Partly inspired by the many spinoffs of the
Hunan Satellite Television's
Super Girl, the competition was open to any female contestant from ages 18 through 32 regardless of her origin, appearance, or how she sings. Many applicants travelled long distances to take part in the competition hoping to become a star. Each contestant was allowed 30 seconds to perform in front of judges and find out if they were selected for the preliminary regional rounds. Following the selection of contestants in the five regions, the competition began with the preliminary rounds. Preliminaries were held in each of the five locations where auditions were located. Television viewers were able to watch each of the preliminaries and vote for their favorite singers. Voting was conducted by
telephone and
text messaging. The regional preliminaries were followed by a weekly broadcast
knockout competition held in
Xining,
Qinghai province. Viewers called in to vote for their favourite singers, and the weakest two—as voted by the judges and the audience's weekly
SMS— faced-off subsequently in a
PK, short for
Player Kill. The term is derived from kill-or-be-killed multiplayer
online games. The singer with the fewest votes was then eliminated. ==Season summary==