Broadcast history
The Singing Bee premiered with a half-hour episode on July 10, 2007 at 9:30pm Eastern/8:30pm Central, beating Don't Forget the Lyrics! to the air by one day. The premiere episode was repeated the following night, July 11, 2007, at 8:30pm Eastern/7:30pm Central. On NBC, it was hosted by Joey Fatone. The house band, The Groove, was led by Ray Chew and features: Deanna Johnston, Paula MacNeill, Wes Quave, Tom Sartori, Storm Lee, Kelli Sae, Jeschelle Magbitang, Carmen Carter, Kara Shaw, Leah Shaffer, Karen Ashe, Christopher "C.J." Emmons, Vann Johnson and Chris "Breeze" Barczynski. The back-up singers were Toni Scruggs and Tanya Diona. Dancing to the band are the house dancers, The Honeybees: Ferly Prado Dunn, Monique Cash, Holly Cruikshank, and Lisa Byrne.
Joseph Anthony Fatone Jr. is an American singer, dancer, actor, and television personality. He is best known as a member of the boyband NSYNC, in which he sang baritone. In 2007, he came in second place on the ABC reality show Dancing with the Stars. He was the host of the U.S. and Australian versions of The Singing Bee, which aired on NBC in the U.S. Fatone was also the announcer for the game show Family Feud from 2010 to 2015. Fatone previously hosted on Food Network's Rewrapped, Live Well Network's My Family Recipe Rocks, and The Price Is Right Live! at Bally's Las Vegas.
Ray Chew is an American musician who specializes in keyboards and contemporary and orchestral arranging. Ray Chew is the current music director of ABC's Dancing with the Stars (2014–present). Ray was music director for Fox's American Idol from 2010 to 2013.
Vann Johnson was an American singer who has toured or recorded with artists such as Michael Bolton, Neil Young, The Temptations, and Yanni. She appears as a featured vocalist in Yanni's live concert album and video, Tribute, in which she sang his first-ever song with lyrics, "Love Is All". She is a featured member of the house band, The Groove, for the television show The Singing Bee.
Melissa Peterman hosted the CMT version. The house band, Steve Dorff and the Bee Hive, also featured: Roger Cain, Scotty Kormos, Tony Love, and Jeff Vincent. [2] The singers were Jared Johnson, Baylie Brown, Beau Davidson, Paula MacNeill, Kim Parent, and Bobby Tomberlin. [3]
Melissa Margaret Peterman is an American actress and comedian from Burnsville, Minnesota, who is best known for her role as Barbra Jean in the television comedy series Reba. Peterman has appeared as Bonnie Wheeler in the ABC Family/Freeform series Baby Daddy, and as host of ABC Family's Dancing Fools, ABC's Bet on Your Baby, and CMT's The Singing Bee.
Stephen Dorff is an American songwriter and composer whose work is mainly in the field of country music.
In each episode, six contestants (four contestants in season two) will be selected from the audience to play a series of games that test their knowledge of song lyrics. If a contestant makes an error, he or she will forfeit her chance to get into the "musical chairs". If a contestant is not in a musical chair when the round is over, he or she is eliminated.
In a promo for the show's launch, NBC revived their original 1983 slogan "Be There" as "Bee There".
Due to low ratings, and to make room for The Biggest Loser , NBC put The Singing Bee on hiatus for November sweeps. The Singing Bee returned on December 21, 2007, [4] and aired two new episodes each Friday, before being placed on hiatus again. [5] On April 2, 2008, NBC announced its schedule for the 2008-2009 television season. The Singing Bee was left off this list, and is officially canceled. A spin-off of the show, The Singing Office, debuted on June 29, 2008, hosted by Fatone and Mel B and airing on TLC. [6]
The Biggest Loser is a reality television format which started with the American TV show The Biggest Loser in 2004. The show centers on overweight and obese contestants attempting to lose the most weight; the winner receives a cash prize. There are different variations of The Biggest Loser around the world. Each country has made its own adaptation to the show; however, the contestants always have the same goal: to lose the highest percentage of weight to become the "biggest loser". There is no minimum or maximum weight limit for the show but most males tend to weigh over or near 300 lb (136 kg). Females tend to weigh over or near 200 lb (91 kg).
Melanie Janine Brown, professionally known as Mel B, is an English singer, actress, television personality, and author. Brown rose to prominence in the 1990s as a member of the girl group Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Scary Spice. With over 85 million records sold worldwide, the group became the best-selling female group of all time.
On April 29, 2009, CMT confirmed that it would revive the series in the summer of 2009 with Melissa Peterman as host. [7] The Singing Bee premiered on CMT on June 20 and will now air every Saturday at 9pm. Melissa Peterman confirmed the show was renewed for another season on August 24, 2009. In November, 2010 CMT reportedly picked up the show for a third season. [8] The show's last episode aired on July 23, 2012.
As mentioned, at the start of the show, the band plays a song and the host "randomly" gives audience members a chance to sing part of the song. If they sing it correctly, they become one of the contestants on the show. This part of the show is actually staged, and the contestants are preselected. During this part of the program, you can sometimes see (as the contestants run up to the stage) that the lyrics for the song are being scrolled on a banner over the stage so that the preselected contestants don't make a mistake.
Round 1
The host would provide the year the song was released, the performer, and the name of the song. A portion of the song is performed, and then the contestant has to attempt to sing the next line of the song. If correct, they advance to the next round, and a new song is introduced, which the next contestant in line must attempt; if not, they have to step back, and the next person in line tries the same song. A song is thrown out if none of the remaining contestants get the lyrics correct. The first four people (three people in season two) who get a song lyric correct move on to the second round, and any contestant who hasn't had a chance loses and returns on a future episode.
