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Four contestants braved the intimidating "Wall" of viewer votes on the season finale of Rising Star on Sunday night, but only one emerged victorious — 20-year-old rocker Jesse Kinch was named the series inaugural champion over worship leader Austin French, soulful crooner Dana Williams, and edgy singer Audrey Kate Geiger. All three experts noted Kinch's star power during the final episode of the ABC series, which features a live voting system via smartphone app. "We found a f—ing rock god in the making!" Kesha told The Hollywood Reporter of Kinch, who rocked his rendition of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son." "At the very beginning, when

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“Mr. Groban, tear down this wall!”

Trust me, I’m as surprised as anybody that I’ve managed to rework a famous quote from President Ronald Reagan into an intro for a reality TV recap. But just as the Berlin Wall fueled The Gipper’s ire, so too has ABC’s Rising Star — with its cumbersome “interactive wall” setup, questionable casting and tiresome “experts” — threatened the sanctity of my love for singing competitions.

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It’s a shame, really. The idea of using a smartphone app to vote — and getting real-time results...

Jesse Kinch, a 20-year-old rocker, became the first winner of ABC’s singing competition Rising Star on Sunday night’s finale.

Jesse Kinch Wins Rising Star

Rising Star viewers crowned Kinch the winner of a recording contract with Capitol Records Sunday night, using the show’s live, real time, social media voting. Using the Rising Star app, viewers were encouraged to vote either ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ for each performer, and the ones with the highest percentages of ‘Yes’ would move forward.

Without you I could have never made it to the finals! Eternally grateful. The best fans! @RisingStarABC #RisingStar pic.twitter.com/pQcfZM3xLd

— Jesse Kinch (@JesseKinch) August 18, 2014

Kinch was an early front-runner, having been voted through week after week without need for concern. Kinch always received over 80% Yes votes – more commonly staing at the 88% range. He began the show earning a 92% in his first performance of “I Put A Spell On You.

Off the top of my head, I’d like to throw out a few important new guidelines for Season 2 of Rising Star — while acknowledging that the months old, unchecked Powerball ticket in my wallet is as likely to make all my dreams come true as ABC’s woeful reality-singing competition is to return in 2015:

1. If the show’s “experts” are going to pretend to be “mentors,” then they should never ever allow a wide-eyed 16-year-old girl to sing lyrics about being a “for-a-good-time-call” party girl. #RIPManeepatMolloy

2. Ke$ha must agree to a four-hour nap and five Red Bulls prior to any live telecast.

It goes without saying that ABC's singing competition series Rising Star has pretty much been a failure. Not only is it tanking in the ratings, but the overall talent on the show is pretty weak. However, that doesn't mean there's not any bright spots. Just look at The X Factor, which didn't always have the strongest talent but sometimes there were fantastic acts like Alex and Sierra.

And the same can be said for Rising Star. During this week's Quarterfinals, there were bad notes all over the place, along with some terrible song choices. But one singer stood out to me -- and that was Audrey Kate Geiger, who performed Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind." When she performed this tune, I was reminded of previous covers on shows like American Idol and The Voice.

It won’t be easy, but for the first three paragraphs of tonight’s Rising Star quarterfinal-round recap, I’m going to be unabashedly positive, determined to grab the reins and hold back any/all negative commentary. I won’t even take the easy road with deliberately neutral reporting like, “I saw Kesha’s side-boob” or “host Josh Groban wore socks emblazoned with carnivorous fish.”

Ummmmmmmmmm… sooooo…. let’s see here… Audrey Kate Geiger’s “New York State of Mind” was exquisitely phrased and deeply felt; if I’d paid money to watch her in some smokey jazz lounge (with...

Quick, say something nice about Rising Star! And no, “it’s no longer clogging up my DVR with its tuneless discharge” does not count as “nice.”

Maybe I ought to go first? Ummm…

Ok, ABC’s reality singing competition is putting my math skills to good use. (That hinky “percentage of people who vote yes” + “7% for each judge” metric does occasionally tickle the brain.)

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Also, host Josh Groban almost completely faded into the backdrop this week — thereby reducing the chances that this...