One in a Million (Malaysian TV series)

One in a Million
Directed by	Sunil Kumar Michael Christian Simon
Presented by	Awal Ashaari Marion Caunter
Starring	Syafinaz Selamat Paul Moss
No. of episodes	18 (as of end of Season 1)
Production
Executive producer	Sunil Kumar
Running time	Varies
Original release
Network	8TV
Release	May 26, 2006 – Present, renewed for a second season

One in a Million is Malaysia's first ever reality singing competition to offer a RM 1,000,000 prize to the winner. It began airing its first season on Malaysia's terrestrial TV station, 8TV, on May 26, 2006.

One in a Million seeks to discover the best young singer in the country, through several nationwide auditions. The objective of offering a huge prize money is to provide the winner with the very best production, marketing strategy and everything else that goes into creating a music superstar.In the latter stages of this competition, the progress of the contestants are determined by public voting by phone or text messaging. This is also the first reality singing competition that allows viewers to vote in as well as to vote out the contestants.

The show features two judges who critique the contestants' performances in order to facilitate the voting: former singer and music lecturer Syafinaz Selamat; and Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) nominated music producer/write/arranger as well as brand manager for 8TV, Paul Moss. The hosts are Awal Ashaari and Marion Caunter.

It will return for a second season in 2007. Auditions for the second season began in August 2007 and will most likely begin airing in the fourth quarter of the year.

Rules

One in a Million is open to all Malaysian residents aged 16 to 32 during its run for the first season. The second season, however, sees a change of the lower limit of age to 18 to 32. The first season also saw the singing competition open to recording artists as well. It is unclear whether it is still open to recording artists for the second season.

To be eligible, contestants must not be permanent and/or contract employee of the television station 8TV as well as its sister stations under Media Prima. Contestants must also not be representatives, employees, servants and/or agents of advertising and/or promotion service providers of 8TV, and their immediate family members; and/or undischarged bankrupts. Should the contestant or any of his/her immediate family members is employed by the prize providers; and/or any person, or entity otherwise involved or participating in the Program and its production including but not by way of limitation any of the panel of judges.

Auditions

The producers of the show hold "open" public auditions at locations across the country, which anyone who is eligible can attend. A selection of the auditions in front of the judges – usually the best, the worst and the most bizarre – are broadcast over the first few weeks of the show. Each contestant enters the audition room, often after waiting for hours, and delivers either an a cappella or accompanied by their own guitar or keyboard instrument. If at least one of the two judges say "yes", then the contestant goes through to the next stage, otherwise the contestant is sent home. Contestants may also be placed under the "maybe" category in the case where the judges are unsure whether or not to put them through. They are asked to perform again for the judges either after short intervals or at the end of the day of audition.

The cities where auditions were held are as below.

Season	Year	City	Venue
One	2006	Kota Kinabalu, Sabah	Le Meridien Hotel
		Kuala Lumpur	Berjaya Time Square
Two	2007	Kota Kinabalu, Sabah	Le Meridien Hotel
		Sungai Petani, Kedah	Cinta Sayang Resort
		Johor Bahru, Johore	Persada Johor
		Kuala Lumpur	Berjaya Time Square

Central Elimination and Knock-out

Contestants who passed the auditions are split into groups in the Central Elimination. Contestants are asked to perform in front of the judges again and are narrowed down to only forty contestants.

Then the Top 40 contestants are put through the 'Blind Test' and 'Style/Presentation' Test. In the 'Blind Test', the contestants had to perform behind a screen. In the 'Style/Presentation' round, two guest judges also judged the style & presentation of each contestant. From here onwards, only 20 contestants are allowed to move on to the knock-out stage.

The 20 contestants who moved forward are ranked according to their performances. The contestants ranked Top 10 must then pick an opposing contestant from the Bottom 10 to compete against. Out of these 10 pairs, only one contestant from each pair may move on as decided by the judges. The 10 contestants who are knocked out are given second chances in The Second Chance Show, which is the first show with live studio audience. This episode, however, is pre-recorded a few weeks before air date and is not televised 'live'. But from this point of the competition, viewers may began voting for their favourite contestant. Two contestants from The Second Chance Show will be put through the finals whereby one of them is picked by the judges and the other is voted by home viewers.

Finals

The finals last ten weeks whereby each of the Final 12 contestants perform one song each week. The format changes with contestants singing two songs each week when there are only four contestants remaining. After each contestant has performed, the judges comment on their performance, usually focusing on vocal ability and stage presence. Once all the contestants have appeared, the voting lines open at the end of the show and the viewers vote on which contestant they want to keep. The judges, from this point on, serve almost entirely in an advisory capacity, with no direct influence on the results.