Round 2
The contestants who advanced go up in pairs to play a mini-game. The winner of the game advances to the championship round. In the CMT version, all four contestants play 3 mini-games for points, the two players with the most points moves on to the Chorus Showdown.
- "Scrambled Lyrics" (Renamed Random Shuffle): To play "Scrambled Lyrics," while the band is performing, words from the next line are shown scrambled on screen. The contestant is required to sing the line in its correct order. When one contestant is correct and the other is wrong at any point, the one who was correct moves on to the Championship Round. On the CMT Version, each correct answer is worth five points
- "Karaoke Challenge": To play "Karaoke Challenge," while the band is performing, the contestant sees the words to the song in karaoke fashion. As the contestant sings the song, he or she will also see blanks, each representing a word in the song. The player who fills in the most blanks correctly (out of a possible 15) wins and goes on to the Championship Round. This round is similar to FOX's Don't Forget the Lyrics! because the contestant is the lead singer in this round. In the CMT version, each blank is worth two points (30 maximum).
- "Blind Start": To play "Blind Start," the band plays the beginning notes of a song. When the band stops, the contestant must sing the opening line correctly. One of the three contestants is eliminated from the second round.
- "Playlist": To play "Playlist," the three contestants are given 6 categories of song which have comical titles. Whichever two contestants have the most points after the 6 songs move on to the next round.
- "Singing with the Enemy": To play "Singing With The Enemy," the band plays part of a popular song. The first contestant must do the next line when the band stops playing. The band then picks up with the line the contestant said and stops. The next contestant continues on with the song. This goes through 3 passes. The two with the highest score move on. On the CMT version, up to 15 points are possible.
The Fox Broadcasting Company is an American commercial terrestrial television network that is a flagship property of the Fox Corporation. The network is headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New York City, with additional offices at the Fox Broadcasting Center and at the Fox Television Center in Los Angeles.
Don't Forget the Lyrics! is an international game show in the United States and United Kingdom. The American show originally aired on Fox from July 11, 2007 to June 19, 2009 and after a year off the air, a third overall season, and first as a syndicated show, began on June 15, 2010 in daytime syndication and in primetime on VH1 and in primetime on MyNetworkTV on October 5, 2010. On March 24, 2011, the show was canceled. There was a UK show which began broadcasting on Sky1 on Sunday, 11 May 2008 and aired its final show on 9 August 2009. There have been many affiliated shows in Europe, in Asia, as well as in Australia, Canada, Egypt, Mexico, Nigeria etc.
Chorus Showdown
This follows a similar format to the first round, but instead of singing a line, the contestant is required to sing the entire chorus without mistakes from the song performed. If both are correct or incorrect (sometimes after two rounds), then they go to a tiebreaker, where they are given the year and the name of the performer and the first person to buzz in will be given the option of singing or passing. If the singer is correct, they win. If the singer is wrong, the other contestant wins.
The winner moves on to the Final Countdown.
In the CMT version, Peterman gives the year, artist, but not the name of the song just yet. Then, the contestant in the lead gets the choice to play that song or pass it, then they give the name of the song.
The Final Countdown
Ray Chew introduces this concluding round by announcing in song: "It's the Final Countdown!" Up to 7 songs are performed in a similar manner to the first round, but the contestant knows nothing about the song, (artist, title, year) and thus must use the lyrics in order to win the big money. For each song lyric that is sung correctly, the player wins $5,000. If the player gets five right, then they win $50,000. However, if they sing a lyric incorrectly, a strike is given. If three strikes are given at any point, the game is over, but the contestant still wins whatever money was accumulated up to that point. Beginning in the second season, the winning contestant also defends as champion title to face three more challengers. On the new CMT version of the show, correctly guessing a song earns $500, and getting five wins $10,000.
Changes for One-Hour Shows
The above format is the standard for a 30-minute episode of the show.
In a one-hour show, several changes are made:
- There are two qualifying games.
- In each game, six players (only 5 for season 2) are picked from the audience to play Round 1, however, the first three to complete a lyric (only 5 for season 2) advance.
- The three players then compete in a Round 2 game. Play continues, including a tie-breaker if needed, until one player remains. In season 2, three rounds are played until three contestants are eliminated.
- The two survivors of the qualifying games play the Chorus Showdown, the last player standing plays The Final Countdown.
- Beginning on August 21, in between some breaks, host Fatone goes into the audience to give an audience member a chance at $500. A question about a song is asked, and if the player gets it right, he/she wins the money. On December 28, two audience members were challenged to the same lyrics. The contestant who will wait is given headphones so that they cannot hear the other contestant until the song is completed. If both contestants are correct, both win $500. If only one is correct, that contestant wins $1,000.
Ratings
The first episode premiered with 13.1 million viewers. It was the biggest summer premiere since ABC's premiere of Dancing with the Stars . [9] The debut episode finished second for the week of July 9–15, 2007, by an extremely close margin. The number one program, the 2007 MLB All-Star Game, beat "Bee" with an 8.4 rating, to the game show's 8.1 [10]
However, The Singing Bee hit an all-time low in the ratings with a 1.7 rating, on October 30, 2007. On December 28, 2007, the show scored a 3.7/7 rating, and came in second place behind Ghost Whisperer , before NBC announced its cancellation. The show would be eventually revived by CMT in 2009, running until 2012.
