La Academia (The Academy) is a Mexican reality musical talent show shown on TV Azteca, that premiered in June 2002 and it's currently in its tenth installment. Although the show itself is not affiliated with the Endemol franchise, which includes the "Star Academy" shows, it does share the competition format of many of the variants of the global franchise.
Over the first seasons, the show was a reliable dominator of its time-slot, which was shown by its triumph over Televisa's Operación Triunfo Mexico. The rival show, which shared the basic premise of "La Academia", was only produced for one season before being replaced by Big Brother VIP Mexico and Bailando por la boda de mis sueños. The Televisa reality show was in fact the official Endemol entry in Mexico. However, the last seasons have had declining ratings, being defeated by the mexican version of The Voice, produced by Televisa.
The show has been franchised to other countries: Azerbaijan (Akademiya), Malaysia (Akademi Fantasia), Indonesia (Akademi Fantasi Indosiar, it will be rebranding to Viva AFISTAR and will be aired on MNCTV began 2011), United States (La Academia USA).
Read more about La Academia: Format, Contestant Summary, Prizes, Seasons, Discography, Tours, Groups Formed After La Academia, Spin-Offs, International Version