The results are only announced a week later on the following episode before the performances, as opposed to shows like Malaysian Idol in which the results are announced on a special results show aired one or two days later. The first elimination involving eliminating two contestants and future eliminations dismissed only one contestant each week. However, there was an exception in Season One, that is, the producers planned a surprising twist where no eliminations were made during the Final 3. Instead of having only two contestants during the grand finals, three contestants had competed to win the public vote which determines the overall winner.

The winner receives a RM 1,000,000 record deal with the record label Monkey Bone and will be managed by a management unit called The 8 Unit.

Cast

Judges

Syafinaz Selamat

Main article: Syafinaz Selamat

A familiar face in the local classical and contemporary music scenes, Syafinaz Selamat is a music degree graduate from MARA University of Technology. She has been under the tutelage of Siti Chairani Proehoeman (voice) and Muzaffar Abdullah (pianoforte), veterans in the Malaysian music education and classical performance scene.

Syafinaz is a lyrical soprano, whose performance repertoire includes arias for operas from composers such as Mozart, Puccini, Bellini, Delibes and Verdi. She was chosen to play the role of the soprano solo in the Carl Offs “Carmina Burana” with 100 choir members and the National Symphony Orchestra of Malaysia, conducted by reputed Australian conductor Roland Peelman.

She’s also a prominent singer and host of several musical entertainment shows. Her career achievements as a singer include a Gold Medal in the R&B/Pop/Rock/Contemporary category during the World Championships of Performing Arts in Los Angeles in 1999. Additionally, she’s been twice nominated in the AIM for Best Female Vocal in an Album.

She’s currently a lecturer at the MARA University of Technology, The National Arts Academy and advisor and vocal master of The National Choir of Malaysia, and is working on her new album.

Syafinaz has also extensive experience as a judge, having been a judge for: “Akademi Fantasia 3”, “Akademi Fantasia 4”. “Who Will Win”, “Mentor” and the voice trainer/music advisor for “Audition II”.

Paul Moss

Main article: Paul Moss

Paul Moss is famous for not mincing his words to wannabe singers. Though already long renowned as a music producer, Paul Moss really shot to fame during his stint for the past two years as a judge for reality show, Malaysian Idol. He was memorable as the guy who shot down the dreamers from the Real McCoys.

But Paul Moss’ history in music goes back way longer. The New Zealander broke into the scene as a member of the then immensely popular band, ‘Aishah and The Fan Club’. As Musical Director and songwriter of ‘The Fan Club’, the band attained several Gold albums and won the Artist of the Year at the 1991 NZ Music Awards.

After crossing over to Malaysia, he became A&R Director of Positive Tone from its inception in 1994 until 2003. Paul Moss was the man behind the phenomenal successes of many local English acts since he was responsible for the artist signing, artistic direction, recording, production and content development of OAG, Too Phat, Innuendo, Poetic Ammo, Ferhad and many others.

His creative talent as a producer/writer/arranger also earned Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) nominations and Gold and Platinum sales for artists such as OAG, Innuendo and Juliet the Orange. Now a Brand Manager with 8TV, Paul Moss has all the experience, talent and pedigree to back up his job as judge for ‘One in a Million’.

Hosts

Awal Ashaari

Awal has been hosting several TV programmes and has appeared in several drama series and movies. In fact, Awal is no stranger to reality TV shows, having made it to the Top 30 in the first season of Malaysian Idol.

Marion Caunter

Marion Caunter who holds a degree in broadcast and electronic communications from Marquette University in Milwaukee, the United States, is no stranger to the entertainment scene. Apart from being a TV presenter, she was also 8TV’s urban content executive in charge of pre- and post-production of the stations in-house shows, Latte at 8 and Flava. Caunter also hosted The 8TV Quickie which airs daily at 11.30pm on 8TV but left the Quickie since November 14, 2006 for a career as a VJ at Channel [V]. She also had a brief stint on hitz.fm as a DJ.

Despite having left as a presenter on 8TV, Caunter will return with Awal Ashaari as hosts of the second season of One in a Million.

