Rising Star (Israeli TV series)


HaKokhav HaBa is an Israeli interactive reality singing competition, which was first broadcast on Channel 2 from 17 September 2013. It is based on the Rising Star franchise created by Keshet Broadcasting. The show is a continuation of the former program Kokhav Nolad which featured aspiring singers competing for a winning title. The program's format combines the internet, smartphones and television and is filmed live.
The shows inaugurative season in 2013 was won by Evyatar Korkus. Since season 2, the winner is given the opportunity to represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest. 2014–2015 winner Nadav Guedj represented Israel in 2015 with "Golden Boy" 2015–2016 winner Hovi Star represented Israel in 2016 with "Made of Stars", 2016–2017 winner Imri Ziv represented Israel in 2017 with "I Feel Alive", and 2017–2018 winner Netta Barzilai who went on to win the 2018 contest with "Toy". Kobi Marimi won in 2019 and represented Israel on home soil in Tel Aviv. Eden Alene won the 2020 contest with the song "Feker Libi", but was unable to represent Israel at that year's Eurovision Song Contest, which would be cancelled after completion of qualifying due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Format

As the season begins, each contestant is asked to perform a well-known song in front of judges. After the song, a vote is taken among judges whether to transfer the applicant to the test stage facing the audience at home. If the judges are not sure about how to vote, the contestant is required to perform another song, and then a decision is made.
Contestants who do move forward must then sing in front of an audience. Viewers then connect with an app at makoTV and decide in real time whether a contestant passes or does not pass.
Judges also influence the test stage - all judges may support the promotion of the contestant and thereby add 8% percent if there are five judges or 10% if there are four. Once the contestant reaches 70% of votes they "pass" and the screen opens and the contestant goes to the next level. 14 singers then move on to a section where the judges and the audience at home vote. At the final stage, four singers are left and one will be elected "The Next Star".

Seasons overview

Season 1 (2013)

This season host is Assi Azar and the co-host is Esti Ginzburg. The judges are Rita, Zvika Hadar, Muki and Rani Rahav. Eyal Golan judged the program until his suspension on November 20, 2013, and after four days was replaced by Muki.

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The winner of season two would represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015.

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This season was named "The Next Star to the Eurovision"
The winner of season three would represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.

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The winner of season four would represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. The show is hosted by Yael Goldman joined by Assi Azar and Rotem Sela. The presiding judges are Keren Peles and Harel Skaat who were judges in the previous two seasons joined by new judges Assaf Amdursky and the duo Static and Ben El Tavori.

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Israel participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 as the Israeli broadcaster Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation for the first time collaborated with the commercial broadcaster Keshet and Tedy Productions which organized the reality singing competition HaKokhav HaBa L'Eurovizion to select the singer to represent Israel, while the song was chosen by a committee of the Israeli broadcaster. Four contestants reached the final, Chen Aharoni, Jonathan Mergui, Riki Ben Ari and Netta Barzilai. The season was won by Netta Barzilai, the first woman to win the series. As a result, she represented Israel at Eurovision Song Contest 2018. She went on to win the contest in Lisbon with the song "Toy" earning 529 points.

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won the show with 383 points, beating runner up Keteryah and third place Shefita. Kobi represented Israel at Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with his song "Home".

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This season was announced by the IPBC to be the last season featuring the Eurovision. Next year, the representative of Israel to the Eurovision will return to be chosen by the Kdam Eurovision, and this show will return to be a regular singing reality show, like it was in the first season.
The Eurovision singing contest for this year was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the representatives for the cancelled competition will be moved to 2021 instead.

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International versions

After the success of the Israeli series in 2013, many television stations throughout the world bought the rights and started broadcasting similar series.
The American television network ABC began airing its first series of Rising Star in June 2014 from Los Angeles. The US edition was also carried in Canada, with advertising simultaneous substitution and voting access on CTV. The show was canceled after its full 10-episode season due to low ratings in its target demographic, and extremely low ratings on the German and French versions.
Another major broadcaster RTL Television launched a German language version in Germany. But following reported poor ratings on its early shows, it announced it was bringing Rising Star Germany scheduled final forward airing an extended one-day finale between 20.15 and 00.00 to decide the winning performer, rather than completing the full 10-episode scheduled season originally planned.
The UK ITV channel bought the rights, but canceled its scheduled launch citing lower-than-expected viewership in similar launches in the United States and Germany. Canale 5 also bought the rights to an Italian version of the show, which was also canceled during development for unexplained reasons.
French television M6, with its first season, launched in September 2014 keeping the title Rising Star. The French version had a shortened season due to low ratings. The Italian television Canale 5 launched its version as Rising Star.
Other broadcasters that adapted the series include Argentine Telefe as Elegidos , Brazilian Rede Globo as SuperStar, Chinese CCTV-3, Greek ANT1, Hungarian TV2 as Rising Star, Indonesian RCTI as Rising Star Indonesia, Portuguese Televisão Independente as Rising Star: A próxima estrela, Russia-1 as Артист , and Turkish TV8 as Yükselen Yıldız. The Russian version of the show had a shortened season due to low ratings on the French and German versions, while the Portuguese and Brazilian versions became quickly popular, but neither lasted more than three seasons; the Brazilian version ended in 2016 after three seasons due to declining viewership. The Indonesian version is the longest-running version of the show outside of Israel.