Thousands of Jamaicans watched the first live auditions of the all-new talent search show, Digicel Stars, which aired on Television Jamaica (TVJ) on Sunday.

At the close of the Digicel Stars audition line, nearly 23,000 people from across Jamaica submitted their recordings by calling the audition line or using the BlackBerry App - in the hope of being part of TV's newest talent show.

The first live audition show featured the contestants who made it to the final leg of the auditions for the Montego Bay area. The contestants brought the hype and entertainment and viewers finally got to see what the new show was all about.

Terri-Karelle Reid reprised her role as the main host along with the four mentors. The new talent show, aired on TVJ, featured a new talent search competition format which focuses on developing the contestants through the guidance of mentors from four different genres - gospel, Jamaican sound, pop and R&B/soul.

The first audition show introduced the four mentors: International recording artiste, D-Major for R&B/soul, veteran songstress, Carlene Davis, for gospel, Executive and Creative Director of Ashe Performing Arts Company, Conroy B. Wilson for Pop and Executive Producer of Equiknoxx Music Group, Derrick Coffie, for Jamaican sound.

Executive Producer for Digicel Stars, Michael Hogan, is delighted at the support of the Jamaican public who took advantage of the convenient audition lines.

"With Digicel Stars, Jamaicans will be one step closer to fulfilling their dreams to become not just Jamaica's stars, but international stars. Digicel Stars is helping Jamaicans make their dreams a reality and, with the support of our new mentors who will share their experience in the industry with contestants, we guarantee that Jamaicans will thoroughly enjoy the show right through to the grand finale," Hogan said.

Digicel Stars is a new talent series being broadcast on TVJ from June to September and is the first of its kind in the Caribbean to feature artistes selected by music genre. The selected artistes will be mentored throughout the series with the grand final taking place in mid-September.