Auditions

Acts are not pre-announced, and names are called randomly from their waiting room where they are assembled. Only a limited number of the contestants in waiting get the chance of actually performing during the show that day. As a reportage of the randomly announced performer is shown, viewers are invited to register for voting for that specific act. As the candidate makes to the stage, the host has a very brief conversation with him/her. With a countdown of three seconds, the candidate has to start performing behind a screen called "The Wall". With start of performance, the voting kicks in. Registered voters have the option of voting just "yes" or "no". Non-votes are also considered "no" votes. If a panelist (excluding the host) votes "yes", another 7% is added to the tally of the contestant. The contestants also see random photos of voters in their favour. Faces of panelists voting "yes" will also be shown in much larger frames. Once the contestant reaches 70% of "Yes" votes, the wall is raised and the contestant goes to the next round of the competition.^[3][4]

Duels

Contestants who make it through the auditions are paired by the experts to face off in a duel. The first contestant to sing, chosen by a coin toss before the show, sings with the wall up and sets the benchmark for the second contestant. The second contestant sings with the wall down. If the second contestant betters the first contestant's vote total, the wall rises and the second contestant is through to the next round while the first contestant is eliminated; if the second contestant fails to raise the wall, the second contestant is eliminated and the first contestant is through.

Eliminations and final

After the duel rounds, half the contestants perform with the wall up, after which the contestant with the lowest vote total is placed in the "hot seat". The subsequent contestants perform with the wall down, and they have to better the vote total of the contestant in the hot seat to raise the wall. If they succeed in doing so, the contestant in the "hot seat" is eliminated, the contestant with the next lowest vote total is placed in the hot seat, and the performing contestant is provisionally qualified; otherwise, the performing contestant is eliminated if they fail to raise the wall. This continues until the remaining contestants with the lowest number of votes are eliminated. In this stage, each panelist's vote counts as 5%.

The quarterfinals and semifinals follow the same format, except with a lower weightage of the panelists' votes of 3% in quarterfinals and 1% in the semifinals as the number of contestants goes down.

During the finale, contestants are paired into a duel. The first contestant sings with the wall up and sets the "benchmark" for the second contestant. The second contestant sings with the wall down. If the second contestant gets the higher percentage of votes, then the wall rises and the second contestant moves onto the next round of duels. However, if the second contestant's percentage is lower than the first contestant's, the wall stays down and the contestant is eliminated. In the second round, the two contestants that moved on will duel against each other with their second song. The same process applies for this round, except the running vote total is not revealed, both contestants sing with the wall up. The contestant with the higher vote percentage becomes the winner of Rising Star.

Finally, each coach will have his/her best contestant left standing to compete in the finals, singing an original song. From these four, one will be named "Rising Star"—and will receive the grand prize of a recording contract. Warner Music Group is the general record company associated and affiliated with the Rising Star format in most countries.