Inside Scoop: ABC's "Rising Star"

Tonight, ABC debuts their latest shot at trying to kill off The Voice: a new reality singing competition with a twist, Rising Star. The premise of Rising Star is fairly simple: Americans across the country join together to instantly make or break a potential star... all in real time. Judges (which are present in most reality singing shows) have been replaced by 3 "experts" (an all star cast of Kesha, Ludacris, and Brad Paisley) that supposedly have NO involvement in letting an act move on to the next round -- they actually do get a say in the final number, as they can award a 7 percent boost to auditions they enjoy (a 70 percent or more approval rating is needed to move on to the final round). Additionally, Rising Star uses the blind auditions (even the in-venue audience can't see who's performing) by making all acts stand behind a wall. Reaching the 70%+ threshold will unveil the act to both the "experts" and the audience. They will then proceed to the next round. 

Complicated, but it sounds interesting, no? 

Well there's another issue that most people haven't accounted for: the LIVE airing on the East Coast will be over by the time the show reaches West Coast markets. According to host Josh Groban, West Coast watchers will be able to push artists over with a point boost (sending them to the next round), even if they got less than 70% with all of the other audiences across the country. If you ask me, they're asking for a whole lot of trouble.

According to a recent poll on TV By the Numbers, many commentators believe the show, mangled by an uneven web of airing and LIVE scheduling conflicts, will not only be ridiculously cheesy, they think it will debut with subpar ratings for the ABC network. A massive 46% of poll voters thought the show would debut below a 1.6 rating in the Adults 18-49 category (0.1 off from the actual premiere of ABC's most recent singing reality show Duets; it became a massive flop and was cancelled in mid July 2012 after it sank to a 1.0 rating).

What's you opinion of ABC's Rising Star? Do you think it will give birth to another musical talent, or will it be cancelled on the spot? Will you be watching? Let me know in the comments below.