TVSquad

In April, I told you about NBC's The Great American Singing Bee, a new competition series in which contestants are challenged to sing the correct lyrics to a song. Then, recently, I told you about Don't Forget the Lyrics, a show on FOX with pretty much the exact same concept.

The Great American Singing Bee was supposed to air this fall, but NBC isn't about to let FOX steal its thunder by releasing Don't Forget the Lyrics next month. What does that mean for you, the home viewer? It means that this summer, with The Great American Spelling Bee's debut bumped up to July 10 at 9:30 (and Lyrics debuting the next day), you'll have two chances to catch a premise no one really found that interesting in the first place.

Forgive me, that was presumptuous, but I maintain a show centering on strangers butchering songs is a concept that will get old rather quickly.

Of course, one "Great American Singing Bee" was already on NBC many, many years ago, but this is different.

The Great American Singing Bee is a new game show from producers Phil Gurin and Bob Horowitz, who will each produce different versions for American and UK television audiences. Contestants will be given lyrics to songs and asked to sing the missing words. This is very similar to an old family game called SongBurst, which was based on pretty much the exact same idea.