Canadian interest in getting brand exposure on yet another American Idol clone was iffy until last week’s surprise announcement that our own George Stroumboulopoulos had beat out many other candidates for host of The One: Making a Music Star – and that CBC would be simulcasting the ten-week series with ABC beginning July 18.

That’s when the phone started ringing off the desk of Jamie Michaels, director of customer marketing at the Ceeb.

‘With George winning the host spot and bringing a lot of excitement and credibility with him, the interest level among Canadian advertisers was definitely piqued,’ says Michaels. ‘And the evidence of that is that, within days, Kraft Canada came on board with Kraft Dinner.

‘It’s a full sponsorship including opening and closing billboards, promotional air time and media around that. The KD logo is already attached to promotional spots which began running on CBC on July 13, and it’s in our print material, including ads in some dailies.’

Kraft Canada sponsored the just-wrapped Hockeyville series as well as supporting Hockey Night in Canada for several years. The company’s interest in sponsoring The One, says Kraft’s director of media Sandra Cifersons, is that ‘A key consumer insight for Kraft Dinner is the importance of self-expression. And music is a natural vehicle for self-expression, making it synergistic with The One.’

Michaels says that CBC is currently ‘in discussions with some other sponsors and we should be able to release those names very soon.’

Produced by reality pioneer Endemol USA, The One will be broadcast to 23 countries and feature 11 contestants attending a music academy while competing for a major recording contract. As with American Idol and Canadian Idol, the contestant-eliminating results of viewers’ votes will air the following night.

A veteran music expert, Stroumboulopoulos was a producer and host of MuchMusic’s The Punk Show, The NewMusic, Loud and MuchNews before joining CBC 18 months ago. He will continue as host of The Hour when it moves to a late-night slot this fall. Whether he will have time to also host a Canuck version of the series, to be called The Canadian One, is still up in the air, along with timing of its debut.

What’s not in doubt, at least for fans of gorgeous George, is that he will make both Ben Mulroney and Ryan Seacrest look like yesterday’s news.