NBC.com To Launch Music Competition Show

NBC this summer will launch a talent-search reality show that will appear exclusively online.

The show, "StarTomorrow," seeks to tap into the popularity of both "American Idol" and music on the Web. The program will feature 100 bands competing for a record deal over the course of 16 weeks. In "Idol" fashion, record mogul Tommy Mottola and guest celebrity judges will offer their opinions of the bands, but the public will determine the finalists and winners via Internet voting.

For the first half of the competition, 20 bands a week will audition in hopes of advancing to the finals. Then, the second half will include a battle of the bands to determine a champion.

The series will be ad-supported, although no details were available. Consumers will be able to view the series in non-linear fashion, picking and choosing which auditions and head-to-head battles they want to view--even opting to make their own judgments sans the opinions of Mottola et al.

Word of "StarTomorrow"--NBC's first online-only series--comes only a few days after NBC made unaired episodes of cancelled series "The Book of Daniel" available for on-demand viewing on its Web site. Mottola, a series executive producer, is the ex-chairman-CEO of Sony Music Entertainment. The "StarTomorrow" winner will receive a contract with a Mottola label that's part of Universal Music Group.

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