The Chinese version of Rising Star fares badly due to regulations

China’s television regulators are notorious for peculiar rules on how TV programmes should be made. Now there is a new victim. Rising Star, a reality show and music competition from Israel, made a record of exporting to more than 30 countries within half a year, but it has not fared as well in China.

For the three episodes that it has run so far, its views came out of top 5 among other shows of similar type in the prime time. This is not surprising since the successful elements in the original mode are all stripped away in the Chinese version.

The biggest change made to the Chinese version is how the winner is decided. Whereas in the original mode, viewers vote to decide which singer is the best, in the Chinese version, the winner is eventually selected by a group of judges, who are professionals in music. This change is made because of a rule set out by the regulators that winners of reality shows should not be decided through viewers’ direct voting. The government seems to fear any voting in a TV show will arouse a thirst for democracy among its people. Yet the government’s fear might be real, because it is evident that people do have an appetite for casting votes. Before this rule was introduced, large “turnouts” were seen on music competitions like Super Girl, or Chaoji Nvsheng. And fans of the candidates would do whatever it took to persuade their friends and family to vote via text messages or online.

Another factor that has prevented the show to have voting that appears in the original mode is that in China talent shows are not allowed to broadcast live at all, except the last episode of no more than 90 minutes. The Chinese version of Rising Star, therefore, is recorded two hours before it is put on the air. This leads to the lack of involvement of its viewers. Were it not for this rule, the Chinese Rising Star could make good use of the popular social networking software, such as Weibo and WeChat, to involve all the viewers at the same time.

The presenter of the Chinese version, who is from the CCTV, the mighty state-run television, is also much criticised for the dull way he presents. Criticism says his way of presenting fits a communist propaganda show more than a music show.

All these factors contribute to the disappointing performance of a show that has proven successful elsewhere. Now more and more TV programmes outside China, like BBC’s Top Gear, are aiming to crack this populous market. Instead of duplicating the original show altogether in this country, many have chosen to find a Chinese partner and localise the show with Chinese hosts. But still, they could fall in traps that they do not expect.