Even if you know absolutely nothing about the new CTV series Instant Star, you could probably piece together its basic story by skimming the resume of exec producer Stephen Stohn.

Go on, give it a shot. Stohn was a musician and songwriter back in the ’70s, he produces this country’s most popular teen drama, and moonlights as a lawyer for Canadian Idol.

‘Now I’m bringing it all together in one show,’ he says with a laugh, a half-hour drama about a 15 year-old singer – Jude, played by Vancouver’s Alexz Johnson (Selling Innocence, So Weird) – whose otherwise normal life is taken over by the demands of fame after a winning turn on a reality show. The $8-million series has been speeding through production at Toronto’s Epitome Pictures since spring, and is set to debut on CTV early next year, building on the success of both Idol and Degrassi: The Next Generation, another Epitome show, and on Stohn’s experiences as a musician and entertainment lawyer.

Stohn has represented the finalists on both seasons of the summer-long karaoke contest and has had a front-row seat as the likes of Ryan Malcolm and Kalan Porter were thrown head-first into the glittery snakepit of the music business.

‘One of the things that’s always fascinated me is, what happens when you actually get what you’ve always dreamed?’ he muses from behind his desk. ‘It’s difficult, to have people reacting to you not because of who you are, but because of your public persona. It’s intoxicating but it’s very unreal.’

He notes that the same thing has happened on a smaller scale to the many kids who have worked for his partner Linda Schuyler on her Degrassi shows and, in that sense, likens Star to a ‘behind-the-scenes Degrassi.’ The two shows are being kept separate, however. Star does not take place in the Degrassi world.

‘In Degrassi we try to tell little stories that are very real. You could go to that school if you were that age, or you’d know someone who goes there,’ he says. ‘Instant Star is different. It’s aspirational. It’s glamour. You could dream of being Jude Harrison and being in that world, but it’s not a real world in the same sense.’

Stohn and Schuyler pitched the idea last summer and got an immediate green light.

It is not surprising that CTV has jumped on the idea. Instant Star combines elements from two of its most successful homegrown shows and, if it catches on, will keep Idol fans tuned in (and thinking about reality TV, no less) during the winter hiatus. There will also be an Instant Star CD – featuring a dozen or so songs from the show – and plans are afoot for marketing tie-ins with radio and retailers. The CD will be carried by The Orange Record Label, which is distributed in Canada by Universal, and sold online via puretracks.com.

Instant Star has also been picked up by the youth-aimed The N in the U.S., paving the way for a powerful marketing push from its parent MTV. Half-hour shows are easier to sell, Stohn notes, because they’re easier to schedule and, in Canada, don’t interfere as much with U.S. simulcasts.

The show also puts Johnson in a good position to springboard her budding singing career, although she says she has no immediate plans beyond Instant Star. ‘There’s no rush on that,’ she says, between takes of episode five. ‘I do want to have that awesome, classic record, but I also know I’m only 17… I think I need to grow a little more in the industry. I don’t even know who I am yet.’

CTV ran a sneak preview of the first two Instant Stars right after the Idol finale, luring more than a million of Idol’s 3.3 million (2+) viewers through the 9 p.m. timeslot.

Things get going right after Jude’s unseen TV win as she is handed off to her new record company and prepares for her first appearance at a local club, all while fending off the advice of her producer, Tim Rozon of 15/Love, and trying to win back her newly alienated best friend, played by Kristopher Turner.

It played out somewhat awkwardly – in particular during Rozon’s first appearance and his spats with Jude, who looks like a bottle-red version of Avril Lavigne – and the characters will need a great deal of fleshing out. But the brisk pace and glam lighting by DOP Stephen Reizes helped smooth out the rough spots, enough that teen viewers will probably come looking for more when the regular season goes to air in January in its 8 p.m. slot. (Reizes has since left the show, however, passing the job to Philip Earnshaw.)

The second ep saw some better character development and a less crowded story, which followed Jude’s efforts to land the cover of a popular music magazine and which costarred Wes Williams, better known to music fans as ’90s rapper Maestro Fresh Wes.

Every episode includes one song, or part thereof, performed by Johnson and cowritten by her and a team of 10 other musicians, including such notables as Juno winner Lisa Dalbello, Marc Jordan, Christopher Ward and Damhnait Doyle.

Stohn notes that a lot of teen- and hipster-aimed shows (Smallville, The O.C., etc.) are taking advantage of music tie-ins – either by turning out their own CDs or by plugging particular bands – but says the Star approach is different, in that its music gets worked into the narrative, often during key scenes.

Jody Colero is the show’s music supervisor and is working with record producer David Ogilvy (Motley Crue, Nine Inch Nails) on the CD, due in stores just prior to the series’ debut.

‘An album a year, 12 songs a year and hopefully very accessible,’ says Stohn. ‘And we’ll keep pumping them out. None of this ‘waiting five years until the sales have trickled off’ business.’

The series also stars Laura Vandervoort (The Gavin Crawford Show), Barbara Mamabolo (The Strip), Andrea Lui (Fast Food High) and Tracy Waterhouse. Stohn and Schuyler exec produce, working with CTV’s Lesley Grant. The directors include Patrick Williams and Bradley Walsh.

-www.epitomepictures.com

-www.ctv.ca