Running time 30 minutes (1990–93)
45 minutes (1994–2006)
65 minutes (2015)
Production company(s) Granada in association with J. E. Entertainment and Action Time (1990–2006)
Initial (2015)
Distributor ITV Studios
Endemol UK
Release
Original network ITV
Picture format 4:3 (1990–2000)
16:9 (2001–06, 2015)
Original release 21 July 1990 (1990-07-21) – 14 February 2015 (2015-02-14)
Chronology
Related shows Soundmixshow
Your Face Sounds Familiar
External links
Official website
Production website

Stars in Their Eyes is a British television talent show that originally ran on Saturday nights from 21 July 1990 until 23 December 2006 in which contestants impersonate showbiz stars. It was produced by Granada for ITV and based on Joop van den Ende's Dutch format, Soundmixshow. A revived version by Harry Hill, began airing on 10 January 2015 until 14 February 2015, it was reported on 17 April it had been axed by ITV due to poor ratings.[1]

It remains one of Britain's most successful shows, attracting around 13 million viewers for the live grand final at the end of each series. It has one of the most memorable catchphrases in TV history: "Tonight (presenter name), I'm going to be..." and was named most popular entertainment show at the National Television Awards in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000.

The most impersonated stars are Dolly Parton, Elvis Presley, Cher, George Michael, Celine Dion, Kylie Minogue and Madonna.

Overview

Stars in Their Eyes is a talent show where contestants get the chance to appear and sing live as a famous singer. The show is most importantly a 'soundalike' show, but they are also dressed up to look as close as possible to the singer they are impersonating, often with wigs and heavy makeup.

Format

Heats

The contestants appear firstly as themselves, talking briefly to the host about their lives and giving clues as to who they are going to be performing as, finishing with the now famous catchphrase 'Tonight [presenter name] I'm going to be...' The contestants then disappear through the equally famous doors, and reappear as the famous singer they are going to impersonate about five minutes later (The word 'singer' could be used loosely as in 1997 Julian Clary who is not known for his vocal skills was impersonated on the show by Steve Edward).

At the end of the show, the studio audience vote for their favourite, and the winner is announced. The winners from each show in the series return for the grand final to perform once more.

Grand Final

1990–1992

In the original Leslie Crowther version, the grand finals were pre-recorded and the winner of the whole series was voted for by the studio audience.

1993–2006

When Matthew Kelly took over, the grand finals were broadcast live and the winner of the whole series was voted for by the viewing public through the phone lines and in some years online as well. The winner was announced later on that same evening in a separate broadcast.

The same process applied during Cat Deeley's tenure as host.

2015

Harry Hill took over on 10 January 2015, with all episodes pre-recorded by BBC Studios and Post Production at the BBC's Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, and the winner of each show again voted for by the studio audience. The revival has proved divisive - fans of the original format were critical of it, saying that Harry Hill had made the show about him rather than the contestants; while others acknowledged that the revival was a post-modern parody of the original, with its knowing ridicule of talent show cliches such as terrible performances being overpraised, and the actions of the presenter receiving high editorial focus to distract from the outdated performance element being thinly stretched.[2] Each episode features Harry being pursued by Adele (really a look-alike) for being in possession of her baby and would comically chase him until she got the baby back.

In April 2015, it was announced that due to poor viewing figures, ITV would not be renewing the show for another series, and it was axed.[3]

Episode guide

Transmissions

Series

Series Start date End date Episodes
1 21 July 1990 25 August 1990 6
2 8 June 1991 13 July 1991 6
3 22 February 1992 28 March 1992 6
4 22 May 1993 24 July 1993 10
5 14 May 1994 16 July 1994 10
6 6 May 1995 8 July 1995 10
7 2 March 1996 25 May 1996 13
8 15 March 1997 7 June 1997 13
9 21 March 1998 13 June 1998 13
10 13 March 1999 5 June 1999 13
11 11 March 2000 20 May 2000 11
12 23 September 2000 2 December 2000 11
13 5 May 2001 14 July 2001 11
14 16 February 2002 27 April 2002 11
15 3 January 2004 13 March 2004 11
16 15 January 2005 26 March 2005 11
17 10 January 2015 14 February 2015 6

