Hanna Montana, a creation of Michael Poryes for Disney Channel, debuted on television sets of America on March 24, 2006.
This teen oriented comedy-drama musical series tells about a girl who lives a double life as a teenage school girl by day named by Miley Stewart and a famed pop star named Hanna Montana by night.
Coming from her Tennessee hometown, she arrives at Malibu and adjusts her lifestyle with a hush-hush. This secret has been kept all along from the public, with only her family and close friends aware of this. The lead role for the series is played by Miley Cyrus who, alongside thousands of aspirants, auditioned to land for this coveted character. She shares the limelight with Billy Ray Cyrus, who portrays Robby Stewart, her real and reel father.
The show’s first episode attracted 5.4 million viewers, making it the highest rating for a Disney Channel television series episode ever. Meanwhile, on its regular time slot, it has continually captured a large following drawing an average of 3.5 million viewers. For two consecutive years since it first aired, it has ranked #1 series among kids 6-14 on US cable. Hannah Montana is also being shown on 27 Disney Channels and free-to-air broadcasters around the globe, plus streaming in broadband video over DisneyChannel.com in six languages. Overall, it reached 164 million unique viewers around the world. Parallel to the show’s success, its soundtrack was also well received by the fans which debuted Number 1 in the US Charts, selling 281,000 copies on its first week of release, making it the first ever TV soundtrack to debut at Number 1, outperforming the sales of American rock band My Chemical Romance and Grammy-award winner John Legend in their release week. It has then sold over 1.6 million copies in two months and 8 million copies worldwide. Miley Cyrus also set a record of six debuts on the US Singles Chart, following her Hannah Montana portrayal, an achievement no other artist has ever done.
With its astounding reception and the popularity it has attracted worldwide, stardom have taken over the lives of the actors and actresses, most especially, it has greatly brought Miley Cyrus to the top with numerous movie starrers and album recordings. But fame has taken its toll on the Cyrus family and fame has brought them down, with father Billy Ray Cyrus citing the show, Hannah Montana, to be the reason why his very own family has been ruined. Evident to this is the unbecoming behavior of daughter Miley who was seen in a video smoking in a bar during her 18th birthday. It even caused a rift on his marriage with wife Tish, now in the courts for divorce. When asked if he wishes that Hannah Montana has never happened, he has this to say “”I hate to say it, but yes, I do. I’d take it back in a second. For my family to be here and just be everybody OK, safe and sound and happy and normal, would have been fantastic.”
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