Name That Tune - General Discussion

[KWalkerInc]

When the reruns aired late-night on Saturdays for a while, I would watch over the phone with a friend who hadn't seen them the first time.  We were always wanting Randy to shut up, especially when he gave his "advice" at the end, to the point that I joked of re-titling the show "Shut Up Randy!"

The only thing I've heard about this show for a long time was when Jane had to drop out of "Annie Live" after contracting COVID while working on something in either Ireland or Scotland.  Some I'm sure really reputable site tried to speculate that she had been filming season 2 of Name That Tune, even though there was seemingly no basis for this.  I read about it in the TV Tattle section of Primetimer, which I think was also rather skeptical.

ETA: I found an article from a tabloid (?) that reports they did film a few days in Dublin before Jane and others got COVID, so they shut down production and planned to start again in the new year.  There were some details like the production company, ads recruiting audience members, etc., so it might actually be true.  Of course, it would probably be awhile before they can start again now.  I had just thought it sounded strange that they were going to Ireland to film at a time when crowds were allowed in the U.S.

https://www.sundayworld.com/showbiz/celebrity/american-idol-star-randy-jackson-forced-to-halt-filming-in-dublin-after-covid-outbreak-41141832.html

Edited January 9, 2022 by KWalkerInc
Found an article

[NotChristine]

New season premieres March 29th

[blackwing]

On 1/26/2022 at 7:55 PM, NotChristine said:

New season premieres March 29th

Pleasantly surprised, I had assumed it was cancelled.  As with Lego Masters, I am hoping they will have made changes to the format, but I am sure it will be exactly the same.  Jane will continue to think she is a whole lot more darling/funny than she really is, and Randy will continue to be completely useless.

I just hope that the two male singers (Sunglasses Guy and Kermit the Frog Guy) return, they were awesome.  The two women were mediocre, I wouldn't mind if they were replaced.

[KWalkerInc]

There are going to be a bunch of celebrities playing (hopefully better than the celebrity episode of Beat Shazam).  Also, they changed the band for some reason.

http://thefutoncritic.com/news/2022/02/23/name-that-tune-returns-with-celebrity-games-for-season-two-on-fox-996212/20220223fox01/

[blackwing]

4 minutes ago, KWalkerInc said:

There are going to be a bunch of celebrities playing (hopefully better than the celebrity episode of Beat Shazam).  Also, they changed the band for some reason.

http://thefutoncritic.com/news/2022/02/23/name-that-tune-returns-with-celebrity-games-for-season-two-on-fox-996212/20220223fox01/

They changed the stage and the band but they couldn't get rid of the utterly Useless Randy and Dimwit Jane?  The band was the best part!  Especially Kermit the Frog Guy and Sunglasses Guy.  There is a shot of the band in the promo and it looks like all four singers are new.  Ugh.

[argrow]

I wonder whether everything was changed because they are now filming in the US and not Australia. The band were probably all Australians in the last season.

[toodywoody]

Is no one watching this? I'm sorry but Randy looks bad. I don't know if it's the big glasses or he really looks bad.

[853fisher]

I enjoyed that as something unserious before bed.  They seem to have fixed one of my principal complaints, hyper-critical judging, and for some reason the lopsided scoring system bothers me less when it's all going to charity.

There's still very little going on for an hour, everything said about Jane and Randy is still true, the audience noise and reaction shots are still overdone, etc.  Oh well, I guess it's not all so bad that I'll stop watching.

Celeb format was fine.  I only knew Kelly, since I don't care about football and can't recall coming across Jojo before.  But they did all seem engaged and none too over-the-top, which is not always the case on these shows.

I can hear but not always process well.  Captions help, but I had to turn them off because they read "instrumental: [title]."  I'm no accessibility expert but I thought there could have been some discretion exercised about how they were likely to be used in the context of this show.

Edited March 30, 2022 by 853fisher

[KWalkerInc]

JoJo's big hit was "Leave (Get Out)," the song that Jane sang to her at the end, back in 2004 when she was only 13.  She had another hit a few years later but then I guess had some problems with the music industry.  I think she's only recently tried to make a comeback.  I hope some other players will do well, but I fear they may have put this game first because no one else will match her efforts.  I hope that's not the case.

