CBS announced Friday that Rock Star: Supernova, this summer's new edition of the Mark Burnett-created Rock Star: INXS reality talent competition that the network aired last summer, will premiere on Wednesday, July 5 at 8PM ET/PT.
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A special Thursday broadcast of Rock Star: Supernova's second episode will follow the next day's premiere of Big Brother 7: All-Stars, after which the series will settle into its regularly scheduled Tuesdays at 9PM ET/PT and Wednesdays at 8PM ET/PT time periods.
As previously announced, Rock Star's second season will look for a lead singer for Supernova, a newly-formed band comprised of former Motley Cre drummer (and former NBC reality show star) Tommy Lee, former Metallica guitarist Jason Newsted, and former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke. First season co-hosts Dave Navarro and Brooke Burke will both return for Rock Star's second edition.
Unlike its initial season, Rock Star will air only twice-weekly on traditional television. Last month, Mark Burnett Productions and MSN announced that the second season's behind-the-scenes episodes, the pre-taped weekly half-hour broadcasts that ended up airing on CBS's former VH1 sister network for most of the show's first season, will "air" exclusively on MSN's Rock Star website. Despite the change, CBS will still air two hours of Rock Star programming each week -- although the network won't air the half-hour behind-the-scenes episode, Rock Star: Supernova's Wednesday results show will retain the expanded one-hour format that the series adopted during the later part of its first season run.
Burnett had originally envisioned Rock Star's behind-the-scenes episodes as one of the key features that would distinguish it from other reality talent competitions like American Idol, however last summer's viewer response to the show's initial thrice-weekly broadcast schedule was lukewarm at best. While the show rebounded pretty well as its season went along, Rock Star: INXS struggled mightily during its first month on the air, causing CBS to drop the behind-the-scenes episodes (originally broadcast on Monday nights, the day before the show's Tuesday night performance show) after only three broadcasts.
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Instead, having already reportedly contracted to pay "in the neighborhood of $50 million" for Burnett to produce 38 episodes of Rock Star: INXS, CBS decided to move the behind-the-scenes show over to cable's VH1 network (at the time, CBS and VH1 were both Viacom networks, however as a result of the company's recent split, the two networks are no longer part of the same corporate parent.)