Star Academy Arab World or Star Academy Arabia, is a pan-Arab televised talent show, which has aired since 2003. The show features a group of young male and female candidates who are selected from a pan-Arab pool of more than three-thousand and are sequestered for four months in "The Academy," a four-story building in Lebanon, where they live, train, and compete against one another every week. The show became an instant success and an everyday much-watched event across the Arab world. The show was adapted from a French show of the same name and is produced by Dutch company Endemol, Vanilla Productions & PAC Ltd. Star Academy Arab World is based on the Spanish format Operación Triunfo. The show centers around the 16 candidates who compete in weekly talent competitions, singing, dancing, and acting during on-stage performances. At the end of every week, one contestant is kicked off by a public vote by the viewers. One of the show's highlights are the appearances of some of the Arab World's most important performers such as Najwa Karam, Diana Haddad, Haifa Wahbe, Elissa, Angham, Assala Nasri, Ramy Ayach, Myriam Fares, Kazem Al Saher, Nawal Al-Zoghbi, Marwan Khoury, Carole Samaha, Ehab Tawfik, Wael Kfoury, Sherine, Fares Karam, Abdallah Al Rowaished, Saad Lamjarred and many more. The show has also been successful for its reinvention and continuous changes, just as, starting from the third season, the show witnessed guests from international superstars such as Julio Iglesias, Anggun, Karl Wolf, Tina Arena, Chris De Burgh and Massari. Overview Based in Adma, a city north of Beirut, Lebanon, the show is aired for 4 months on the Egyptian TV station CBC and on the Lebanese terrestrial channel LBC and is hosted by Hilda Khalife. The show follows 16 candidates through their weeks living in "The Academy," training with "teachers," and performing their talents in live on-stage shows. While many choose to sing, talents are not restricted to vocal performances; acting and dancing are also common talents. The show takes on a few different formats depending on the day of the week. Every day, there is a one-hour "access" show that goes over the day's important and exciting events. On Friday, there is a live performance show where the candidates compete against each other, sometimes alongside famous domestic and international stars, and are voted off one by one. In addition, viewers can tune into "The Academy" 24/7