I couldn't believe Kelly's wayward guesses when she insisted she only needed one note.  Did she not understand that the clue was supposed to have some relation to the song title she was guessing?  I thought she was going to get the Dua Lipa song, and then that happened.

Randy and his stupid advice.  I hoped they would drop that with the celebrity contestants, but apparently someone has Googled all these quotes he needs to use.

[Rickster]

On 2/24/2022 at 6:47 PM, argrow said:

I wonder whether everything was changed because they are now filming in the US and not Australia. The band were probably all Australians in the last season.

Pretty sure there was a title at the end that said this was filmed in Dublin, Ireland. Went by pretty fast.

[blackwing]

I always am a bit skeptical when a game show like this brings out a "celebrity edition"... to me it seems to indicate that the show stinks or is failing so the producers think the only way to get people to watch is to put celebrities on.  Like when they had to start putting celebrities on "The Apprentice".  Personally, I enjoy watching "normal people" win and seeing how much knowledge they have.  None of these celebrities with the exception of JoJo seemed to have that much musical knowledge.  

The worst was Vernon Davis in the bonus round.  How could any athlete miss "We Will Rock You" and "Eye of the Tiger"?  I imagine those two songs are regularly played in the weight room or at practices, etc.

The singers are ok, but I liked last season's singers better.  What is up with Jane this year?  It seems to me that they spent a lot more money on the set so now she thinks she is hosting some kind of elite upper class game show.  Has she always talked like this?  It seemed like she was affecting some kind of old money accent when ending her sentences.  I don't know how to describe it exactly other than maybe she thought she was at a garden party in Connecticut with Katherine Hepburn.

On 3/29/2022 at 8:11 PM, toodywoody said:

Is no one watching this? I'm sorry but Randy looks bad. I don't know if it's the big glasses or he really looks bad.

Yep.  He still looks gaunt and sickly.  Like people made fun of his weight when he was on American Idol so he went and got bariatric surgery to make his stomach the size of a golf ball.  Reminds me of the classic "Thinner" by Stephen King, where he is just wasting away and getting more and more emaciated day by day.

He's also as useless as ever.  At least they aren't still giving parting gifts of a Randy Jackson autographed plate to the celebrity contestants.

[KWalkerInc]

I was glad to see someone win the big prize.  I was relieved when Laurie got the Rick Astley song off the clue in Bid a Note because it seemed like she knew more songs than Nastia and had a better chance at the end (or that Nastia was very nervous). 

It was also nice that Frankie made a comeback to get a bunch at the end.  I thought the audience was being kind of hard on him when he passed several, especially considering that he has suffered from severe memory issues.  The audience also seemed oddly impressed by the fake wheel spinning in the game where the random genres come up, although they were probably coached/ordered to do that for some reason.  It's even more stupid than when they have to go "Oooh!" during Bid a Note as the contestants challenge each other.

[853fisher]

It was really great to see a big win!  I did fairly well this episode too.  Seemed like a reasonable variety of types of music.

Sad to see that they sent Jane abroad without money to check a bag again.  Oh well!  Did she very clearly say "Gavin McGraw" instead of "DeGraw" or was that just me?

8 hours ago, KWalkerInc said:

The audience also seemed oddly impressed by the fake wheel spinning in the game where the random genres come up, although they were probably coached/ordered to do that for some reason.

I find it especially odd because, as you say, it obviously isn't a "real" wheel making a random choice.  Just have Jane say "the first tune is Reggae," "the next tune is Country," whatever.

On 4/1/2022 at 12:20 PM, blackwing said:

Has she always talked like this?  It seemed like she was affecting some kind of old money accent when ending her sentences.  I don't know how to describe it exactly other than maybe she thought she was at a garden party in Connecticut with Katherine Hepburn.

I watched after reading this and did get one or two flashes of it.  What seems really new to me is that lisp!  Have I just not been paying attention?  I thought she might be wearing something cosmetic on her teeth.

