By BILL BRIOUX
Toronto Sun

Turns out that Popstars is even more of a reality show than anyone anticipated.

Yesterday at Global TV's press conference, Popstars producer Michael Geddes addressed reports that some of the members of the Popstars band Sugar Jones feel abandoned now that the series has gone off the air.

"We took five people out of obscurity and made them pop stars," Geddes told TV critics gathered in Toronto. "We put them up in a luxury apartment and gave them per diems. These kids thought that they had won the publishers clearing house prize."

Sorry, kids. Now that the show is over, the five female band members have been kicked out of their cushy Toronto digs and left to fend for themselves.

And that's how it should be, says Geddes. Regular pop stars don't get a free ride. It's dues-paying time.

Sugar Jones currently has a No. 1 single, and shipping orders for the debut album are strong, Geddes says. Now it is up to the record company to guide their career.

And if they have to make that 15-hour ride on the tour bus to get to their next concert, that's all part of being a pop star, says Geddes.

The producer also announced plans to launch Popstars 2 next January. Like the Australian model, the new series will feature guys and gals in a new five-member band.

Auditions are to take place in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal. Last year, 4,000 women between 18 and 25 auditioned to become the first Canadian Popstars.

Geddes expects that mixing horny boys and girls together in the new group may introduce a "sexual dynamic" to the new series. And the audition songs will change. "We won't be using Dancing Queen again," he vows.

Sugar Jones will not be featured in the new series, although Geddes says there is a possibility that Lone Eagle Entertainment would produce a follow-up concert special.

Geddes' next project, Search For A Supermodel, will take viewers beyond the catwalks and into the cat fights. The eight-part reality series, set to debut this September, will follow model wannabees, some as young as 14, to New York as they compete for a contract with the Ford Modeling agency.