The Singing Bee VS. Don't Forget the Lyrics

Television has two new game shows this summer. First there is NBC's new show The Singing Bee the second is Fox's show Don't Forget the Lyrics. Both of these shows follow the same concept. That is the contestants sing their answers rather then just say them. However the set up of both these shows differ to some degree.

The Singing Bee which premiered on July 10^th on NBC is hosted by Joey Fatone. Joey Fatone is best known as one of the male band members of the former singing group N'SYNC. He was also a recent contestant himself on the hit show Dancing With the Stars. All though Joey Fatone is a sweet lovable guy with a great smile, I have a hard time taking his role as a game show host seriously. I can not pin point exactly what it is, but there is something lacking in his role. Maybe it is his lack of interaction with the contestants or comedic rapport that you see with most game show hosts.

The show starts off with the band playing a song and the whole audience singing along to it. Joey Fatone goes down into the audience and goes up to different audience members. Those who are singing the correct lyrics to the song are invited up on to the stage as contestants. In the first round which contains 6 contestants that are asked to finish the lyrics to a song played by the band. Starting in the order in which they appeared on stage. Only 4 contestants can go on to the next round so if the first 4 invited up get the lyrics right the last 2 contestants never have a shot.

In the next round the 4 contestants are asked to finish the lyrics to a song as well. This time they have a list of the remaining lyrics only they are scrambled out of order. Then the next round is boiled down to 2 contestants in which they are once again asked to finish the song with the right lyrics, but like the first round there are no clues. Finally it gets down to the last contestant in which they are asked to finish the lyrics to several songs which determines the amount of their prize.