It’s ABC day at the Television Critics Association tour taking place in Pasadena CA, and one subject that came up in this morning’s executive session with network president, Paul Lee, was the shaky start for the summer singing competition, Rising Star.
“We were a little disappointed with the numbers, we wanted it a little bit higher,” Lee admitted to the roomful of journalists regarding the premiere’s low ratings.
“It’s a live show — unlike the other talent shows where you get the pre-packaged first episodes — so we sort of had to learn on the roll,” he continued. “I think they learned on the roll extremely well, and the episodes now are really high quality.”
Hm. The quality issue has to do with the singers that were cast. Not much that can be done about that now. Josh Groban has improved as host. But there is still awkward chemistry between “experts” Brad Paisley, Ludacris and Kesha.
“I think that revolution that we did — which is to say now we’re truly giving you live voting — it took about a week to get the West Coast set right. I think you’re going to see that idea roll through reality now, because you now really do have the ability to say, ‘I vote this person [through] now.’”
Yeah….gaming the results of a couple of contestants so that the percentage falls just under the 70% mark, followed by manipulating west coast viewers into pushing the hopeful over the threshold, thereby leaving the impression those viewers actually had an impact.
When a contestant wins the popular vote, but loses a duel after the “experts” purposely refrain from voting for them, that’s not leaving ME with the feeling that I’m voting ANYONE through. See: Sarah Darling beating Megan Tibbets by 12% in the popular vote in one of Sunday’s “Duels”, but losing to her anyway after Ludacris and Kesha (SHE VOTES YES FOR NEARLY EVERYBODY!) withheld their combined 14% of the vote.
Via The Wrap
