Cultural Differences: A Riddle

For the first time in 15 years, I watched a Ukrainian TV show and discovered something interesting. The show consists of not-very-famous singers, actors and performers being given a name of a very famous singer (e.g. Michael Jackson, Beyonce, George Michael, Montserrat Caballé, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Lady Gaga, Edith Piaf, etc.) and then having to imitate this singer as closely as possible.

Here are the show’s ingredients:

1. A performer presses a big button and is randomly assigned the name of a famous singer to imitate.

2. The performer spends a week preparing to imitate the star whose name s/he has been assigned.

3. A very talented skinny young acting coach with wild hair and in a ratty T-shirt assists the performer.

4. A singing coach with a baby grand piano assists the performer.

5. A team of make-up artists transforms the performer’s appearance.

6. Before the transformation, the performer is interviewed by a beautiful show hostess with very black hair.

7. The performer gets into a magical elevator that takes him or her to be transformed.

8. All the performers sing live, making sure their voices sound as close to those of the starts they imitate as possible.

9. The performance is judged by 4 judges, one of whom is an opera singer and one is a famous older stand-up comedian.

10. The performances are judged based on the Eurovision system.

11. The winner of each segment gets a money prize that is donated to his or her favorite charity.

12. The winner has to perform the winning song once again.

13. Each of the performers is randomly assigned a singer to imitate for the next segment of the show.

Now, the question: the Russians saw the astounding success of this show in Ukraine and stole the whole idea. They imitated everything to a T, even the lighting and the scene decorations. There was a single thing among the 13 points that I listed here, however, that the  Russians did not steal. Which of these 13 ingredients of the popular Ukrainian show did the Russians have no use for?