The Show

One in a Million
One in a Million Finalists (with dates of elimination)
Season 1 (2006)
Contestant	Final Performance Date	Elimination Date
Suki Low Sook Yee	September 22, 2006 (Top 3)	Winner
Faizal (Faizal Tahir)	September 22, 2006 (Top 3)	September 22, 2006
Alif (Muhammad Alif bin Mohd Satar)	September 22, 2006 (Top 3)	September 22, 2006
Dayang (Dayang Nurfaizah)	September 8, 2006 (Top 4)	September 15, 2006
Farah (Farah Asyikin bt Zulkifli)	September 1, 2006 (Top 5)	September 8, 2006
Azfar (Alif Asfar Bin Ishak)	August 25, 2006 (Top 6)	September 1, 2006
Lokman (Mohd Lokman Aslam b. Abdul Mutalip)	August 18, 2006 (Top 7)	August 25, 2006
Zai (Zaihanee bt Zainal Abidin)	August 11, 2006 (Top 8)	August 18, 2006
Alia (Nur Hasliah Abbu Hassan)	August 4, 2006 (Top 9)	August 11, 2006
Ameen (Shahmeen Shah bin Halim Shah)	July 28, 2006 (Top 10)	August 4, 2006
Mimi (Norshammeme Arzeyana binti Shamsuddin)	July 21, 2006 (Top 12)	July 28, 2006
Anny (Anny Johanna binti Mohammad Shariff)	July 21, 2006 (Top 12)	July 28, 2006

Season One

Auditions were held in two places, in Kota Kinabalu and in Kuala Lumpur in April 2006. Participants performed in front of two judges. Contestants who impressed the judges made it through the next round. Contestants whom the judges were unsure of were placed under the 'maybe' category where they performed again for the judges.

The contestants who got through to the next round, the Central Elimination, were split into groups of guys and girls. The girls went first. The contestants were split to five groups with eight in each group and only four from every group moved on. The same rule applied to the guys and only forty contestants moved on to the next round.

Then, the Top 40 contestants went through two more rounds of elimination called the 'Blind Test' and 'Style/Presentation' Test. In the 'Blind Test', the contestants had to perform behind a screen. In the 'Style/Presentation' round, two guest judges also judged the style & presentation of each contestant. Only 20 contestants moved on to the knock-out stage.

The Top 20 contestants were then ranked according to their past performances. The contestants who were ranked in the Top 10 got the opportunity to pick one of the Bottom 10 contestants to sing against. No.1 contestant Suki Low Sook Yee was cut after she chose No.11 Alif to sing against and No.3 Zai got cut after she chose to compete against No.20 Ameen.

In The Second Chance Show, the 10 contestants who got cut in the knock-out stage performed for 2 final spots in the Top 12. Suki was Malaysia's choice through viewers' votes and Zai was the judges' pick.

A special episode titled "Circle of 12" was aired. No eliminations were made. The viewers got to know a lot about the top 12 and why should they vote for them. It also showed the contestant in flashbacks scenes.

In the finals, the Top 12 would have to select a song which they had to sing in front a live audience. In the first top 12 eliminations, two contestants were eliminated. Each show that followed eliminated one contestant each week. The grand finale was held on September 22, 2006 at Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur.

Suki emerged as the winner of the One Million Ringgit while Faizal and Alif received second and third place respectively. At the start of the grand finale show, Marion Caunter and Awal Ashaari announced that Faizal has the lowest number of votes for that week, but he was given a chance to perform for the grand prize as it was part of the pre-planned non-elimination.

Date	Bottom Six
July 28	Anny	Mimi	Alia	Azfar	Farah	Suki
Date	Bottom Five
August 4	Ameen	Alia (2)	Lokman	Zai	Dayang
Date	Bottom Four
August 11	Alia (3)	Zai (2)	Azfar (2)	Farah (2)
August 18	Zai (3)	Lokman (2)	Azfar (3)	Farah (3)
August 25	Lokman (3)	Azfar (4)	Farah (4)	Faizal
Date	Bottom Three
September 1	Azfar (5)	Farah (5)	Alif
September 8	Farah (6)	Alif (2)	Dayang (2)
Date	Bottom Two
September 15	Dayang (3)	Alif (3)
September 22, Grand Finale	Alif (4)	Faizal (2)

In the bottom. Eliminated.	In the bottom.	In the bottom. Gained immunity

Season Two

The second season is scheduled to take place at the end of 2007 and not mid-2007 at speculated earlier. The auditions for the second season have been scheduled to begin in August..

Two more audition locations are added (Sungai Petani and Johor Bahru) compared to the only two last year. The following are the audition dates and locations.

• Le Meridien Hotel, Kota Kinabalu - August 19, 2007
• Cinta Sayang Resort, Sungai Petani - August 25, 2007
• Persada Johor, Johor Bahru - September 2, 2007
• Berjaya Time Square, Kuala Lumpur, September 8 and September 9, 2007

Performances on One in a Million

Main article: Performances on One in a Million

One in a Million Diary

A spin-off titled One in a Million Diary debut after the Top 8 show during the first season. It aired on Wednesdays at 9.30p.m. and features off-stage video clips as well as exclusive weekly interviews with the contestants.

See also

• Malaysian Idol
• Paul Moss
• Syafinaz Selamat
• 8TV

External links

• Official Website
• TV Station
• Audition FAQ