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Every week, msnbc.com entertainment producers Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, Denise Hazlick, Paige Newman, Kurt Schlosser and Anna Chan weigh in on topics ranging from TV commercials to movie hype to the latest celebrity blunder. We're not ashamed to admit our love for bad TV or reveal what's on our iPods, and invite you to join the conversation via your comments.



'Singing Bee': Tips for would-'Bee' winners

Posted: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 6:05 AM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
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I'm a big fan of misheard lyrics, especially the hilarious ones. I love Web sites such as KissThisGuy.com and have been known to make a few embarrassing lyrical mistakes myself. (Who knew Duran Duran was singing "It means so much to me...like a birthday or a pretty view." "Preview" made perfect sense to me. Who doesn't love a good movie preview?)

So you'd think I'd love "The Singing Bee," but ... not so much. The contestants are marked wrong for miniscule errors, and they have to not just know the words to the song in question, but the words to the song as sung by a particular artist on a particular recording, to avoid questionable answers. But I may be alone: "The Singing Bee" topped the Nielsen ratings last week, with 13.5 million viewers, and NBC has given the show a spot in its fall lineup.

Host Joey Fatone, fresh off "Dancing With the Stars," and the two "Singing Bee" creators, Phil Gurin and Robert Horowitz, talked about the show on a Tuesday panel.

SHOWS TIMES TWO
"Singing Bee" beat FOX's "Don't Forget the Lyrics" to air by one day. Creator Phil Gurin said he wasn't bitter about the similar show, but Fatone joked "I was bitter, because Wayne Brady (a high-school classmate of Fatone's) is hosting that show, and he's a good friend of mine. ... Pissed me off really badly."

JOEY AS CONTESTANT
Fatone said he's often stumped by the lyrics himself. "I'm terrible at it," he admitted. "I look at the cards, and I'm like 'Is THAT what the words are?' " But there was one song that didn't stump him: On the very first episode, *NSYNC song "Bye Bye Bye" was among the offerings. "(The contestant) messed it up. But I knew the lyrics!" said the former *NSYNCer, proudly.

Fatone also shared a story of his own forgetfulness: On Broadway, while acting in the musical "Rent," he completely blanked in the middle of the show. "It was like pulling teeth to say anything, and literally nothing was making sense out of my mouth," he shared.

TIPS FOR WOULD-'BEE' WINNERS
Want to be on the show? Obscure musical tastes won't help: The producers note that the songs will always be mainstream popular music, from Elvis to holiday songs to commercial jingles. Beatles music is not yet available to the show, but solo songs by the four members, as well as Paul McCartney's Wings tunes, are fair game.

Which version of the lyrics to sing? Gurin said that Fatone will always "pin a song" to a specific artist and a year. He noted that album lyric sheets, live performances, and various recordings can all differ. Contestants need to parrot the exact version called for.

Think you can study up? Gurin disagrees. "You're not going to cram for this show," he said. "You have to spend a lifetime listening to the radio and listening to music."

What are the casting directors looking for? This is not "American Idol," where only the best-voiced singers make it on, but don't pull a William Hung, either. Said Gurin: "We want personality, we want them to be telegnic, they obviously have to have some knowledge of music. ... we like them to be able to at least carry some tune." Full casting information is online here, if you're interested.

 

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Comments

I think this show and the other new one, "Don't forget the lyrics" are great ideas.  What I really like is that after having watched both of them, they are fairly different from each other.  Yes, on both of them you have to sing the correct lyrics to popular songs, but the format for how each show does this is totally different.  On the "Bee" you have to compete against other contestants and its very fast paced, which in today's reality TV shows is highly unusual.  "Don't forget the lyrics" is your typical reality game show where they stretch it out for an hour, possibly longer, where they take commercial breaks every 5 minutes while leaving you "hanging" to see if the contestant got the right answer, which if you just pay attention to the previews and the time on the clock, you already know if they got it right or wrong.  While the million dollar prize on "lyrics" is much nicer than the $50k and the trophy on the "bee", as a viewer I have to go with the fast pace "Singing Bee" as the winner between the two shows for me.  As a contestant, I'm all about "lyrics", I would be the fool who puts the half a million on the line because I would be 100% sure that the Million Dollar song was one I knew...then I'd probably lose it, but that's what these shows are all about.  Plus, I'd be pretty impressed with the producers of either show if they could stump me :)

Candice (Sent Wednesday, July 18, 2007 1:28 PM)

Despite this absolutely proving that I have way too much time on my hands, I actually wrote to the Singing Bee folks because I checked the lyrics to Smashmouth's song All-Star and on the commercial the words the show said were correct were wrong.

Shannon, KCMO (Sent Wednesday, July 18, 2007 3:22 PM)

Both of these shows are lame!!  This whole prime time game show dramarama stuff just needs to go away. They may start off as interesting novelties, but I don't want to watch these as regular programs 2, 3, or more nights a week for 8 months. And I think there are more people that don't want to watch this garbage either!

Wm, Medford OR (Sent Wednesday, July 18, 2007 5:23 PM)

I myself personally like the 'Singing Bee' because I love to sing, even if I don't know the correct lyrics. I was watching it last night and one of the songs was 'Mickey' and I knew all of the lyrics, but on the next song I didn't know any of them. I think this so is very entertaining, the way the contestants get into it by dancing and what-not. I haven't seen 'Don't forget the Lyrics' yet but i heard it's good, but it has to come with it to beat the 'Singing Bee' in my eyes

Sharnezia Mitchell, Taylor, TX (Sent Wednesday, July 18, 2007 7:35 PM)

Please listen to the girl singing "I want to know what love is". She sings "to change this lonely LOVE" instead of lonely life. I think the guy was jipped because he got 14 right and that is all she got right.

Rich, Jenners PA (Sent Wednesday, July 18, 2007 7:38 PM)



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