[blackwing]

Have the songs and clues gotten really dumbed down for the celebrity contestants, or have they always been this easy?  I remember a few times last season when the clues for Bid a Note were really easy, but the first part of this episode with Jodie Sweetin and Frankie Muniz, every single clue was a "one note" kind of clue.  Frankie's bonus round, every single song was incredibly easy.

The clues and final round songs for Laurie and Nastia seemed slightly harder.  I was impressed with Laurie.

8 hours ago, KWalkerInc said:

I was glad to see someone win the big prize.  I was relieved when Laurie got the Rick Astley song off the clue in Bid a Note because it seemed like she knew more songs than Nastia and had a better chance at the end (or that Nastia was very nervous). 

I felt bad for Nastia, she almost got shut out.  It felt to me like Laurie wanted to be on the show and had amazing knowledge, and they just had to go out and find another Olympic gymnast for the bookend pair of contestants.

11 minutes ago, 853fisher said:

It was really great to see a big win!  I did fairly well this episode too.  Seemed like a reasonable variety of types of music.

Sad to see that they sent Jane abroad without money to check a bag again.  Oh well!  Did she very clearly say "Gavin McGraw" instead of "DeGraw" or was that just me?

I find it especially odd because, as you say, it obviously isn't a "real" wheel making a random choice.  Just have Jane say "the first tune is Reggae," "the next tune is Country," whatever.

I watched after reading this and did get one or two flashes of it.  What seems really new to me is that lisp!  Have I just not been paying attention?  I thought she might be wearing something cosmetic on her teeth.

Yes, she clearly said "McGraw" to me.

I found Jane slightly irritating last season, I remember thinking last season that she was overly impressed with herself when she shouldn't be.  But this season, she is working my last nerve.  I truly cannot stand her overly pretentious "I will win a Tony with this theatre performance" accent.  I don't know if she is putting it on, or if she always talks like that.  But it's very annoying.

Also annoying, the way she always has to say that "Bid a Note" is her favourite game, and the way the camera focuses on her and she whips her hair and head around when introducing the game.

Two episodes so far, and she's worn the same black dress.  Let's see if she has more outfits this season.  I was looking in the credits and there were like 4 people listed for "wardrobe supervisor" or something, and I'm thinking, she wears two dresses, that's it.

[853fisher]

Jane is definitely overdoing it with grandiose speechifying.  Yes, there's a prize for charity, but it's a silly Tuesday night game show with Malcom in the Middle and Stephanie Tanner.  She talks like she's emceeing a testimonial dinner for the Dalai Lama.

12 minutes ago, blackwing said:

Have the songs and clues gotten really dumbed down for the celebrity contestants, or have they always been this easy?.

I thought they might be easier now than in the past.  Many of them seemed to have the artist's name, which is a huge help.  It's not really good TV, in my opinion, when so many clues go to one note because they spend forever on what ends up being an exercise on parsing the clue.  They could at least leave the clue up onscreen.

[KWalkerInc]

This type of performance was more what I was expecting from the celebrities after the good showings by Laurie and Frankie last week.  At least Kim Fields did pretty well in Golden Medley.  I was rooting for her as a big Living Single fan.  I liked in Bid a Note when Jane started to look to her for an answer after Shaggy got another one wrong, and she was like, "Don't be looking over here!" because she had no idea.

Jennie and Ian were pretty entertaining.  I enjoyed the re-creation of the Beverly Hills, 90210 opening credits after the theme was played.  At first between that theme, the song "Beverly Hills" and "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" (which featured prominently in one episode of the show), it seemed like all the songs were going to be tied in to the show somehow. 

[blackwing]

I thought Jennie had far more knowledge than Ian, I was hoping she would go to the finals.  Ian was terrible in the finals.  I did feel bad for him because after he missed another easy song at #5 or 6, he looked like he was about to cry.

Kim Fields was great in the Golden Medley.  I would have missed "Stacy's Mom" as well... apparently it sounds a lot like the 1990 classic "I Touch Myself" by the Divinyls.

10 hours ago, KWalkerInc said:

Jennie and Ian were pretty entertaining.  I enjoyed the re-creation of the Beverly Hills, 90210 opening credits after the theme was played.  

