Wednesday night’s series premiere of Scott Borchetta’s new, innovative music show The Launch proved that a reality music competition series can do the unthinkable: pair an unsigned emerging artist with a superstar producer and an original song to “launch” a hit single in real time.
Logan Staats is the first chosen artist by The Launch’s superstar panel of mentors for the episode, which included Borchetta, Shania Twain and renowned music songwriter and producer busbee. Immediately after the show’s premiere, Logan found himself sitting on top of Canada’s all-genre iTunes sales chart with “The Lucky Ones,” surpassing superstars Justin Timberlake and Ed Sheeran.
“Launching Logan and ‘The Lucky Ones’ reinforces the premise of this show: it all starts with a great song,” said Borchetta. “busbee delivered a song with amazing potential and pairing that great song with the right artist creates a perfect storm – Logan’s haunting, powerful voice and sheer talent bring this song to life so beautifully. I’m so proud of our first Launch artist and single – and it’s #1 on iTunes Overall Singles Chart!”
Viewer engagement for The Launch not only compelled consumers to purchase “The Lucky Ones” but also made #TheLaunch Twitter’s No. 1 trending topic in Canada for the night, proving that the Big Machine and Bell Media format has built-in multi-platform success.
The Launch’s innovative format has attracted numerous partners unlike any music show before it. iHeartRadio launched “The Lucky Ones” on all of its stations across Canada the moment the show ended. In addition to iTunes & iHeartRadio, digital music retailers and streaming services Apple Music, Spotify and Google Play immediately made “The Lucky Ones” available to buy and stream worldwide.
Borchetta continues, “In our on-demand world we honor the audience at the end of each episode by immediately delivering our Launch song. After my wonderful experience on American Idol, the need for a next-level music show hit me like a ton of bricks… and I think The Launch is that show.”
Next week the mentor panel will include Borchetta along with GRAMMY-winning singer/songwriter Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland and OneRepublic frontman and acclaimed producer/songwriter Ryan Tedder, airing Wednesday, Jan. 17 at 9:00P ET/PT on CTV and CTV GO, in super simulcast on CTV Two and Much, and in French on VRAK.
The Launch was put into development in January 2016. The series was co-developed by and is produced by Bell Media in association with Scott Borchetta of Big Machine Label Group, Paul Franklin of Eureka (MASTERCHEF, THE BIGGEST LOSER), in partnership with John Brunton and Lindsay Cox of Insight Productions (THE AMAZING RACE CANADA, CANADIAN IDOL, THE JUNO AWARDS).
The Launch is executive produced by Scott Borchetta, Randy Lennox and John Brunton; Paul Franklin and Lindsay Cox are Showrunners and Executive Producers; Executive Producers for Bell Media are Robin Johnston and Corrie Coe, who is also Senior Vice-President, Original Programming, Bell Media. Pat DiVittorio is Vice-President, CTV and Specialty Programming, Mike Cosentino is President, Content and Programming, Bell Media. Randy Lennox is President, Bell Media.
The Launch is truly a new and unique format documenting a behind-the-scenes and in-studio look at what it takes to bring a new, original song to life in each hour-long episode, and it’s all shot in 48 hours. Each week the artists audition for the opportunity to record and perform the new original song written by a world-famous songwriter/producer and mentored by a panel of internationally renowned music industry legends. Immediately following the auditions, the mentors choose two artists to enter the recording studio and record the original song and prepare to perform it in front of a live audience. The mentors then choose which artist and recording will immediately be released across the country following the broadcast of the episode each week.
