Academy Fantasia

Overview

Created by cable TV provider TrueVisions, formerly known as United Broadcasting Corporation (UBC), Academy Fantasia is a franchise of La Academia, a popular reality TV show from Mexico. The contestants are selected through nationwide auditions, as well as through online audition clips. The live auditions take place in major cities in every part of Thailand to search for those who dream about becoming superstars. Four judges will eliminate thousands of people down to top 100 then last twelve or more finalists into the Academy House for study.

The contestants live in the same house with hundreds of hidden cameras. Audiences can watch them 24 hours live on TV and online. Each week the contestants are assigned individual songs and sometimes group songs to perform on stage every Saturday until the last week of the show. The contestants attend voice class, dance class, and acting class to practice the songs that they perform.

The audiences can vote for their favorite contestants through cell phones and land phones. The show usually airs 24 hours on True Vision 20 (digital) and 16 (analog) and the concerts will be broadcast live on True Music Channel (Digital:26, Analog:30) and ModernNine TV (public channel 9) every Saturday night between 20:40-23:10 Thailand time.

After each performance the commentators will evaluate the performance. At the end of the concert, the contestant(s) who received the lowest percentage of audience votes will have to leave the show. The winners of the first five seasons were all male and was the first female in the season 6. The winners and the runners-up will automatically receive record deals with True Fantasia record label. After the end of each season, there is a nationwide concert tour starring the top 12 finalists.

Seasons

     Male     Female

Season 1 (2004)

21 June - 21 August 2004 (9 Weeks)

Week 1 theme: Trainers' Choices

Week 2 theme: Trainers' Choices

Week 3 theme: Trainers' Choices

Week 4 theme: Trainers' Choices

Week 5 theme: Duets

Week 6 theme: Easy Listening

Week 7 theme: International Soundtracks

Week 8 theme: Rock n' Roll

Week 9 theme: Contestant's Favourites (Finale)

¹None elimination week due to a failure of system supported the votes.

Season 2 (2005)

18 July - 8 October 2005 (12 Weeks)

Week 1 theme: Songs from Audition Round

Week 2 theme: 80's

Week 3 theme: Duets

Week 4 theme: #1 Hits

Week 5 theme: Rock n' Roll

Week 6 theme: Voting Back

Week 7 theme: World Musics

Week 8 theme: Songs of "The Soontaraporn"

Week 9 theme: Dance & Remixes

Week 10 theme: Thai Local Musics

Week 11 theme: Movie Hits Soundtracks

Week 12 theme: Contestant's Favourites (Finale)

¹Contestant were voted back and returned to competition once again. The ranking would be reset, but the rewards still were as the same.

Season 3 (2006)

3 July - 9 September 2006 (10 Weeks)

Week 1 theme: His Majesty The King's Songs

Week 2 theme: Duets

Week 3 theme: Songs of Contestant's Idols

Week 4 theme: #1 Hits

Week 5 theme: Animals Songs

Week 6 theme: Songs for Mother

Week 7 theme: Dance n' Hip

Week 8 theme: Thai Country

Week 9 theme: Hits Soundtracks

Week 10 theme: Contestant's Favourites (Finale)

¹Contestant had the most popular vote on the special week and get the special prize, a trip to Hong Kong with his mother for one week.

Season 4 (2007)

18 March - 15 October 2007 (12 Weeks & 1 Extra Week)

Week 1 theme: Semi-Finals #1

Week 2 theme: Semi-Finals #2

Week 3 theme: Thai Contemporary

Week 4 theme: Boy Band & Girl Group

Week 5 theme: Thai Country

Week 6 theme: Cover Hits

Week 7 theme: Superstars Superhits

Week 8 theme: Tele Songs

Week 9 theme: Cheer

Week 10 theme: Karaoke (Surprised)

Week 11 theme: Dance

Week 12 theme: Contestant's Favourites (Finale)

Week 13 theme: Contestant's The Best of AF4 & His Majesty The King's Songs (The Extra Week)

¹Contestant have the most popular vote of the week and can choose two contestants (within top12) back to the competition once again.²Contestants were selected by the most popular vote contestant of the week to come back into the competition once again, their ranking would be reset.³Contestant have the most popular vote of the week and receive a special prize, trip to any country in the world.

In the 4th season, AF had 20 contestants go into the Academy house. However, this was still considered an Semi-Finals, since there are normally only 12 final contestants in each season. Thus, by the end of the week, 8 of the contestants were supposed to be eliminated, leaving with only 12 people as the real finalists. After the 1st week's performance, the voting results showed that only 3 girls survived to the next round if they really eliminated 8 people. However, this could not happen according to the show's "bible" because in every season, there needs to be 5-7 men & 5-7 women (roughly equal number of men and women among the 12 contestants). Therefore, this week, instead of eliminating the bottom 8, they eliminated only the bottom 4, who were all female. It was also announced that in the following week, 4 male contestants would have to be eliminated, while the female contestants would be safe. In the 2nd week, the bottom 4 male contestants were eliminated by the end of the show.