Yes, that was great.  The slow "Young and the Restless" style turns, the fist bump and pointing, the dancing.  I went and looked on YouTube at the 90210 credits and I had forgotten how utterly cheesy that impromptu "stand around with each other, smile and do something happy looking" portion of the credits was.

[KWalkerInc]

I think this was the last of the celebrity episodes, as everyone listed in the press release before the season has played now.  I'm glad I was wrong after the first episode and that almost all of the winners did so well in Golden Medley.

When they had basically all of the songs in the first two rounds for Cassadee and Jana be country, I thought they had done a pre-interview with them or something going over their musical tastes and decided that they wouldn't do well enough for the charities if there were other genres.  Even if that was the case, it obviously wasn't necessary for Cassadee with the way she dominated in Golden Medley!  When she rang in before the end, I thought she was going to get the last song too, but it was still very impressive.

I love the Spice Girls and felt bad for Mel B.  She did at least know most of the answers in the first round.  I hadn't seen that Titus had already ringed in when she blurted out the Cher song.  It was also funny when she got flustered over not getting credit for singing all the gibberish but not the title of "Blue."  "Wasn't all that enough?!"  Titus did great though.

[853fisher]

I wonder whether all the celebrities got music handpicked for them or just some.  It seemed clear to me that at least Cassadee/Jana and Kim/Shaggy did.  I don't care for so much of any one genre during an episode.  A mix is best.

8 hours ago, KWalkerInc said:

I think this was the last of the celebrity episodes, as everyone listed in the press release before the season has played now.  I'm glad I was wrong after the first episode and that almost all of the winners did so well in Golden Medley.

That's interesting!  Next week's listings also show the generic "four new contestants compete" rather than information about the guests.  I guess I skimmed the pre-season publicity and thought only celebs would be playing.

Edited April 20, 2022 by 853fisher

[blackwing]

Thanks for the info about the show going back to normal people.  I wonder if it's going to be a lot more difficult.  The Titus Burgess / Mel B round... every single Bid a Note clue was a "one note" clue for me.  I was kind of surprised at how bad Mel B was, she is a singer and you would think singers are more aware of other singers' popular songs.  Titus' Golden Medley songs were super easy.

I don't follow country music, so I have no idea who these two country singers were.  I was annoyed that every single song in the first two rounds was a country song.  The Bid a Note ones were at least easily recognisable to me, but I had no idea on some in the first round.

 

[Rickster]

In general, I thought the songs for the celebrity edition shows were easier than on last year’s show (maybe because I’m old) so I enjoyed them more. I wonder if that will change when they go back to regular contestants.

I think Randy looks less emaciated this year.

[Maverick]

 I think it's odd they call it someone's version in the first round.   In the style they're playing it, you can't really tell the difference so it was odd to hear 'Locomotion, by Kylie Minogue" which was first done by little Eva (and later Grand Funk Railroad) and "Venus by Bananarama" which is was first done by Shocking Blue.  

 I can't believe Titus never hear of My Sharona.  Even though he struggled with a lot of the tiles and benefited heavily from the relaxed judging (Freak Out is not Le Freak) he seemed to have a knowledge of a lot of different genres.  I agree with whoever said I would have Mel B as a singer to have a broader musical knowledge.

 And I also don't like the songs being weighted to the contestants.  If both contestants are from the roughly close generations I can see leaning toward that but I don't like the specific genres.  

[KWalkerInc]

Another weird thing with citing specific versions was in one of the first episodes of the season, they made a specific reference to Elton John in Bid a Note but then identified the song as "'Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me' by George Michael and Elton John."  I know George Michael had a big hit with his live version where Elton joins him, but it was very odd to identify the song that way after the clue was all about the original artist, Elton.

[KWalkerInc]

Both of the winners did a pretty good job in this episode, but why does the audience get so upset when they pass in Golden Medley?  Few win it all anyway, and they're just trying to rack up as much money as they can. 

The Bid a Note clues seemed much harder in the first game than in the second.  I think the second game was the one where everybody kept trying (not always successfully) to go for one note.

