By Emily Yahr June 23 at 2:50 AM
Ludacris, Kesha, Brad Paisley and Josh Groban. (Bob DAmico/ABC)
Even though its been proven repeatedly that were on reality TV singing show overload at this point, ABC ignored all the red flags and premiered Rising Star on Sunday night, a new competition that promises to be different than all the others.
That part is true: It relies solely on people downloading an app and voting in real-time. But otherwise? Its pretty much just your standard singing competition series. There are contestants, judges, a banter-y host, sad backstories, a record contract prize; the only difference is that theres a lot more technology involved. At the end of the day, though ABC has hyped the show like no other, it was ultimately a pretty lackluster viewing experience.
As a result, here are some of the lessons learned from watching the two-hour premiere Sunday night:
1) How this show actually works.
A lot of vague phrases like app and panel of experts have been tossed around as the network tried to describe the show before it started, but heres how it actually works in action.
Just like The Voice, the show travels the country and looks for the best singers, so you wont see any train wreck auditions. They each get one minute and 30 seconds to sing one song on stage in front of a live studio audience. Each contestant is placed behind The Wall (which host Josh Groban said is the most important part of the show), an enormous ceiling-to-floor interactive screen between them and the experts, Brad Paisley, Kesha and Ludacris and the audience.
Then, the voting starts. To vote, people at home need to download the Rising Star ABC app (so, they also need an iPhone, iPad or Android device) and sign in via Facebook or Twitter. Right as the contestant is introduced, Groban tells everyone to check in on their app if they dont check in, they cant vote. Once checked in, viewers can swipe to the left (blue) to send the person through to the next round, or right (red) to reject them. (If you check in but dont swipe, your vote counts as a no.) While the show is heavily billed as the only show where America gets to decide! the experts get a say: Brad, Kesha and Ludacris each get a vote too, and their opinion counts for 7 percent each of the actual total.
As soon as a person gets at least 70 percent yes votes, then the wall magically rises and they can face the audience and experts, with praise lavished on them when the song is complete. If the total of yes votes doesnt hit 70 percent, the wall remains down the whole time. And when the song is over, the singer has to go through a sad little door to and listen to the experts explain why they didnt make it through.
Oh, and when you vote, you can choose whether or not you want your picture shown; if you do, your face could wind up on the giant wall. And the contestants see the wall in real-time just like the audience, with the amount of yes votes in a thermometer-type graphic that shows if its rising or not. So they can see if theyre inching toward 70 percent, or completely failing.
2) The only way the West Coast can participate is helping singers who get rejected.
So, how does the West Coast come into play if the show is totally live in Eastern, Central and Mountain time? It doesnt, really the only way the votes matter is if a singer has been rejected in the initial airing. The West Coast gets to vote, too, and if they vote higher than 70 percent, then the person is saved, and they can go through to the next round. No word if the contestants are allowed to lobby people on Twitter for that sort of save.
Anyway, it works like this: In the West Coast feed, the viewers see how the East Coast voted. Then, while the experts are talking, a small graphic appears on screen that says Did the West Coast save [contestant]? The thermometer is shown on screen again to illustrate how the West Coast voted.
Six people made it through the premiere, and four were eliminated: Duo Daniel & Olivia, boy band Beyond 5, Colin Huntley and Summer Collins. None of them got 70 percent of the vote on the West Coast, though, so they stayed rejected.
3) The high stakes are pretty anti-climactic.
The main problem with the show is that the exciting part is supposed to be watching the interactive wall for the votes to tip past 70 percent so the contestant can move on. The only issue iswell, its not very exciting to stare at a wall, no matter how many fun graphics fly by.
It even seems to affect the energy of the live studio audience because the singer is behind the wall, theyre simply watching the contestant perform on a screen. If the wall is lifted, the singer comes out in person. But otherwise, the studio audience may as well be watching at home.
4) Reality singing shows rely more heavily on the judges personalities than youd think.
Brad, Kesha and Ludacris werefine. Luda even had a few funny moments, including taking matters into his own hands and pressing no on Brads voting device when a lame singer was performing. But mostly, the judges didnt seem very connected (literally, they were sitting on these weird airport lounge chair/desk contraptions that looked very far away from each other) and mostly didnt banter with each other at all. As The Voice has shown us, judge chemistry plays a huge part, and this trio has a long way to go.
5) Its never a good idea to have more talking than singing on a singing show.
Understandably, this show is complicated, so it took awhile to get started the introductions at the very beginning (including some stilted conversation between Groban and the experts) seemed to drag. There were very few contestants at the start of the show, though they sped through a bunch at the end; it probably should have been the other way around to capture peoples attention.
Anyway, heres how the first 10 Rising Star contestants fared:
Joshua Peavy, 28, from Soperton, Ga.
Sang: (Everything I Do) I Do It For You Bryan Adams
70 percent of the vote? Yes experts loved his voice.
Lisa Punch, 21, from Brooklyn (by way of Georgetown, Guyana)
Sang: How Will I Know Whitney Houston
70 percent of the vote? Yes experts adored her.
Maneepat Myra Molloy, age 16, from Los Angeles
Sang: Con Te Partiro Andrea Bocelli
70 percent of the vote? Yes Luda wasnt convinced, but Kesha and Brad liked her a lot.
Daniel & Olivia, (Daniel Wolfe, 24 and Olivia Thai, 25) from San Gabriel Valley, Calif.
Sang: Counting Stars One Republic
70 percent of the vote? Nope this couple had a cute story but their performance was just not good. Ludacris made a horrible face and gave a thumbs down almost immediately, and later told them it sounded like drunken karaoke. (Kesha was nicer: If this is what youre supposed to do, keep fighting for it.
Jesse Kinch, 20, Seaford, N.Y.
Sang: I Put a Spell On You Screamin Jay Hawkins
70 percent of the vote? Yes experts were obsessed with them.
Beyond 5, (ranging ages from 16 to 19), Nashville
Sang: Wake Me Up Avicii
70 percent of the vote? Nope Kesha liked them because they were a boy band from Nashville, but they didnt really stand out.
Sarah Darling, 31, Nashville
Merry Go Round Kacey Musgraves
70 percent of the vote? Yes Maybe a little unfair that shes an established Nashville singer/songwriter (she and Brad have some mutual friends) but she claims shes never had her big break.
Colin Huntley, Age 16, Georgetown, TX
Sang: Sing Ed Sheeran
70 percent of the vote? Nope the experts agree he chose the wrong song and his falsetto rang, well, false. I hate voting no it makes me feel really bad inside, Kesha confessed.
Summer Collins, age 18, Fayetteville, N.C.
Sang: Classic MKTO
70 percent of the vote? Nope in fact Ludacris appeared to fall asleep.
Macy Kate, 17, St. Petersburg, Fla.
Sang: Me and My Broken Heart Rixton
70 percent of the vote? Indeed the highest score of the night. And technically she was a surprise performance, as a random person who had put an audition video on Instagram and had no idea when she attended the premiere she was going to be asked to perform.
Emily Yahr is an entertainment reporter and pop culture blogger for the Style section. She joined the Post in May 2008, a week before she graduated from the University of Maryland, and worked on Lisa de Moraes' TV Column and blog.
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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/06/23/rising-star-premiere-5-lessons-learned-from-the-highly-hyped-but-lackluster-show/
