La Academia USA is the first musical reality show with only Hispanic contestants launched by Azteca America in October 2005. The auditions were done nation-wide and a total of 30 people were chosen to go to Mexico where they would have to spend a week working hard and showing all of what they had inside to be chosen to the final 18.

The first La Academia USA concert was on November 20, 2005.

A week before the first concert, there was a special show that lasted two hours. In that show, footage from the auditions was shown. At the end, 12 of the 30 were eliminated leaving the lucky 18 that Azteca America had chosen to become the first generation of La Academia USA.

One of the participants was Michael Muenchow, who was previously on Telemundo's song-based reality show Nuevas Voces De America in 2005; he was one of the 18 selected. Michael lives in San Antonio, Texas and made it to the top 13 final singers, before being expelled. His vote off was one of the results that caused the most uproar among viewers and the teachers alike. This was also true for the premature elimination, in the eleventh concert, of Diana, whom many thought would become the winner of La Academia USA for her great voice, big popularity among the public and the good comments by the critics.