A Disney Channel spokeswoman confirmed a report in Peoplethat Demi Lovato, the star of Sonny with a Chance who took time out to seek help for personal issues, won’t return to the kiddie show that made her a star. The 18-year-old actress told the magazine that “it made sense for me to go ahead and leave the show to focus on my music. It’s kind of sad for me that a chapter of my life has ended but there couldn’t be a better time for me to move on.”
Call it High School Musical: the series. OrGlee with original music. Disney Channel is fast-tracking what is described as its most ambitious series yet. Tentatively titled Madison High, the single-camera comedy is still in development but preliminary casting has already begun and a formal pilot order is expected to follow. Just like HSM, Madison High employs the break-into-song-and-dance format to tell the stories about 11-16 year-olds navigating the school social hierarchy. It is set at Madison High, which is trying to build a revolutionary theatre program, and follows a pool of students who, by the end of the year, will have produced an original piece based on their lives. The Office alum Lester Lewis, who worked with Disney Channel on another music-driven single-camera comedy, Jonas L.A., is writingMadison High, which he is executive producing with Paul Hoen.
