TV by KP - "The Singing Bee" vs. "Don't Forget The Lyrics"

Welcome to tonight's heavyweight bout between NBC’s “The Singing Bee” and FOX’s “Don’t Forget the Lyrics”.

We here at TheTwoCents have watched both and are going to give you the punch by punch run down of the two shows!

Let’s go to the play by play!

Bee – Joey Fatone welcomes us and introduces himself, the band kicks right in with “I’m So Excited”.
Lyrics – Slow Motion Clips of contestants from the next few weeks and a random announcer saying what the show is about.

Bee - Joey dances and runs through the audience pushing the microphone into audience members’ faces. If they sing it right when he goes by, they go to the stage to play.
Lyrics – Ricky Miner and the band hits the theme and Wayne Brady welcomes us and introduces himself.

Bee - 6 people got it right and they are tonight’s contestants!
Lyrics - They bring tonight’s one contestant, Katie Moeser, to the stage. Wayne interviews her a little about biology, bugs and knitting.

Bee – Roll the quick video logo and the theme song written for the show. Joey gives a quick introduction on how the show works and starts round 1.
Lyrics – Wayne unveils tonight’s categories: 1980s, Classic Rock, Country, Divas, Girl Bands, Pop, Rhythm and Blues, Rock, and Rolling Stones. He then talks to Katie a little more about her favorite category.

Bee – Round one - the six contestants stand in a line. In a random order they step forward one by one. Joey tells them the year and the artist and the song title. The band starts to play and when they stop you have to sing the next few lines.
Lyrics – If Katie makes it up to the top of the scale she wins 1 Million Dollars.

Bee – Contestant #65 gets “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night. He gets it right and gets to go to the Musical Chairs meaning he’s in the next round. #3 gets “Venus” by Bananarama. He gets it wrong. #43 gets it wrong. So does #28, #96 and #120. Back to #3 who gets “Maneater” by Hall and Oats. He gets it and moves on to the musical chairs! #43 steps up for “Losing My Religion” by REM. She gets it and moves on too! #28 steps up for “Maniac” and gets it right. The 4 musical chairs are filled and #96 and #120 have to go home.
Lyrics – Katie picks R&B and gets to choose between “I Just Called To Say I Love You” by Stevie Wonder and “Have You Seen Her” by the Chi-lites. She chooses Stevie Wonder. She says hi to the band, Wayne explains that band will play with the words on the screen, then the words stop and she has to sing the next few words. She gets a whole verse and most of the chorus while Wayne stands there and sways back and forth. Then, they take her 4 words she sang. Put it on the screen. “Are you confident?” Wayne introduces the 3 backups (life lines) she could use. If she’s secure in it, she can “LOCK IN THOSE LYRICS” and then we get to see if she’s right or not. (Seriously, this is a new show, not Millionaire). Her lyrics turn blue when they are locked in, if they correct, they will turn green and if she’s wrong they turn red and she goes home with nothing. She gets it right and is going for $5000. She picks ROCK category. Picks “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night (yes, again) over “Hard to Handle” by the Black Crows. Verse – Chorus – and her next 4 lines are on the screen again. Wayne leans in, “are you sure?” She locks it in and is correct. We are going to $10,000. Katie chooses Divas. She picks “Material Girl” by Madonna over “New Attitude” by Patti LaBelle. Apparently Material Girl is her karaoke standard, yes, the contestants talk like on those other shows. Band stops, she sings, her lyrics on the screen, is she sure? Locks it in. She’s right. We will continue, after the break. And then they show clips of what is after the commercial break. Just in case you forget to turn it back on you’ll have an idea of what happened.

