Rising Star

Rising Star is a reality singing competition where the home viewers decide the contestant's fate.

Judges/Experts
Brad Paisley

Kesha

Ludacris

Premise
Viewers download an app on their cell phones & tablets, register and vote on them. Each time they see an act, they must check-in, in order to vote. When the time has come to sing, the contestant(s) stands before a big wall and viewers vote on him/her. The viewers must check-in before they start voting. To make a choice, the viewers must swipe the blue up arrow to vote yes or the red down arrow to vote no (not voting also counts as a no vote). The expert panel also vote on the current act and they count for seven percentage points each (21% total). If the current singer gets at least 70% of the vote, the wall goes up and s/he advances in the competition. Any percentage point score lower than 70% eliminates him/her from the competition. (If a contestant/group was eliminated based on the East Coast votes, the West Coast can save the singer(s) with their votes.) The highest percentage is 93%

NOTE: The green rows on the charts below indicate those who got a by via the west coast votes.

Round 1: Live Auditions
The first three weeks are all qualifying weeks aka Live Auditions, to which those who survive those weeks advances to the next round, the Duels Round. If there is only an odd number of singers/groups moving on, the East Coast and West Coast votes for the non-qualifying singers/groups are combined. The singer/group with the highest total out of all the eliminated contestants will move on.

Survivors
Unselfish was the performer who was initially eliminated but, due to an odd number of performers initially qualifying, was saved by having the highest combined East and West Coast percentages.

Round 2: Duels
20 participants (consisting of the survivors of the first three weeks plus one wild card entry) are not only facing the wall again, but they are also facing each other. This round will also last for 3 weeks and all those shows will be hour-longers (repeats of Castle occupy the second hour). And the 70% goal will be waived.

In the Duels Round, the performers are arranged in pairs. One half of each pair will perform with the wall up and setting the score for the other half to beat. The other halves will perform with the wall down and trying to beat the first score. The performer with the highest score will move on to the Quarterfinals. In addition, one of the 3 losing performers will move on based on the West Coast votes. In case of a tie, decimals are added to the scores. So a total of 13 performers will advance.

First Week
Lisa Punch initially lost but was saved by the West Coast votes.

Sarah Darling got a chance to perform at the Grand 'Ol Opry with Brad Paisley.

Second Week
Sonnet Simmons initially lost but was saved by the West Coast votes.

Third Week
Dana Williams was initially eliminated but was saved by the West Coast.

Round 3: Quarterfinals/Round of 13
The surviving singers will sing once more, but only 8 will move on and the remaining five will go home.

The Final Stage
In the final stage of the competition, four singers compete to win a record contract and the title of "The Next Rising Star".

Trivia
Even this is supposed to be an amateur competition, at least two contestants are already professionals prior to the program.

Link
Official Site