The TV Zone

Always wondered what Joey Fatone would do after *NSYNC, and then "Dancing with the Stars" near-triumph, but I wonder no longer: He's MC of a new game show called "The Singing Bee" which features "dancing bees" (“The Honeybees”) and some fatally bad singing. Normally a comedown, big time, except that "Bee" has its charms and should be a real draw for anyone who lives/breathes/sleeps karaoke. "Bee's" a standard-format gamer: Fatone roams the audience, picks out contestants (presumably at random) then pulls them on stage. "You don't have to have great voices," he says redundantly. But reasonably good memories, and an encyclopedic knowledge of pop music, circa 1970-2000. They're then pared down through a handful of rounds. Example: The house band runs through a song, then stops and said contestant has to finish the lyric. Etc. Etc. Final round is a three-strike-you're-out one, where contestant’s got to complete lyrics for a bunch of very very well known songs. But get just one word wrong and you're history. Get words exactly right, and the winner leaves with $50,000.
Must watch or must-avoid: A crowd-pleaser for a very specific crowd, namely one comprised of a few million people who have been stuck in traffic lines the last few decades and know every word to ever song on every radio station that's ever played a contemporary, Jack, or AOR format. But that's fine. You know who you are, and what you'll be doing tonight. (WNBC/4 at 9:30). Problem with the show is indeed the voices - painfully off-key, or flat, and (per rules of the game), unless contestant gets EACH AND EVERY SYLLABLE EXACTLY RIGHT then he or she doesn’t make it to the next round. That's a lot of bad repeat singing. Bring earplugs.

Buzz, buzz. (Courtesy MSNBC.)