‘Rising Star’ finale review: Was Jesse Kinch, Audrey Kate Geiger, or Austin French winner?

On Sunday night, the finale of “Rising Star” aired on ABC, and it contained a number of surprises. For us, one of the biggest ones was how in the world Kesha managed to get over here so quickly after just being at the VMAs moments before.

Nonetheless, there were four performers in Jesse Kinch, Audrey Kate Geiger, Dana Williams, and Austrin French who were here to give their best numbers possible … but it was clear to us that everyone was going to have a hard time topping Jesse. He dominated the early part of the competition, and after both Dana and Audrey picked songs that were bad for them, we were left with the showdown that we thought we were going to have since the very beginning: Austin versus Jesse.

So who was the winner? After the final performances, we thought briefly that this could be a close contest … with the emphasis on “briefly.” Jesse has always owned this, so of course he won.

So is this really the best way for us to say goodbye to “Rising Star” as we know it? Sure, if for no other reason than that we saw now other winner. Maybe Jesse will work hard and become a star after the fact, but if he does, it is going to be because of his own hard work rather than anything on the show. He has to hope that the label spends a long time developing him, and does not rush an album out there just to fulfill their obligation and sent him packing a few months later.

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Photo: ABC