Stars in Their Eyes: Kids

Series Start date End date Episodes
Pilot 21 July 2001 1
1 31 August 2002 5 October 2002 6
2 5 April 2003 31 May 2003 9
3 20 March 2004 15 May 2004 9
4 21 January 2006 18 March 2006 9

Specials

Date Entitle
28 December 1991 Christmas Special
15 February 1992 Stars in Their Eyes Special
2 January 1993 Elvis Special
1 January 1994 New Year's Special
7 May 1994 Stars in Their Eyes Special
24 December 1994 Winners' Special
23 December 1995 Christmas Special
2 December 1998 Celebrity Special
9 October 1999 Celebrity Special
30 October 1999 Champion of Champions Special
1 January 2000 Celebrity Special
1 July 2000 Celebrity Special
16 September 2000 Celebrity Special
26 December 2000 Christmas Special
14 April 2001 Stars in Euro Eyes
6 October 2001 Popstars in their Eyes Special
24 November 2001 Coronation Street Special
25 December 2001 Christmas Special
4 May 2002 Celebrity Divas Special
11 May 2002 Coronation Street Special
17 August 2002 Popstars Special
12 October 2002 Celebrity Special
26 October 2002 European Championships (Part 1)
2 November 2002 European Championships (Part 2)
28 December 2002 Celebrity Christmas Special
1 February 2003 Legends Special
8 February 2003 Coronation Street Special
22 February 2003 Soapstars Special
16 August 2003 I'm a Celebrity Special
23 August 2003 Soapstars Special
27 December 2003 Christmas Celebrity Special
24 April 2004 Celebrity Special
1 May 2004 Soapstars Special
8 May 2004 Celebrity Special
26 June 2004 Celebrity Special
3 July 2004 Soapstars Special
17 July 2004 Celebrity Special
18 December 2004 Celebrity Special
2 April 2005 Celebrity Special
23 July 2005 Celebrity Special
30 July 2005 Soapstars Special
6 August 2005 Reality TV Stars Special
13 August 2005 Celebrity Special
24 December 2005 Celebrity Duets
7 January 2006 Family Special
25 March 2006 Celebrity Special
1 April 2006 Celebrity Special
8 April 2006 Celebrity Special
23 December 2006 Celebrity Special

Champions

Regular

Junior

Overseas format

Country Name Channel Hosts Broadcast
 Belgium VTM soundmixshow Vtm Bart Kaëll
Kürt Rogiers (2000)
1989–1995
1997–2000
 Denmark Stjerneskud TV3 Anders Frandsen 1995
 Italy Re per una notte Italia 1 Gigi Sabani 1994–96
Momenti di gloria Canale 5 Mike Bongiorno 1999–2000
Sei un mito Roberta Capua 2005
È nata una stella gemella Lorella Cuccarini 2008
 Netherlands Soundmixshow KRO (1985–89)
RTL 4 (1990–2002)
Henny Huisman 1985–2002
 Norway Med blikket mot stjernene TV3 Ragnar Otnes 1995
Stjerner i sikte TV 2 Jahn Teigen 1996–99
 New Zealand Stars in Their Eyes TV One Simon Barnett 2008–09
 Portugal Chuva de Estrelas SIC Catarina Furtado
José Nuno Martins
Bárbara Guimarães
António Sala
1993–2000
 Spain Lluvia de estrellas Antena 3 (1995–2001)
La 1 (2007)
Bertín Osborne (1995–2001)
Sonia Ferrer (2007)
1995–2001
2007
 Sweden Sikta mot stjärnorna TV4 Lasse Holm (1994–97)
Agneta Sjödin (1999–2000, 2002)
Paul Tilly (2002)
1994–2002

Antena 3 created a similar format, under the title Tu cara me suena, in 2011. A UK version of this was produced by ITV in 2013.

See also

References

External links

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