“Rising Star,” U.S. television’s first singing competition where viewers will have the final say in real time about who advances, premieres with a two-hour episode at 9 p.m. tonight on ABC.
ABC announced in November that it ordered 10 episodes of “Rising Star,” which is based on an Israeli series that drew both record ratings for its broadcast and second screen participation, the amount of viewers who are also using a computer while watching.
Each of the first three episodes will be two hours, all featuring a total of 10 solo performers, duos and groups found from a series of seven auditions held from coast-to-coast or online submissions.
The remaining episodes will each be one hour. There will be three weeks of duels, with acts competing one-on-one, which will be followed by two quarterfinal episodes, the semifinals and finals.
“Rising Star” differs from other singing competitions on U.S. television because viewers will vote in real time via an app to determine who will advance.
“Oftentimes, shows like this take audiences for granted,” said singer-songwriter Josh Groban, who will be the series’ host. “Giving so much power and control to the audience is a way of saying to them, ‘We trust you.”’
Before each performance, voters are asked to check in. When it is time to vote, participants swipe blue to the right to vote yes or red to the left to vote no. The performer can see how the voting is going throughout the performance.
“You are changing somebody’s destiny as you punch a button on your phone,” said the country star Brad Paisley, one of the show’s three expert panelists. “It’s going to be so much fun to see somebody’s life change right away.”
To increase the emphasis on viewers watching from home, a wall blocks the studio audience from initially seeing the performer. When a performer reaches 70 percent yes votes, a wall rises, revealing the act to the studio audience.
The app is available for free from the Apple App Store, Windows Market Place and the Google Play Store. Voters are required to register with their Facebook or Twitter accounts.
Although “Rising Star” will air on a delayed basis in Pacific Time Zone, viewers there can save an act, who will advance by receiving at least 70 percent yes votes from the region’s viewers, even if the act did not receive 70 percent yes votes from the rest of the nation where it airs live.
The other expert panelists are the electropop singer and singer- songwriter Kesha and hip hop artist and actor Ludacris.
“What I love about this panel is that it’s such an ecclectic mix,” Groban said. “Each one of them is at the top of their field of a very, very different genre from the other.”
Tonight’s premiere includes two acts from the Los Angeles area, Maneepat Myra Molloy, a 16-year-old classical crossover and pop artist who moved to Los Angeles from Thailand last year, and the San Gabriel Valley-based boyfriend-girlfriend duo Daniel & Olivia.
Molloy was the first-season champion of “Thailand’s Got Talent” in 2011 at the age of 13. Following her victory she performed regularly with the Siam Sinfonietta and Bangkok Opera, at the Thai National Film Association Awards and in Paris, China, Singapore and the U.S., singing in six languages.
Daniel Wolfe is a 24-year-old graduate of UC Santa Cruz, where he studied economics and mathematics, before beginning a career as a business analyst.
Olivia Thai is a 25-year-old voice teacher and music academy owner who studied history at UCLA and plays piano, violin and guitar.
