Those who watched the Sunday, Aug. 28, episode of "Rock Star: INXS" on VH1 know that Canadian singer Suzie McNeil fought for, and won, the right to sing Queen's operatic rock classic "Bohemian Rhapsody."

In the performance show, airing Tuesday, Aug. 30, on CBS, McNeil takes on the challenge, backed by strings and a gospel choir. Considering McNeil forgot the lyrics to her song in her first performance before the members of INXS -- the Australian band using the show to choose a new lead singer -- just making it from the original 15 contestants down to the final six is an accomplishment in itself.

"Look at her transformation," says executive producer (with Mark Burnett and David Goffin) Lisa Hennessy. "There's such a great series arc with her."

The rest of the Tuesday song lineup is hardly a bunch of toss-off tunes. Jordis Unga performs "Imagine," by John Lennon; Marty Casey takes on Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here"; Ty Taylor, also backed by the choir, performs "You Can't Always Get What You Want," by the Rolling Stones; MiG Ayesa takes on "Live and Let Die," by Paul McCartney and Wings; and J.D. Fortune, a former Elvis impersonator, tries to exorcise the ghost of The King by doing his own take on "Suspicious Minds."

"When you sing someone's song," Goffin says, "and they've passed, the burden on you is to do well. All the Nirvana songs we've done this season, doing John Lennon, that's just tough. People expect you not to mess up the memories they have of those songs."

"Rock Star: INXS" had a rough launch in July, both in ratings and reviews. The odd scheduling -- half-hours on Monday and Wednesday, with the one-hour performance show on Tuesday -- didn't help, and some critics have complained that rock 'n' roll's time has come and gone.

Appropriate to a man whose first megahit was called "Survivor," Burnett is no quitter. After NBC passed on a second season of his boxing series "The Contender," he found it a new home on ESPN. He's not even close to giving up on "Rock Star" and claims that he's not the only one.

"Leslie Moonves and CBS have been so supportive," he says. "We haven't heard one negative word. We get phone calls all the time, saying, 'Keep going, it's great, top quality.' We're trending up."

The Wednesday, Aug. 24, one-hour elimination show -- expanded from the usual half-hour -- delivered the most-watched Wednesday of the show's run, going up in both viewers (average highs for the night are 5.77 million viewers) and key demos. For its Tuesday, Aug. 16, edition, the performance show made it into the Top 10 for Adults 18-49 for the first time since its premiere.

But everything's not coming up roses. The Monday half-hour, which focuses on the contestants off-stage, was such a weak performer that CBS switched it over to Sundays on Viacom sister station VH1.

There's no word from CBS about a second cycle of "Rock Star," but in a recent Daily Variety article, Burnett's business partner, Conrad Riggs, said bands have approached the company about future involvement.

"I was on 'American Idol,'" Goffin says. "It was a hit in our first season, and we knew by the end of the first season, we'd have another one. This show, it's tougher because we didn't come out of the week strong -- there's no lying there, we knew we didn't -- but the people who are on this show, everyone believed in it, and nobody gave up.

"And if we fight back, after where we were, and get ourselves a second season, it'll be the proudest thing I'll ever do."

Whatever the show's fate, it's not going to fade away. After the taping of Tuesday's performance show, audience members, the six remaining contestants and the House Band stayed to record tracks for a CD. "Rock Star: Live at the Mayan Theatre" is set to be released on Sept. 20, the day of the series finale, by the newly formed Burnett Records. The distributor is Sony BMG's Epic Records, which has penciled in Dec. 13 for the release of the CD by this new incarnation of INXS.

Tracks on the "Rock Star" CD include Taylor's "No Woman, No Cry," by Bob Marley; Unga's "The Man Who Sold the World," by David Bowie; Casey's rendition of Nirvana's "Lithium"; Ayesa's take on the Kinks' "Lola"; McNeil's arrangement of R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion"; and Fortune's arrangement of "California Dreaming," by the Mamas & the Papas.

Perhaps what makes the producers most proud is that they're allowed to use these songs at all.

"We committed from the beginning," Burnett says, "that the singers would be good, that there would be no William Hungs" -- referring to a marginally talented "American Idol" contestant -- "which was the biggest fear of the mega-rockstars, that someone would butcher their songs.

"The moment the shows got on, the more clearances we got. Can you imagine having to listen to anything tonight, some of those songs, with inexperienced people? Oh, my God."

"We couldn't do a night like tonight," Goffin says, "if we had an 'American Idol' cast. It would be a train wreck, and the record companies wouldn't give us music."

Adds Hennessy, "We've even gotten phone calls from artists, calling our artists to say how great they're doing."