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Could Rising Star be the next big thing?

While The Voice has The Chairs, Rising Star has The Wall.

2013-10-03_1544With TEN keen to rebrand itself as an Event TV channel (and they’ll only achieve that with Live broadcasts) I couldn’t help but wonder if Israel’s latest talent show Rising Star might be worth a look.

Nine and Seven are already stocked up on singing shows, so it’s hard to see them being too interested in this new format which is getting a US adaptation.

Yes Rising Star is a singing show but its point of difference is the way it uses second screens to pool audience votes.

As we know, the hook for The Voice was those chairs and blind auditions. But despite the enthusiasm for zeebox, Fango and JumpIn I’ve only seen limited use of second screens in conjunction with real time live results on Australian television.

Rising Star asks the audience to vote Live via second screens and gives out the result in the same episode. No more tuning in the next night to see what the phone voting results.

But rather brilliantly, it would seem, it has found a way to visualise it into the format, so that the audience feels a direct connection.

While The Voice has The Chairs, Rising Star has The Wall.

As the Hollywood Reporter notes:

When a performer comes out on stage, he or she is separated from the studio audience, and the judges, by a translucent floor-to-celling LED screen. As the performer begins to sing, the judges and viewers at home vote on the performance. Images of voters at home, gleaned from their Facebook pages, appear live on the LED screen facing the performer as the votes are tallied. Only if a singer wins over a certain percentage of the audience – 70 percent in the original version of the show – does the wall rise and the singer then steps out to accept the applause of the live studio audience.

In a final twist, the judges have far less power in determining the winners. A vote from the four judges counts 7 percent each toward a contestant’s score. The remaining 72 percent of the vote comes from the audience.

Viewers become virtual judges. Shades of Black Mirror perhaps?

As Avi Nir, CEO of Rising Star producer Keshet explains:

 “There is a lot of talk about second-screen applications and most shows like this have them, showing lyrics, trivia or whatever,” Nir says. “But while most second-screen apps run parallel to the show, here the app is completely integrated into the show itself. You can’t do the show without the app and vice versa. Without the second screen, there is no show.”

 All of this compels the audience to watch the Live broadcast, rather than to Timeshift, addressing one of Free to Air’s biggest problems.

The show debuted to a phenomenal 44.7 percent market share in primetime on Israel’s Channel 2 network, seven times the rating for its nearest competitor. Ratings have actually increased since, topping 49 percent for the third episode of Rising Star, which aired this past Sunday.

Rights for Rising Star are with Keshet International (Prisoners of War), which has an Australian arm headed by David Haslingden.

The format is being shopped at MIPCOM in Cannes this week where all Aussie networks are looking for new content.

27 Responses

  1. Love the format but please no more singing/talent/reality shows!!! Its killing Aussie TV!!! We don’t need it!!! It might be a good backup to X-Factor or the Voice though.

  2. @tomothyd: The way I imagine they would make money off of it is by taking your personal data (like how The Voice let you vote using a Facebook app).

  3. Looks like they’re adopting the ALP model of voting 😛 I was pleasantly surprised at the second screen idea because that is actually a really good idea and I don’t mean in a gimmicky way like The Voice (although the wall led me to believe it was heading that way).

  4. Would be great to see it work here is Aust but WA would be the problem.
    It will be interesting to see where it is programmed in the US as they have the same time zone problems but they also tend to programme shows later there than Aust.

  5. Which is exactly what Seven should do with X Factor – 7.30 east coast, 7pm SA, and 5.30 on 7TWO or mate in WA replay at 7.30.

    I often wonder – every time Luke says “Live across Australia” or “your live decider” if those lines are edited out for those not on eastern time?

  6. I agree with Mr. J. When the Australian public vote, they usually make the wrong decision. I think a talent show should be up to judges exclusively but that will never happen.

  7. Agree with jtshadow65 – ten is heading to oblivion if they consider more reality crap, especially after this year and last years dismal results …. not to mention the all the years of failed reality shows on ten ….

    Looks like the bachelor is headed for doom as Marvel agents wiped the floor with it last night …. ten, how many failures do you have to have until you get the message? or will the shareholders send the message to you?

  8. Wouldn’t work unless the show went live to every capital city, and due to timezone differences, it wouldn’t. I like the idea though, always thought that live voting on talent shows would be a great move.

  9. dont like the idea of the viewers having 72% of the power. Australians are terrible at voting, judges should have more power to idiot-proof the format.

  10. It won’t be the next big thing purely on the basis that it seems a very negatively driven show based on judgment. The Voice broke out because it was not only a shake up of the singing competition, but because it was an optimistic, judgement free zone– where it also managed to squeeze in cheesy ‘oh they’re getting voted in purely based on their voice, not their looks’.

    Meanwhile this seems like a show that is pure judgement, and somewhat vicious and isolating in nature…

  11. Speaking of Black Mirror coming true – a Wired story (wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/09/lifenaut/) claims some digital innovators are trying to develop a way for your digital life to live on separate to your actual life.

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