I liked the clue about "Mick giving advice that could be sung to a whiny child" or whatever because yesterday on American Idol, a contestant who chose to sing "You Can't Always Get What You Want" said that when he was a child, his mom would sing that to him when there was a toy or something he couldn't have.  He thought she had made up the song and was very surprised to later learn this was not the case.

[853fisher]

On 4/23/2022 at 6:18 PM, Maverick said:

 I think it's odd they call it someone's version in the first round.   In the style they're playing it, you can't really tell the difference so it was odd to hear 'Locomotion, by Kylie Minogue" which was first done by little Eva (and later Grand Funk Railroad) and "Venus by Bananarama" which is was first done by Shocking Blue.  

I agree with you, especially since the arrangements the band uses often bear little relation to the ones used by the named artist.  On the other hand, I do find it helpful to have some performer's name to try and place songs I don't immediately recognize.  Popular music is so much more artist-driven than song-driven now.  So I get it, I guess.

[blackwing]

On 4/27/2022 at 4:47 AM, KWalkerInc said:

Both of the winners did a pretty good job in this episode, but why does the audience get so upset when they pass in Golden Medley?  Few win it all anyway, and they're just trying to rack up as much money as they can. 

The Bid a Note clues seemed much harder in the first game than in the second.  I think the second game was the one where everybody kept trying (not always successfully) to go for one note.

The woman in the first game was amazing in the first two rounds.  I thought her Golden Medley was pretty easy, with her breadth of musical knowledge I was surprised she didn't do better.  I am getting the two games confused now but I know she missed Sade's Smooth Operator and the Pointer Sisters "Jump (For My Love)".  I guess she wasn't a child of the 80s.  Also, you don't have to be old to recognise "Midnight Train to Georgia" (not sure if that was her or the guy in round 2).

I agree that the Bid a Note clues in the second game were so much easier.  When you put the artist's name in the clue, it's not that difficult.
 

[blackwing]

May 3rd show, theme was love songs and a lot of the answers fit the theme.

I thought the songs were pretty reasonable difficulty, particularly in the Golden Medley.  Some of the Bid a Note clues are still way too easy however.

I guess Jane only packed one dress to Ireland for this season?  Black dress with the scalloped neckline.  

[KWalkerInc]

I'm looking forward to an episode in a few weeks, I think, where all the songs are supposed to be from the '80s and '90s.  I try to sort of stay up on newer music, but sometimes I'm just like, "Nope, never heard of it."  Or I did know the Doja Cat song they played this week, but I couldn't get it in half a second like the woman did. 

I liked how the guy in the second game tried to calm the audience when they freaked out about him passing on "Come on Eileen."  At least he got it later.

I'm surprised about Jane's one dress because they had to shut down production because of the COVID outbreak and go back later, so you'd think she'd want a change.  (I don't know if she was very ill, but it did cost her "Annie Live.")  I haven't noticed if Randy changes his outfits or not.

[853fisher]

I’m not so much a fan of these episodes where all the songs in the main game are from one genre. A mix is better IMO.

On 5/5/2022 at 2:22 AM, KWalkerInc said:

I haven't noticed if Randy changes his outfits or not.

He wears the same ribbon shaped pin each week. I’m not sure about the rest.

[Rickster]

On 5/5/2022 at 5:22 AM, KWalkerInc said:

I'm surprised about Jane's one dress because they had to shut down production because of the COVID outbreak and go back later, so you'd think she'd want a change.  (I don't know if she was very ill, but it did cost her "Annie Live.")  I haven't noticed if Randy changes his outfits or not.

I’m pretty sure she had a different black outfit in this week’s episode. Maybe this was the one filmed after covid.

[blackwing]

The rock-themed episode this week was pretty good.  Both of the winners did well, although the woman did much better in the early rounds than the golden medley.  Vince in the second game was amazing in the early rounds, I felt kind of bad for the older guy who was clearly outclassed.  Then he got to the golden medley and passed on the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations".

