The Wonderful World Of YTT

January 22 2022

Young Talent Time made a return to TV on January 22 2012 and it was a transitional kind of episode as the original run was honoured and the new team got to show off a little bit of their abilities in front of family, friends and the well to do.

Adrien, Serena, Tyler, Sean, Georgia May, Lyndall, Aydan, Nic, Michelle and Tia made up the team, four members more than the original 1971 lineup.

Rob Mills was host of the show, Rob was considered an unusual choice considering he wasn’t a veteran TV host though Rob had experience with shows like YTT thanks to his run on Australian Idol that earned Rob a long standing place in the entertainment world.

Tina Arena made a return to YTT by being a judge, they hired Chucky Klapow, Chucky got to dance with perhaps the greatest performer of all time, Michael Jackson and rounding out the trio was Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson, a man who was perhaps the most experienced person in Australia when it came to judging talent on TV in recent years.

About halfway through the season the show was moved from Sunday nights to Friday nights, a death sentence because the AFL and the NRL monopolized the ratings and people were going to cut away from YTT to watch at the very least the start of a match especially if it was a Collingwood or Essendon playing.

Channel Ten could of been cruel and dumped it on to the midnight shift when the ratings weren’t good enough but thankfully they did not take that option and ran the whole season at a good time.

There were plenty of highlights in the season, Tina and Aydan singing “Angel” together, the team singing Thriller, Lyndall singing “Somebody to Love”, Tia singing “Empire State of Mind”, Tyler and Michelle singing “One” and their embrace at the end, Chucky’s dancing in the Michael Jackson episode, Karen Knowles appearing as a judge and much more.

The final episode was aired on May 4 2012 and it was an emotional bit of television and viewers couldn’t help but be emotional too because things didn’t look good for the show and it looked like the team knew the end was a possibility too.

The team went on tour of several states after the season ended and they did perform in front of large sized crowds and there was hope that the tour would give TV execs the confidence in ordering a second season.

The cancellation of the show was official late in the year when Channel Ten released their plans for the 2013 ratings season, several team members found out what happened to the show after being notified by fans about the 2013 lineup.

The Young Talent Team lasted a couple of months longer than their TV show with their final show taking place in Western Australia around the time of the official cancellation.

All of the episode EP’s released by the Young Talent Team charted so you can say that they were charting artists more than a dozen times.

Tia was the first to release music post YTT when Tia released “Stranded” in 2013 as an Independent and Tia’s music video was rewarded with an airing on Rage though it wasn’t at a reasonable hour so many could see it.

Sean and Tyler were active in the music releasing business early in the post YTT years while several other team members released music as being part of shows like X Factor and The Voice.

Tyler formed “Awaking Tyler” and they’ve had success in the last year on Independent music platform Atomic by scoring two Top 20 hits including a peak of No. 2 and finished in the Top 40 of the Atomic 100 with “Live Again” and “Scream“.

Tia performs regularly around Sydney as part of the Finesse Music Group and also teaches singing at Sister 2 Sister School of Singing.

Lyndall almost won a season of The Voice and is now a freelance vocal and dance teacher and has travelled to a lot of places as well.

Sean has been playing the Blues in recent years and has been in a couple of bands including Collard Greens & Gravy as well as playing in his own trio and more.

Serena has been studying, singing and travelling, Serena does post on Instagram fairly regularly so people can see what is happening.

Adrien had a run of success on X Factor, released plenty of music on YouTube (as AXI), released some songs and has been around the world meeting some very well known people.

Michelle went on The Voice in 2017 and Michelle’s efforts were well regarded by viewers and now Michelle is known as Chelle Tamika, Chelle has released or featured in at least nine songs and all available on iTunes to purchase.

Georgia May was signed up by the Disney Channel soon after YTT’s cancellation and most recently had a major role in the series Dive Club which is now on Netflix.

Aydan’s popularity grew as he appeared in shows like Australia’s Got Talent, Aydan has released many YouTube videos to great success, has released music including Grow Up!, Aydan was also part of a McDonald’s promotional campaign and is currently on stage performing in Jagged Little Pill.

Nic releases videos on performances of songs on YouTube often and to be honest Nic’s videos should receive more than what Nic is getting for them.

Rob Mills continued on performing on TV and Theatre, landing back at Ten to be in Neighbours for a couple of years, Rob recently had a photo taken with Aydan outside a performance of Jagged Little Pill.

When the franchise celebrated turning fifty last year, the 2012 show was ignored on screen despite Tina Arena being on the show along with Karen Knowles who served as a judge for a couple of episodes and of course all those original members were there in the first episode.

Johnny Young and Rob Mills talked about YTT 2012 on popular website TV Tonight explaining what they thought went wrong with the show as well as talking about the show and what killed the original run.

Large portions of the 2012 team’s run are on YouTube and all the performance EP’s can still be brought on iTunes for those who want to remember how things were just be aware that if you’re half asleep you may get startled by loud cheering at the start of each song.

Above is also a compilation of the most popular viewed songs from YTT 2012 at the time of publishing.

The show may of lasted only a year but a lot of friendships were made either for the team or fans who came together and ended up as friends, the show also brought enjoyment into the lives of some teenagers who were going through a hard time.

The run was short but the memories will last a lifetime.

Happy Tenth Anniversary YTT (Mark II)!