'Rising Star Germany' Starts Low on Country's Nr. 1 Channel RTL

Jannik Brunke in Rising Star Germany

Interactive singing show 'Rising Star' arrives to Europe's biggest TV market, but ratings are weak.

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Biggest European TV market - Germany - brings local version of 'Rising Star'. But Keshet's interactive singing format doesn't start well on RTL.

'Rising Star Germany' launched on Thursday with 2.25 million viewers (3+) and only 11.9% share in ad-relevant target group 14-59 according to AGF/GfK data. The number is below RTL's 12.7% year-to-date average. Not to mention the fact that talent shows have a good history on RTL channel and are usally stronger. Last season of FremantleMedia's 'Idols' (Deutschland sucht den Superstar) achieved more than 15% share.

Second episode followed on Saturday, August 30, and declined to 10.4% share in 14-59 demo.

'Rising Star Germany' on RTL

Episode 1, Thursday, August 28:

  • 3+ 2.25 million, 8.4% share
  • 14-59 1.78 million, 11.9% share
  • 14-49 1.39 million, 14.2% share

Episode 2, Saturday, August 30:

  • 3+ 1.75 million, 7.0% share
  • 14-59 1.37 million, 10.4% share
  • 14-49 1.09 million, 12.6% share

Few pros of the show are high level of interactivity and strong reach of young demo. According to RTL the Rising Star app was nr. 1 in App Store and there were 5 million interactions (check-ins and votes) on Thursday and 3.7 million on Saturday. Moreover the TV show is strong within young viewers, second episode hit 18.6% share in 14-29 target group, dwdl.de says.

RTL scheduled a total of 10 episodes of 'Rising Star' for Thursdays and Saturdays (Saturday is a typical night for this kind of content on RTL) ending October 2.