[KWalkerInc]

It seemed like Vince created such high expectations with his earlier rounds that Jane and the studio audience seemed disappointed with his golden medley performance.  Or maybe Jane was just trying to show sympathy because she knew he was frustrated.  He still won a lot of money, but I was sure he was going to get "Good Vibrations" when they went back to it.

Thinking back to the celebrity episodes, it's probably a good thing they didn't play "Remix'd" for any of those games.  Maybe some of the players could have handled it, but it's definitely harder.

[KWalkerInc]

There was certainly quite a contrast between the two games tonight.  You know it isn't going well for the contestants when even Jane starts getting frustrated with them.  One positive is that it can make the audience at home feel smarter!  At least the guy did okay in the golden medley.  I was afraid that he would flame out on the first song or something.  The guy who ended up winning it all in the second game was impressive.  In Bid a Note, when the lady (or either contestant in the first game for that matter) would say they could name the song in x number of notes, I kept going, "No, you probably can't."  She's probably really hearing it from her family after bragging that she was going to prove she knew more music than them.  But aside from maybe some embarrassment, someone who doesn't get any right isn't really any worse off than a contestant that gets a bunch right but doesn't win, since they don't give them anything either way.  The woman in the first game only had one right because of a generous judges' ruling.  There was an episode of Beat Shazam a few years ago where someone also said "Hungry Like a Wolf" instead of "Hungry Like the Wolf."  It would have been wrong, but it didn't matter because it was the last song at the end and they'd elected not to go for it.

[blackwing]

I was a bit confused because during the earlier theme weeks of country, love songs and rock, I thought every single song in the first two rounds fit the theme.  Here this week, it seemed only the first round fit the theme.  I was looking forward to every single song being 80s.

The contestants in the 80s round were simply awful.  The guy advanced to the Golden Medley with a whopping $2,000.  Every single song in the first round was a "I could have buzzed in after a second" song.  His Golden Medley was particularly easy.

90s round, we had yet another loser contestant in Roisin that I think managed only $1,000 after bragging about how she is a little rose who knows music, or something like that.  Uh no.

I've determined that I think the blonde woman singer (who seems to be the lead female singer) isn't very good.  She's one of those singers who thinks she sounds amazing but really isn't all that.  She sang the absolute worst version of "Straight Up" that I have ever heard, it was almost unrecognisable.  The average drunk lady at a karaoke bar could do a lot better.  I'm just not impressed with her at all.

[blackwing]

UGH... a two hour episode of anything is one of the banes of my TV watching.  But a two hour episode of NTT just means twice the filler, twice the useless Randy Jackson, twice the Jane and her affected accent.

I decided to watch this online so I could put it on in the background while working, and it was a good choice.  And I could also FF 15 seconds easily.

Not much to say about any of the four games.  Eight contestants and I've already forgotten most of them.

I do think the bonus prizes are sometimes intriguing.  I'm particularly curious about the "underwater scooter".  What do you do with it?  Put it at the bottom of the pool, hang on to it, and let it pull you across the bottom?

I did feel like the Golden Medley in all of these episodes was a bit easier as compared to last season.  The song choices were easier although I feel like they might have changed it so it's all synthesizer arrangements and the tone is sometimes different.

All in all, this is mindless entertainment.  Hopefully it comes back next season and hopefully they can afford to buy Jane more than two dresses.

[KWalkerInc]

I watched most of the first three games tonight and then had time for the conclusion after my workout.  The winners in the first two games did fine in the golden medley, getting quite a few right but not having a chance to win it all.  In the third game, Sara (who had been very vocal and cocky throughout the earlier part of the game) was not that way at all when she passed on practically all and ended up with a few right.  I had been surprised when she got "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" right to win in Bid a Note.  It seemed like she didn't know it, or maybe I was just used to so many contestants not knowing stuff last week and the first two games this week.  They could have put the games in any order they wanted, so I don't know why they ended with the only one where someone got one wrong without even going through all the songs.  My guess is they put ones with weaker endings last because it was opposite the series finale of This Is Us and they thought the audience would be even smaller than normal.

I did notice the change between Jane's dresses for one of the games in the finale.  Also, Randy did have more than one shirt, as he had been wearing "purple jacket with yellow shirt" the whole time since I started paying attention, but one game was "purple jacket with black shirt."

