Last night (June 22), ABC began its big gamble of the summer with its new reality singing competition Rising Star. The new show experienced a bit of a bumpy start, with an overload of commercials, lack of focus on talent and some awkward hosting moments. But, despite the show's faults, how did it perform in ratings and on social media? The answer is... it did OK.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, initial numbers for Rising Star indicate the 5 million people tuned in to ABC last night, and the program had an average of a 1.5 rating among adults 18 to 49. That's a lukewarm reception for the technologically tied show, which lost out to a new episode of America's Got Talent on NBC, which boasted a 2.1 rating in the key demographics.

Though these are numbers that could make ABC sweat, due to the expensive costs of the show's two-ton wall, smartphone app and experts Kesha, Brad Paisley and Ludacris, the network seems hopeful about the show's prospects, at least on the surface.

Though Rising Star lost out in the ratings race to another competition show, it did lead one thing: social media. According to Deadline, Rising Star was the top social event of the night on Twitter, spawning 129,071 tweets and landing the coveted No. 1 Trending Topic spot on the micro-blogging site. Here, Rising Star beat out America's Got Talent by a long shot. That show only had 59,734 tweets for its May 26 premiere.

The mobile app for Rising Star also showed a glimmer of hope for the reality show, as it surpassed one million downloads last night and was, for a time, the most-downloaded free app in Apple's iTunes store.

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