Hollywood Heights is a telenovela-style limited series which aired on Nick at Nite and TeenNick from June 18 to October 5, 2012. Loosely based on the Mexican telenovela Alcanzar una estrella (To Reach a Star), the series follows aspiring singer-songwriter Loren Tate (Brittany Underwood), whose life changes forever when she crosses paths with her rock star idol Eddie Duran (Cody Longo). Hollywood Heights was executive produced by six-time Emmy Award-winner Jill Farren-Phelps, and co-executive produced by Hisham Abed and Josh Griffith, who also served as head writer.
The series was announced in May 2012 as an international co-production between Sony Pictures Television and Televisa, the Mexican production company which owns the rights to the original telenovela. As with the Latin American telenovela format, Hollywood Heights would run every weeknight at 9 p.m. EST through October. Nick at Nite previewed the first episode several times starting on June 11, 2012, before the 80-episode limited series' official premiere on June 18, 2012. The show initially ran on weeknights at 9 p.m. (EST). In May, the network had announced that actor James Franco would appear in a multi-episode story arc as Osborne "Oz" Silver, an eccentric and ruthless movie mogul. Franco's first appearance was on June 29, 2012. Halfway through the series on August 13, 2012, it was moved to Nick at Nite's sister channel TeenNick at 8 p.m. EST. The series was not renewed for a second season.
Plot
Loren Tate (Brittany Underwood) is a high school senior dreaming of a career as a singer-songwriter—and of hunky rock star Eddie Duran (Cody Longo). Eddie, meanwhile, is not happy with the direction his career has taken—toward shallow pop music rather than the soulful material he prefers. Following Eddie's manager and label pushing him to give them new songs for a new album, Eddie uses it as an opportunity to launch a new contest in which he can collaborate with a fan on a new song (that is hopefully more to his musical liking). Meanwhile, shy Loren, is very hesitant to enter Eddie's contest and fears that any song she writes isn't good enough for her idol. But with Loren's cool single mom, Nora (Jama Williamson), and sassy best friend, Melissa (Ashley Holliday), egging her on, she enters and wins Eddie's songwriting contest, and worlds collide. As Loren is increasingly dazzled by (and welcomed into) Eddie's celebrity world, he is realizing how unhappy he is, trapped in a machine of his own making and at the mercy of his many fans and demanding manager Jake (Brandon Bell). Meanwhile, Loren and Melissa navigate the intrigues of high school life and mean girl Adriana (Hunter King); Melissa's brother Phil (Robert Adamson) gets mixed up with the wrong people; Eddie's father, 1980s musician Max Duran (Carlos Ponce), hopes to end his son's relationship with the duplicitous climber Chloe Conway (Melissa Ordway), who is cheating on Eddie with the ambitious Tyler (Justin Wilczynski), a struggling actor that worked with Eddie but now despises him for his success and who has mysterious ties with Chloe's hidden past.
Episodes
In the tradition of Latin American telenovelas, Hollywood Heights was conceived as a limited series, in this case 80 episodes, with its storylines resolved by the end of the run. The first 40 of these were broadcast on Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, with the series moving to TeenNick for the remaining 40.