• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, April 17, 2008

ABC's summer reality-competition series linked with "High School Musical" will take a page out of "American Idol." The show will use footage from auditions in its early-season episodes.

Large-scale auditions for "High School Musical: Summer Session" will be held in the coming weeks in the Los Angeles area and at Disney World, while casting scouts are searching elsewhere.

Finalists will appear before a panel of judges, and are expected to sing songs from the popular Disney Channel franchise. A subset would then move on to participate in a summer music program, where a winner will be determined. Contestants on the show will be between the ages of 16 and 22, putting some outside high-school age.

ABC has been coy with the details about "Summer Session's" format--perhaps waiting until its mid-May upfront presentation. It did seem to indicate that the winner will earn some sort of role in "High School Musical" productions, "becoming part of the 'High School Musical' family" according to the casting notice).

A "High School Musical 4" movie for the Disney Channel is being developed to follow a "High School Musical 3" film later this year.

ABC's "Summer Session" debuts on Sunday, July 20 and then runs Sundays and Mondays at 8 p.m. for three weeks before settling in once a week on Mondays. The finale is in mid-September, offering ABC the opportunity--if the series is a hit--to use a potentially high-rated finale as a launching pad for a new show, or to provide a ratings bonanza early in the new broadcast season.