BuzzSugar

Separated at Birth: "Don't Forget the Lyrics" and "The Singing Bee"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 12:15:07 -0700

Fox and NBC kicked off their karaoke wars this week with the premieres of "The Singing Bee" and "Don't Forget the Lyrics." While I was secretly hoping the shows would slink away into "National Bingo Night"-style obscurity, "The Singing Bee" became the summer's most-watched program on Tuesday, and "Lyrics" held its own on Wednesday (it also airs another new episode tonight). Lest you be confused by the similar-sounding shows, I've put together this handy guide to help you tell them apart:

	"The Singing Bee"	"Don't Forget the Lyrics"
Network	NBC	Fox
Host	Joey Fatone	Wayne Brady
Prize Money	$50,000	$1 million
Cute Mascot	Cartoon bumblebee	None
Use of "Walk Like an Egyptian"	Yes	Yes
Philosophy	"You don't have to sing it well; you just have to sing it right"	"Can you keep singing when the music stops?"
Obvious attempt to embarrass the host	Contestants had to sing "Bye Bye Bye"	None yet
Go-go dancers	Yes	No
Descended from	The National Spelling Bee	"Who Wants to be a Millionaire"
Similarity to actual karaoke	6 out of 10	9 out of 10

Photos courtesy of NBC and Fox

Buzz News Roundup, 7/11

BuzzSugar — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:31:40 -0700

Kevin Spacey is all set to reprise his role as Lex Luthor in the next Superman movie - though the film won't go into production until director Bryan Singer completes his movie based on the life of Harvey Milk, says Variety.
According to Hollywood Reporter, Guy Pearce and Don Cheadle will star together in an espionage thriller called Traitor.
"The Knights of Prosperity" will return to TV for its final four episodes in August, writes the Futon Critic.
Bruce Springsteen is planning to release another album with the E Street band, Fox News reports.
Claire Danes is set to play Eliza Doolittle in a stage production of Pygmalion, the play that inspired the musical My Fair Lady, Variety reports.
Peter Berg will adapt his cousin Buzz Bissinger's Barbaro story into a movie, Zap2it reports; a similar arrangement between Bissinger and Berg spawned the Friday Night Lights movie.
Breakout hip-hop star T.I. is dominating the music charts, according to Billboard.
The AP reports on a new James Bond novel titled Devil May Care, written by Sebastian Faulks and due to come out in 2008.
TV Guide tells us that Tuesday's premiere of "The Singing Bee" was the most-watched network program in six weeks, ever since the "House" season finale.

Source

Fox and NBC Launch Karaoke Wars

BuzzSugar — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 08:30:00 -0700

Earlier this week, I mentioned that "Don't Forget the Lyrics," Fox's new singing reality show, sounded an awful lot like "The Singing Bee," a similar show that NBC has planned for fall. Well, NBC thought so too, and it's going to hustle and throw its show on the air early, so it will premiere July 10 - beating Fox's show by one day. Given that it wasn't supposed to air till fall, the show currently has no host, prizes or rules. Hey, what's better than a karaoke competition show? A poorly conceived karaoke competition show!

I'm guessing the conversation at NBC this week went something like this:

NBC Executive #1: Larry! We have a programming emergency! Fox just totally stole our brilliant idea for the show that embarrasses people by making them forget song lyrics on national TV!

NBC Executive #2: (Heavy sigh) I suppose we should have seen this coming. Nobody knows bad singing like Fox ...

NBC Executive #1: Clearly, someone over there is still crying into his Wheaties because we stole the idea for that boxing show a couple of years back. What are we going to do?

NBC Executive #2: Calm down, Jim. We can get that show on the air in minutes. I mean, all we need are a few idiots to sing, right? We can find those on the streets of LA any day of the week.

NBC Executive #1: You're totally right! Throw 'em on a sound stage, buy some Party Tyme Karaoke CDs, and we're all set!

NBC Executive #2: We'll need a host, though. Hmm, Bob Barker's too dignified for this, and we've already got Howie Mandel occupied. I'm not sure if Penn Gillette got another job after we trashed his last show ... Hey! What about Wayne Brady? He's not doing anything, right?

NBC Executive #1: Sorry, man. Fox got him too.

NBC Executive #2: No prob - I've got Rosie on speed dial. She's cool again, right?

Photos courtesy of Fox and Source