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Justin Timberlake · S1 E5
Star Search
10 million viewers, 0.75 stars, and the flight home that changed everything
1992, a television studio in Orlando where Ed McMahon announces the next junior vocalist from Memphis, Tennessee: Justin Randall. An eleven-year-old steps into the lights with ten million people watching.
Justin Timberlake on Star Search, 1992, performing as Justin Randall at age eleven. Watch the confidence. This kid has been rehearsing in living rooms and church halls for years.
The Scores
Ed McMahon reads the results. Justin Randall: 3.25 stars. His opponent, Anna Nardona: 4 stars. It is over, and the flight back to Memphis is four hours of silence.
How many stars did Justin receive on Star Search?
TAP TO REVEAL: Which other future superstars lost on Star Search?
Seven Words on a Plane
Justin cries on the flight home, pressing his face against the window. Somewhere over Texas, he wipes his face and says seven words Lynn will remember forever: I just have to work harder. He is eleven years old.
Everybody Hurts
R.E.M.'s universal anthem of pain and perseverance, released the same year Justin lost on Star Search. Hold on. That is all Lynn needed to say on the flight home. Sometimes losing by 0.75 stars is the best thing that ever happens to you.
“If I had won on Star Search just one time, I would not have made the audition for The All-New Mickey Mouse Club.”
— Justin Timberlake
Back in Memphis, Lynn borrows a camcorder. She films Justin singing everywhere, labels each tape, and mails forty-seven of them into the void.
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