First Commercial Break Number of Songs Performed
Bee – SIX
Lyrics – THREE

Bee – Round 2. The 4 remaining contestants are now identified by name. Step up from their line and have new songs. The words they need to sing are scrambled on the screen in front of them and they need to sing them in the right order when the band stops. James and George step up together. Whoever gets it right when the other gets it wrong moves on to the 3rd round. The first song – Joey is very excited to announce – N*Sync “Bye Bye Bye”. (Smart move to do this in the first episode). James does the dance, but can’t get the words right. If George gets it right, he moves on. George gets “Alone” by Heart. He rocks it and moves on. Bye Bye Bye James! Next 2 contestants. Autumn and Gussie step up. Autumn sings “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” by Pat Benatar. She BUTCHERS it. Gussie skips a word from “Addicted to Love” by Robert Palmer. Back to Autumn. “Beds are Burning” by Midnight Oil (Great song by the way), Autumn had NO idea how the song went, got it wrong. Gussie moves on to the next round by rocking “Tush” by ZZ Top. Joey sends it to commercials as the band kicks up “Bye Bye Bye” again and Joey breaks out the old choreography. Again – great move by acknowledging where he came from and not trying to hide from it.
Lyrics – Wayne “sets the picture” for us by recapping the first 7 minutes we just watched. $25,000 rung. If she gets this right she will go home with at least that much. (Sound familiar?). Katie picks Girl Bands and chooses “Walk Like an Egyptian” by the Bengals instead of “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge. Verse and Chorus AND a music break for this song. (Having performed at Karaoke bars, there is nothing worse than a music break in a karaoke song) and another verse. Her lines go up on the screen. Is she sure? She talks out her thought process (yup, just like Millionaire). She uses her “back up” of 2 Words where she can pick 2 of her words to see if they are correct or not. They were both correct. The heart thumping and music and the lights – all the same as all the other shows. She locks it in. Wayne tells us AGAIN that she gets nothing if this is wrong. Music – lights, music builds….she’s right. NO DUH! She’s going to buy a microscope and biggest ant farm $25,000 can buy. Let’s move on. Going for $50,000. She can choose her category…… “RIGHT AFTER THIS BREAK”. I kid you not, Wayne said that. No this isn’t my Idol recap. Then the clips from the “After the Break”. Seriously folks, what is the point of that?

Second Commercial Break Number of Songs Performed:
Bee – SIX
Lyrics – ONE (yup, one)

Bee – Round 3. George vs Gussie. This round – when the singers stop, the contestants have to sing the entire chorus of a song. George is first and gets “All Star” by Smashmouth. HE GETS IT RIGHT! Word for Word. Gussie’s turn. He gets “Sweet Home Alabama”!! OH MAN!! He threw in an extra word and Gussie has to go home. George is tonight’s Singing Bee Champion! He gets to go to the bonus round for a chance to take home the $50,000!!!! The beauty is these bad singers only have to sing like 4 lines at a max.
Lyrics – Wayne recaps the full show for us again. $50,000 rung. Katie chooses Pop as her category and “ABC” by the Jackson 5 and “Bad Day” by Daniel Powter. She has to get 5 missing words. Wayne stops and pulls a ‘random’ guy out of the audience. Wayne and this guy stand behind her and dance as back up singers. This guy is not at all embarrassed. Random – yeah right. Full verse, chorus again and then into the bridge and back into a verse. Her words are up, she locks them in. Wayne says: “There’s only one thing to do right now…….go to commercial.” Yeah, love that. Then we have our clips from the final section…The bad thing is that this bad singer has to sing like MOST of the lines from these songs.

Third Commercial Break Number of Songs Performed:
Bee – TWO
Lyrics – ONE

Bee – Bonus Round called “The Final Countdown” and yes the band launched into “The Final Countdown” by Europe. George gets 7 songs to sing parts of. He wins money for each correct song and if he gets 5 of the 7 correct, he wins the $50,000. If he gets three wrong, he loses everything. He’s not told the titles, the band just starts playing and George has to pick up where the singers leave off. He sings “Walk Like An Egyptian” wrong. He gets “Bohemian Rhapsody” correct! Next up is “I’m Too Sexy” and George is a model of correct. “Cold Hearted Snake” is no problem for George as he gets that one right too! Only 1 strike and 2 songs left to go. George can’t handle “Heart of Glass” by Blondie. 3 right, 2 wrong. Sing it with us… “You keep on shouting, you keep on shouting…. I…. Wanna Rock and Roll ALL Night….” “And party EVERYday!!” Yeah, you knew it didn’t you? Well, so did GEORGE! Last song! “Do You Love Me?” Yes we do George! You’re our champion! He got it right, the confetti guns go off! It’s mayhem. Joey, George, the band the audience sing Rock and Roll All Night as we end the show.
Lyrics – Once again we get a recap from Wayne. She doesn’t want to use any more backups. Wayne reveals each word at a time to see if they are correct. Heart thumping music, light guns, etc etc etc. Wayne pauses…stalls…makes a crude joke…And ya know what? She’s right. Lots of jumping up and down, music and lights going crazy. She’s going for $100,00! She chooses Classic Rock category and she will pick the song to sing…. TOMORROW! They just end the show and we get clips for tomorrow night. We see her sing at least 3 OTHER songs so we know she’s not going home until at least 2 or 3 more categories. Is that a teaser or a spoiler?

