"Wake Up Laughing" This Week

After 16 million in sales and 22 top 10 singles, some artists might be afraid to tinker with success and tempt fate. But not Martina McBride. Following up on her platinum-selling Timeless album, a poignant collection of country classics representing her first effort as solo producer, she's at the production helm again for her ninth studio release, due out on Tuesday.

A great Martina story: It's said that everyone has their "six degrees of separation" and ABC's Primetime is set to prove Martina McBride is no exception. From small town Sharon, Kansas singing in her family band, moving to Nashville, recording demos and soon after signing a record deal. Who are the people who helped Martina McBride fulfill her dreams? Correspondent Jay Shadler visited with Martina in Nashville this week to trace back the early days of "wanna-be-country-singer" and how knowing one person who knew another person led to McBride's lucky break.

Everybody you've ever met is connected to Martina McBride by the 6 degrees of separation theory. To prove the 6 degrees theory, Primetime has selected six people who have three things in common -

A- They do not personally know Martina McBride

B- They live in small towns and remote places around the country and

C- They have the desire to sing and be heard.

The six wannabes will use the theory to meet Martina (who's becoming an accomplished producer) and have her produce a demo on them. Primetime and Sony BMG have teamed up to allow those demos to be heard by music executives - something Martina knows from experience that ain't easy to do.

"To get the chance to be heard in this business, it takes talent first and foremost but it also takes a lot of determination and even more luck," admits McBride. "Looking back, the naiveté it took for me and my husband John to move here with only a few contacts was crazy but one connection led to another and I think you have to believe it will happen and take that chance."

Primetime will capture the journey from their most immediate connection through each step leading them closer and closer to the superstar. They are not allowed to call anyone at random but must use the six degrees of separation concept (made famous in 1967 by social psychologist Stanley Milgram whose experiments suggested that two random US citizens were connected on average by a chain of six acquaintances). No airdate set yet.