New ABC Singing Competition RISING STAR Debuts to Sluggish Ratings

By: Jun. 23, 2014
Enter Your Email to Unlock This Article

Plus, get the best of BroadwayWorld delivered to your inbox, and unlimited access to our editorial content across the globe.




Existing user? Just click login.

ABC's new singing competition RISING STAR debuted to sluggish ratings on Sunday, June 22nd, according to Variety.

According to the report, the highly hyped series fell short of network expectations, losing its timeslot to a special edition of NBC's "America's Got Talent", which NBC aired as a defensive strategy against the newcomer.

On a night which also saw the premiere of HBO hit series 'True Blood' as well as the debut of TNT's "The Last Ship," "Rising Star" averaged a 1.5 rating/5 share in adults 18-49 and about 5 million viewers overall on the network's stations from 9 to 11 p.m. During the same timeslot, NBC's "Talent" led with a 1/6 in the demo and 8 million viewers overall.

On a positive note for ABC, "Rising Star" received 129,071 tweets, more than double than what "America's Got Talent" drew when it opened its season last month (59,734) and approximately 30% more than this summer's season premiere of Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance", which garnered 98,888.

The "Rising Star" app, necessary to participate in the show's voting system, surpassed 1 million downloads, the show announced on Sunday. In addition, it was the No. 1 free app at the Apple store for the day.



Videos