Final Round Number of Songs Performed:
Bee – SEVEN
Lyrics – NONE (yup, that’s less than 1).

So, let’s recap shall we?

Show’s Titles:
"The Singing Bee" - inventive, cute, refers to the style of show and gives it a little bee logo.
"Don’t Forget the Lyrics" – could this be less inventive? If the guy who came up with this was working for CBS, they may have a show called “Annoying People Stranded On A Beach With No Food Who Compete In Silly Challenges And Every Week Someone Goes Home, Oh Yeah, Jeff Probst Is In It.” Be sure to catch APSOABWNOFWCISCAEWSGHOYJPIII this fall on CBS!
Winner: Bee (by a mile)

Hosts:
Bee – Joey Fatone: Former Boy-band member from N*Sync. Was just featured on the world wide phenomenon “Dancing With The Stars”.
Lyrics – Wayne Brady: Grandma’s favorite talk-show host from a few years back, and recently featured in ABC Family repeats of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”.
Winner: Bee (close one though because I really do like Wayne Brady from improv)

Format:
Bee – Just like a spelling bee, you’re lined up with numbers on your chest. Six people start the first round. The band kicks in to gear and they start to sing the lyrics to very well known songs. The band stops and you have to sing the next few words. We go through three different rounds where people are eliminated as we go through. The final winner of the day plays a bonus round to win all the money.
Lyrics – It’s Millionaire/Fifth Grader/1 v 100/Deal or No Deal with a karaoke machine. One person competes. You have a scale of money prizes that you climb up with each correct answer. You have 3 life lines/saves/cheats/back ups. You keep playing until you’re wrong or you reach the top value. Could happen over multiple shows.
Winner: Bee (More contestants, more chances, every show is self-contained, no “tune in next time to see what happens”.)

Top Prize:
Bee – The champ of each night can win up to $50,000
Lyrics – If you make it all the way up the scale you could win a $1 Million
Winner: Lyrics (by $950,000)

House Bands:
Bee – unknown musicans. Dressed in flashy outfits. Multiple singers for every style. And 4 girl dancers in little bee colored outfits.
Lyrics – the house band from American Idol. But they don’t use singers, the contestants do all the singing.
Winner: Tie. (The flashy and singers are better from Bee, but the dancers aren’t needed. The Idol band has rep from that show.)

Show Progression:
Bee - has three different kinds of music singing rounds.
Lyrics - has the ladder of prize money.
Winner: Bee

Bee has six contestants.
Lyrics used one tonight and she’s back tomorrow.
Winner: Bee

Bee has a champion every show.
Lyrics has “to be continued”.
Winner: Bee

Bee used Joey Fatone to sing/dance “Bye Bye Bye”
Lyrics let Wayne and an Audience Member step-touch behind Katie.
Winner: Bee

Bee performed a total of TWENTY songs.
Lyrics performed a total of FIVE (three of which were before the first commercial break).
Winner: Bee

Bee is something we haven’t seen before.
Lyrics is literally Who Wants To Be A Millionaire with Music.
Winner: Bee

Bee goes into commercial with fun, excitement and a song for the audience to sing.
Lyrics goes into commercial with a line robbed from Ryan Seacrest.
Winner: Bee

It’s a land slide! KO for Bee.

I give “The Spelling Bee” a B+ and I think it’s VERY entertaining. People could watch this and sing along at home and have fun.

I give “Don’t Forget The Lyrics” a D-. Only thing saving it from an F is Wayne Brady. With all the locking in the lyrics, contestant thought process and dramatic music – it’s just plain boring.

What do you think? What are your TwoCents about these shows?