Season 5 (2008)

12 May - 2 August 2008 (12 Weeks)

Week 1 Theme: Semi-Finals #1

Week 2 Theme: Semi-Finals #2

Week 3 Theme: Not My Style

Week 4 Theme: Dance Group

Week 5 Theme: Thai Contemporary Duets

Week 6 Theme: Songs of "Asanee-Wasan"

Week 7 Theme: Indy Music

Week 8 Theme: Thai Country

Week 9 Theme: My Favorite Song

Week 10 Theme: Korean Songs

Week 11 Theme: The Battle

Week 12 Theme: Contestant's Favourites (Finale)

¹Contestants from online auditions.¹Contestants from online auditions.²Contestant was the 2nd place popular vote of the week and received the Immunity Idol which could help her save herself from an elimination.³None eliminated because a contestant decided to use the Immunity Idol to save herself from elimination.⁴Contestants were given a chance to return into the Academy house just one week. There would be only 1 contestant can return to the competition again.⁵Contestant got the most popular vote in the voting back week, and can return into the competition once again.

In the 5th season, 16 contestants were admitted to the Academy house, so in the first week 4 contestants were supposed to be eliminated (one male and one female from the online auditions, and one male and one female from live auditions.) At the actual concert, though, the audience and the contestants were surprised when only 2 female contestants were eliminated (one from online auditions and one from live auditions), so 2 male contestants (one from the clip auditions and one from the live auditions) would be eliminated in week 2.

Season 6 (2009)

28 June - 19 September 2009 (12 Weeks)

Week 1 Theme: My Style

Week 2 Theme: Party & Radio Hits

Week 3 Theme: Tributed to King of Pop "Michael Jackson"

Week 4 Theme: Hard Rock

Week 5 Theme: Dance

Week 6 Theme: Show Power

Week 7 Theme: Mother's Choice

Week 8 Theme: The Battle

Week 9 Theme: Featuring with Our Friend

Week 10 Theme: Thai Country

Week 11 Theme: The Musical

Week 12 Theme: My Dream with My Songs (Finale)

Season 7 (2010)

27 June - 18 September 2010 (12 Weeks)

Week 1 Theme: Top 100 Semi-Final Audition

Week 2 Theme: Rock

Week 3 Theme: Hot Debut (During years contestants were born, 1988–1995)

Week 4 Theme: Korean Songs

Week 5 Theme: Single Show (Contestant's Choice)

Week 6 Theme: Songs for Mother

Week 7 Theme: Music Festival (International Hits)

Week 8 Theme: Tag Teams (Duet & Battle Songs)

Week 9 Theme: Songs of Thongchai McIntyre (Musical Part I)

Week 10 Theme: Thai Contemporary & Country (Musical Part II)

Week 11 Theme: Variety Dance

Week 12 Theme: Grand Finale

¹Ton (V13) replaced Mark (V11), who retired the show at the end of concert week 3.

Season 8 (2011)

26 June - 17 September 2011 (12 week)

Week 1 Theme: Semi-Final #1

Week 2 Theme: Semi-Final #2 - Duo Song

Week 3 Theme: Semi-Final #3 - Thanks & Gives

Week 4 Theme: Tata Young & Jirasak Parnpum

Week 5 Theme: Hearthbroken

Week 6 Theme: In Love

Week 7 Theme: Variety Dance

Week 8 Theme: Killer Song

Week 9 Theme: The King's Songs, Thai Contemporary & Thai Country

Week 10 Theme: Musical

Week 11 Theme: Songs of 'Ohm Chatri' & 'Dee Nitipong'

Week 12 Theme: Grand Final

Season 9 (2012)

2 June - 15 September 2012 (15 Weeks)

Week 1 Theme: My Chosen Song #1

Week 2 Theme: My Chosen Song #2

Week 3 Theme: My Chosen Song #3

Week 4 Theme: 12 Dream 12 Style

Week 5 Theme: Re-stage: Friend's song

Week 6 Theme: Thai's life

Week 7 Theme: First Love

Week 8 Theme: Killer Songs

Week 9 Theme: The Battle: Senior's Song

Week 10 Theme: Mothers' Generation Songs

Week 11 Theme: Dance City

Week 12 Theme: Duets

Week 13 Theme: Musical

Week 14 Theme: Settha Sirachaya

Week 15 Theme: Grand Final

Season 10 (2013)

24 June - 14 September 2013 (12 Weeks)

Week 1 Theme: My Style

Week 2 Theme: My Steps

Week 3 Theme: My Scenes

Week 4 Theme: My Minute

Week 5 Theme: My Duet

Week 6 Theme: My Weakness

Week 7 Theme: My Buddy

Week 8 Theme: My Beat

Week 9 Theme: My Thai Thai

Week 10 Theme: My Stage (AF10 The Musical)

Week 11 Theme: My Voice My Music

Week 12 Theme: My Dream

Season 11 (2014)

20 July - 4 October 2014 (11 Weeks)

Week 1 Theme: My Style

Week 2 Theme: Boy Band & Girl Group

Week 3 Theme: Mother's Choice

Week 4 Theme: Duets

Week 5 Theme: Thai Country

Week 6 Theme: Midterm

Week 7 Theme: The Battle

Week 8 Theme: Solo Dance

Week 9 Theme: Musical

Week 10 Theme: Producers Choices

Week 11 Theme: Grand Final

Season 12 (2015)

28 June - 19 September 2015 (12 Weeks)

Week 1 Theme: Trainers Choices

Week 2 Theme: Trainers Choices

Week 3 Theme: Trainers Choices

Week 4 Theme: Entertain & Emotional

Week 5 Theme: Duets

Week 6 Theme: Songs For Mom

Week 7 Theme: The Battle

Week 8 Theme: Thai Country & Thai Contemporary

Week 9 Theme: Party Dance

Week 10 Theme: Musical

Week 11 Theme: Tribute Carabao

Week 12 Theme: Grand Finale