USA NETWORK'S HIT COUNTRY MUSIC TALENT SEARCH NASHVILLE STAR RETURNS FOR SEASON THREE AND CALLS OUT FOR AMERICA'S NEXT GREAT COUNTRY MUSIC STAR

Nationwide Local Market Auditions Kick-off in Long Beach, CA on October 25th; Season 3 to Premiere in March 2005

LOS ANGELES -- October 18, 2004 -- Nashville Star, USA Network's original grassroots talent search series to find America's next great country music star, will premiere its third season in March 2005 on USA Network, it was announced today by Jeff Wachtel, USA's executive vice president, original programming.

"We're going to shake things up when we bring Nashville Star back for a third season," said Wachtel. "We're adding a few twists to the format that will heighten the competition and make a great show even better."

Libby Hansen, USA's vice president, alternative programming, added: "Nashville Star is going to reflect what's happening on today's country music scene. It's young and fun and we want our cast and the show to be the same."

Nashville Star will launch a national casting tour beginning at the Cowboy Country in Long Beach, CA on October 25th from 10:00 am ? 4:00 pm and continuing on to eighteen cities across the U.S. and one city in Canada. In each city, those auditioning will have one minute to perform a song off an approved song list. The talented and lucky ones will be invited back the next day where they will have a chance to sing either two cover songs from the approved song list or one song off the list and an original song. The top contestants will then proceed on to one of four regional competitions where they will again audition for a chance to appear on the show. The auditions are open to women and men, ages 18 and over, who think they have what it takes to become the next Nashville Star!

Updated information on auditions (including cities, locations and times, song lists and applications), as well as show news can be found exclusively on http://www.usanetwork.com/nashvillestar/.

As in the past, the winner of next season's Nashville Star will receive a major music recording contract with a top-level record label, and will go on to join the ranks of Buddy Jewel (winner ? season one) and Brad Cotter (winner - season two), whose careers were both launched by Nashville Star. Jewell's debut CD, titled Buddy Jewell, was produced by Clint Black and entered the Billboard Country Albums chart at #1. His debut single, "Help Pour Out the Rain (Lacey's Song)," was a top-5 hit on the Billboard country airplay chart, after making the highest charting debut by a solo country artist in over a decade (since the introduction of the Nielsen BDS system in January 1990). Just last week, Cotter's debut CD, Patient Man, entered the Billboard Country Album chart in the top five. Now with sales of over 30,000 copies, it establishes him as one of only three new country artists this year to realize first week sales of this magnitude.

Nashville Star will continue to be broadcast from the BellSouth Acuff Theatre in Nashville.

Nashville Star is created by Reveille and executive produced by Ben Silverman ("The Restaurant," "Coupling") and H.T. Owens ("The Restaurant," "Blow Out"). Jeff Boggs will executive produce in association with Reveille. The show is produced by Jon Small ("Garth Brooks Live From Central Park," "Billy Joel Live at Yankee Stadium") and his production company, Picture Vision along side co-executive producer Mark Koops ("The Restaurant," "Blow Out"). Jason Cornwell serves as casting producer.

REVEILLE, a joint venture between Ben Silverman and NBC Universal Television Studio, develops, produces and distributes new and non-traditional programming formats for television and motion pictures across a variety of genres, including comedy, drama, game, and reality for American and international markets. In addition to selling television formats for independent producers such as NBC Universal Television Studios (USA Network, Sci Fi Channel), BBC Worldwide, Renegade and Princess Productions, Reveille sells its own produced program formats such as "The Restaurant" (NBC), "Blow Out" (Bravo) and "30 Days" (FX). Reveille also distributed the internationally renowned, award-winning "911" documentary and is a world leader in creating integrated marketing opportunities for leading advertisers, developing alternative financing paradigms and selling and distributing television formats in markets worldwide.

Reveille has produced projects such as, "Coupling," "The Restaurant", "The Biggest Loser" and coming in 2005 "The Office: An American Workplace" for NBC. Cable projects include "Blow Out" for Bravo, "The Club" on Spike, USA Network's "Nashville Star" and the Morgan Spurlock project "30 Days" for FX Networks.

USA NETWORK is cable television's leading provider of original series and feature movies, sports events, off-net television shows, and blockbuster theatrical films. USA Network is available in 82% of all U.S. homes and is seen in over 88 million U.S. homes. The USA Network Web site is located at www.usanetwork.com.

USA Network is a program service of NBC Universal Cable a division of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience.