MTV Tr3s to Document Search for Next Menudo

NEW YORK/SANTA MONICA, March 6: MTV Tr3s will document the
nationwide search to recreate the popular Latin pop group Menudo in the
4×30-minute series Road to Menudo, which
will debut on May 12.

The MTV Tr3s series will air in the run-up to the launch of
an as-yet-untitled 10×30-minute reality show on the flagship MTV this fall that
will highlight the search for the five new Menudo members and chronicle their
efforts to record their debut album. Reveille
will produce the MTV series in association with Road Games and Menudo
Entertainment.

Road to Menudo will
give viewers a behind the scenes look at all auditions. Four casting sessions
will be held, starting from March 31 in Los Angeles, followed by Dallas, Miami
and New York through the end of April and culminating with the selection of
seven finalists in the premiere of Road to Menudo. Celebrity judges along with music manager Johnny
Wright, who will manage the new Menudo, will be on hand to audition teenage
boys on their natural singing and dancing abilities, charisma and stage
presence. The auditions are open to males who are at least 15 years old and
appear to be less than 19 years old. After
the casting sessions, 12 semi-finalists will be chosen and each one will be
featured in short-form capsules that will introduce the potential band members
to multiple MTV audiences across all MTV screens. MTV Tr3s will also air a
one-hour special in July, Road to Menudo: The Finals, where the members of the new Menudo will be
revealed. MTV Tr3s will also produce a four-part series, Road to
Menudo Presents: De La Calle to the Stage
that showcases musical success stories from the Menudo audition cities such as
Miami’s Gloria Estefan and New York’s Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony and Fat Joe.

Online, mtvtr3s.com and myspace.com/mtvtr3s will feature Road
to Menudo details including casting
information, audition highlights and early audience favorites.

Once the five members are elected, Menudo will become a part
of the Epic Records family, and will kick off with their first single in July,
followed by their debut album in December.

Additional summertime Menudo programming on MTV Tr3s will
include a half-hour special on the history of Menudo; Fans of Menudo, a trivia game between parents and teens; History
of Boy Bands, a 30-minute look at the
biggest boy bands of all time; and Life after the Band, a half-hour show featuring videos from the solo
careers of boy band members such as Ricky Martin, Robby Rosa, Justin Timberlake,
Robbie Williams and Ashley Parker Angel.

“MTV Tr3s has set out to create and define a new generation
of Latino pop music and culture and what better expression of that than helping
to discover the new Menudo, the biggest brand in Latin pop music over the last
thirty years,” said Lucia Ballas-Traynor, the SVP and GM of MTV Tr3s. “The new
Menudo will be a reflection of our audience in every way and we are going all
out to ensure that every talented teenage boy across the country has a shot at
stardom. It’s another way MTV Tr3s is providing a voice to young Latinos.”

The original Menudo, which gained fame in the late 70s and
80s, recorded 35 albums and sold more than 40 million records. It also launched
the careers of Ricky Martin and Robby Rosa.