*Rock Rivals screens each Wednesday at 9pm on ITV1*

Ex-EastEnder Michelle Collins and former Coronation Street star Sean Gallagher prove that anything goes in love, war and TV talent shows in a glitzy new drama.

Backstage gossip from ITV1's hit talent show The X Factor always makes headline news. Now Rock Rivals, a new eight-part drama from the makers of Footballers' Wives, lifts the lid on what really goes on behind the scenes of a top-rating TV talent contest.

Rock Rivals centres on the turbulent on and off-screen relationship between husband and wife team Karina and Mal Faith, played by Michelle and Sean, who are both judges on the biggest talent show in town, Rock Rivals. When Mal has a fling with his assistant Jinx, Karina files for divorce and decides to play dirty...

To make the show authentic, producers had help from some very reliable sources. The X Factor's Mr Nasty himself Simon Cowell was involved early on in the production - but life imitated art for fellow judge Louis Walsh who apparently had his scenes cut.

Just like the real thing, each episode of Rock Rivals will see one of the 'contestants' being booted off the show within a show. And, in an exciting twist, the viewers at home will get the chance to vote for who should triumph.

Two endings have been filmed, with different hopefuls being named the winner - but whoever receives the most votes between the penultimate and final episodes will have a real song released as a single.

Michelle believes that now's the perfect time for a drama like Rock Rivals. "People always moan that there's too much reality television and ask, where is all the drama," she says. "Well, this is a drama that has come out of a reality show. I think it was something that was waiting to happen. It's very now."

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