The Singing Bee on NBC - My New Fave Fall Show!

A few weeks ago, I was flipping through television channels, trying to find something to watch. My husband and I watch a lot of reruns and DVD's, so neither of us are very familiar with the newer prime time television shows. In looking for something entertaining, I stumbled across NBC's new show, "The Singing Bee." The first thing that caught my attention was the host, Joey Fatone. Fatone is a former NSYNC member, so he was very recognizable to me. I love music and am fairly good at remembering song lyrics, so I decided I'd watch it and see what I thought. The result? I thoroughly enjoyed it and now try to watch it every Tuesday night at 8PM. One thing I noticed quickly is how true their slogan is: "You don't have to sing it well. You just have to sing it right!" There is always a wide range of people on the show, of all ages and races...and definitely with different "talent levels," as I'll nicely call them! But it's all in good fun and I think it makes for great entertainment.

Here is how it works. As with some other game shows, like The Price is Right, contestants are first randomly selected from the audience, and then they line up on stage for the first round. For the first round, Fatone (host) first introduces the song. He does so by telling everyone the year the song was released, the name of the song, and the band or singer who performed it. Following that, the house band ("The Groove," with frontman Ray Chew) begins to play the song. Then the singer will drop out, while the band continues to play, and the contestant that's up must successfully sing the entire next line of the song. They will accept absolutely NO mistakes. I learned that early on! Just like with a spelling bee or any other competition like it, answers must be perfect! If the contestant gets it correct (which happens less often than you may think), they advance to the second round, and a new song is introduced for the remaining contestants. If they get it wrong, the same song is repeated for the next contestant, until someone gets it right, or until everyone has had a chance to answer. This continues until three contestants answer correctly and therefore advance to round 2.