{"id":2255559,"date":"2026-01-29T00:43:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T00:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2255559"},"modified":"2026-01-29T00:43:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T00:43:21","slug":"some-of-star-searchs-biggest-losers-became-megastars-can-the-revival-live-up-to-its-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/some-of-star-searchs-biggest-losers-became-megastars-can-the-revival-live-up-to-its-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Some of \u2018Star Search\u2019s\u2019 biggest losers became megastars. Can the revival live up to its past?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n \u201cAmerica\u2019s Got Talent,\u201d \u201cThe Voice,\u201d \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d \u2014 would any of them exist without \u201cStar Search?\u201d The iconic staple of \u201980s and \u201990s television laid the groundwork for today\u2019s ubiquitous talent competition shows, with one big exception: When it came to crowning big stars, it had a tendency to get things wrong.\n <\/p>\n

\n Everyone from Britney Spears to Justin Timberlake to Aaliyah appeared on the show \u2014 and lost, as did future 35-time Grammy winner Beyonc\u00e9<\/a>, who competed<\/a> in 1993 as part of an all-girls group called Girls Tyme.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cCan you believe it?\u201d William Pilipchuk, lead singer of rock group Skeleton Crew, which bested Girls Tyme in a moment immortalized on Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s single \u201c***Flawless,\u201d told celebrity.land. \u201cI\u2019m the only singer that beat Beyonc\u00e9 in a contest on national television.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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\n The band\u2019s guitarist Scott Christy recalled going backstage after the judges advanced their all-male, all-acoustic rock band to the next round over the preteens of Girls Tyme.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere were tears,\u201d Christy told celebrity.land. \u201cIt was horrible. I just felt bad.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Now, \u201cStar Search\u201d is back, this time on Netflix, with actor Anthony Anderson as host. The new incarnation \u2013 the second reboot after CBS\u2019s failed 2003 attempt \u2013 is buzzier, bigger, live and flashier. But its somewhat nonsensical pairings remain, as in a recent episode that featured a trapeze artist duo going up against a trainer doing a dance routine with her dog.\n <\/p>\n

\n The revival is off to a slow start<\/a>. It remains to be seen who, if any, of the first batch of contestants \u2013 which which includes several magicians and a singing comic, among others \u2013 will become America\u2019s next big star. But as the winners and losers of the past know, the results of \u201cStar Search\u201d often have little to do with what they find after.\n <\/p>\n

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\n Singer and songwriter Katrina Woolverton<\/a> had her chance at stardom in 1989. Her on-screen competition<\/a> in the junior vocalist category was a 10-year-old singer who belted a version of \u201cMy Funny Valentine.\u201d Her name was Aaliyah.\n <\/p>\n

\n In an interview with celebrity.land, Woolverton remembered Aaliyah as having a \u201cquiet manner about her\u201d and that she was \u201ca little more reserved but incredibly talented.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Woolverton wound up besting Aaliyah and went on to become the round one junior vocalist champion. The loss didn\u2019t keep Aalyiah down. Just five years later, she released her debut album, \u201cAge Ain\u2019t Nothing but a Number.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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\n Woolverton\u2019s music pursuits panned out differently. After the show, she received offers from record labels but ultimately left the music industry after facing some adversity at home, opting to focus on her education instead. She eventually returned to music as an EDM artist, which is her focus today.\n <\/p>\n

\n Aaliyah, meanwhile, went on to release three studio albums following her debut, spawning five top 10 hits that charted on the Billboard Hot 100.<\/a> Widely regarded as one of the most promising artists of her time, her untimely death<\/a> in a plane crash in 2001 cut short her meteoric rise.\n <\/p>\n

\n Aaliyah\u2019s death hit Woolverton hard.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere\u2019s no sweetness in that victory because she\u2019s not here anymore,\u201d said Woolverton. \u201cI always thought I\u2019d have the chance to cross paths with her and congratulate her and just tell her, \u2018I was so proud of you to see that you did it.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Mega fame didn\u2019t find Skeleton Crew<\/a> after \u201cStar Search,\u201d but the band didn\u2019t do too bad for themselves. They got a record deal and had a chance to tour in support of artists like Foreigner and Kenny Loggins.\n <\/p>\n

\n They only found out later that their success came from what one of the most influential artists of the century once called a \u201cdefining moment\u201d of her childhood.\n <\/p>\n

\n Beyonc\u00e9 directly addressed her loss, alongside Kelly Rowland, LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett, 30 years after it happened, saying<\/a> in 2013: \u201cYou\u2019re never too good to lose, you\u2019re never too big to lose, you\u2019re never too smart to lose. It happens. And it happens when it needs to happen and you need to embrace those things.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The same year, she featured footage of the moment in her music video<\/a> for \u201c***Flawless.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Skeleton Crew reached out after the single dropped, and Pilipchuk admits he still has a \u201cbitter taste\u201d that he never got a reply from Beyonc\u00e9 or her team.\n <\/p>\n

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\n Skeleton Crew disbanded in 1995, and Pilipchuk and Christy now perform in a band called The Crystal Set.\n <\/p>\n

\n Pilipchuk insists he is still largely unfazed by the fact that he and Skeleton Crew have any connection to Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s meteoric rise.\n <\/p>\n

\n Christy has a softer view, crediting the experience as \u201cthe gift that keeps on giving back to us.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt just brings a smile to my face now,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The original \u201cStar Search\u201d debuted on CBS with famed TV personality Ed McMahon as the host in 1983 and aired until 1995. Considered the first talent competition reality show, it featured head-to-head match-ups in categories including solo and group vocalist, comedy, spokesmodel and dance.\n <\/p>\n

\n Netflix\u2019s updated version nods to its predecessor with its voting, allowing for judges Chrissy Teigen, Jelly Roll and Sarah Michelle Gellar to hand out up to five stars. The live format also lets viewers act as the fourth judge by voting in real time.\n <\/p>\n

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\n For Marty Thomas<\/a>, a Broadway vet who competed against Britney Spears in 1992\u2019s junior vocalist competition, the experience on the show was so profoundly positive that he hopes the revival captures some of that magic for its new slate of young stars.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re rebooting something like \u2018Star Search\u2019 that so many people hold such a soft spot in their heart for from the \u201880s, I really hope they\u2019re able to at least strive to capture a little of that innocence and that reality,\u201d Thomas told celebrity.land, fresh off a string of cruise ship performances.\n <\/p>\n

\n Innocence is a good word for it. After competing against one another on \u201cStar Search,\u201d Thomas, Spears and their families went on to become friends in the years that followed. He and Spears even attended the same performing arts school in New York City, and he was part of the pop singer\u2019s life until the mid-2000s, bearing witness to her meteoric rise.\n <\/p>\n

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\n Ultimately, he observed, her rejection on \u201cStar Search\u201d did not have that much of a negative impact \u201cbeyond breaking her heart.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n If anything, Thomas continued, the experience just \u201cstrengthened her resolve to keep working harder and try new things.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cStar Search,\u201d of course, isn\u2019t the only reality competition show to reject greatness (here\u2019s looking at you, Jennifer Hudson, EGOT<\/a>).\n <\/p>\n

\n The reboot is, however, leaning into that notion that even if you lose, you win.\n <\/p>\n

\n Perhaps Anderson put it best when he bid farewell to the trainer and her dog after the trapeze artists knocked them out, saying, \u201cnow the whole world knows who you are.\u201d\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n