Reflecting the international nature of its talent search -- a search that was conducted in twenty cities on six continents -- beginning tonight, Rock Star: INXS viewers in nine countries will have a chance to have their votes determine which contestants will survive each Tuesday performance round.

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Although both CBS and Rock Star producer Mark Burnett have been promoting the show's home audience voting element for over a year, the poor explanation provided in last night's premiere broadcast has resulted in some false media reports that unlike Fox's American Idol, Rock Star: INXS will not feature an audience-voting component -- it will. However unlike Idol, rather than viewer votes entirely deciding who goes home each week, Rock Star's voting will instead only determine which three contestants are facing elimination, with INXS's band members still making the ultimate decision as to which of each week's three lowest vote-getters will exit the competition.

Following each Tuesday broadcast in which all the competition's remaining singers will perform, viewers watching worldwide will have a four-hour window (the actual times of which may vary by region) to cast their vote for their favorite Rock Star performer. In the United States, viewers will be able to vote online via rockstar.msn.com and MSN Messenger's instant messaging (unlike Idol and ABC's recent Dancing with the Stars, Rock Star will not feature traditional telephone voting.) Verizon Wireless subscribers will also be able to vote via text messaging.

Viewers in Canada and Australia will also be able to vote either online or via text messaging through their local wireless carrier, while viewers in Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia will only be able to vote via text messaging. Similar to the "popularity contest" aspect of American Idol, each Rock Star viewer will be able to vote as many times as they want.

Once the viewer voting from Tuesday's performance broadcast is tabulated, the three lowest vote-getters will once again perform on Wednesday's half-hour results show broadcast, after which INXS's band members will decide which of the three contestants will be eliminated from the competition.

Rounding out Rock Star's thrice-weekly schedule will be Monday's half-hour broadcasts that will feature taped Big Brother-like segments focusing on the contestants activities in the Hollywood Hills house in which they reside. After that, the show's performance cycle will begin anew with the next day's Tuesday night broadcast.

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