[KWalkerInc]

Season 3 will debut Wednesday, January 11, and is apparently celebrities only

[KWalkerInc]

Here is a press release with a list of all the celebrities for the season.

[KWalkerInc]

It looks like this will be a really short season:  five episodes!  I kind of guessed that when they said it was all celebrities and the list was 20 total celebrities (10 half-hour games).  (Well, putting it that away, it's obvious it was five episodes, but I guess I'd hoped for more.)  Maybe knowing they won't have to also worry about giving out money to regular contestants is why they made the answers so easy on the season premiere in Bid a Note.  The only one I didn't get just from the clue was "Poker Face," and then it was like a "duh" moment about the clue once Randy played the notes.  They had some harder ones in the previous celebrity games (although sometimes the celebrities would seemingly blurt out things without even considering the clues), and I was imagining Mel B watching this (possibly, as I know she was in the Special Forces show after it) and going, "Oh, come on!"  I also thought of her when the song "Blue" was played in the Golden Medley, as she was not happy when she tried to sing that entire song but couldn't get the title in BAN on her game.

It was interesting that Randy kept bringing up Todrick being on Idol when he didn't get to top 12 and I think ended up big because of YouTube or something later?  I've read that he was on Masked Singer and now I always see commercials for a reality show with his group of friends.  In the ads, they put all these headlines on the screen about how he has some controversy or something, like they want me to be intrigued and look it up.  I remember that my friend really disliked him on Idol, and Todrick was kind of annoying on here, but he did play very well.  It's not surprising that a singer and performer would know more music than a retired basketball star, but Sheryl handled his banter well and didn't seem annoyed.  I was surprised by the outcome in Golden Medley because it seemed like he had taken too much time on "Finally" to have a chance.

I suspect they picked out the games with two of the best end results for their premiere, so I hope that the others won't all be duds.  I'm not sure because they keep taking their sweet time listing the players for upcoming episodes.  Jane seemed more energetic in the second game, so maybe the Chris Jericho and Adam Rippon game was taped later and she was over it.  Of course, they were probably in Dublin taping for only a few days anyway (I'm guessing just three or so).

[KWalkerInc]

I was rooting for Craig but didn't know what to expect.  He had been doing so well in the first round (a game I'd never seen before) and then it all went down the tubes in Bid a Note.  When he yelled at the audience (which I think frightened them), it reminded me of once when he was yelling at his studio audience about their reaction about his reply to an E-mail on his talk show (a regular segment).  Then right after that, he said the next E-mail was from me!  That was scary, but he gave a nice answer.  Anyway, I'm glad Jack got some right in Golden Medley, as I'm not sure he thought he would!  He seems like a really nice guy.  Elizabeth started out so well in hers but was thrown off by getting the Queen song wrong.  Then she didn't even get to the last song.

[HelloooKitty]

On 1/13/2023 at 4:23 AM, KWalkerInc said:

It looks like this will be a really short season:  five episodes!  I kind of guessed that when they said it was all celebrities and the list was 20 total celebrities (10 half-hour games).  (Well, putting it that away, it's obvious it was five episodes, but I guess I'd hoped for more.)  Maybe knowing they won't have to also worry about giving out money to regular contestants is why they made the answers so easy on the season premiere in Bid a Note.  The only one I didn't get just from the clue was "Poker Face," and then it was like a "duh" moment about the clue once Randy played the notes.  They had some harder ones in the previous celebrity games (although sometimes the celebrities would seemingly blurt out things without even considering the clues), and I was imagining Mel B watching this (possibly, as I know she was in the Special Forces show after it) and going, "Oh, come on!"  I also thought of her when the song "Blue" was played in the Golden Medley, as she was not happy when she tried to sing that entire song but couldn't get the title in BAN on her game.

It was interesting that Randy kept bringing up Todrick being on Idol when he didn't get to top 12 and I think ended up big because of YouTube or something later?  I've read that he was on Masked Singer and now I always see commercials for a reality show with his group of friends.  In the ads, they put all these headlines on the screen about how he has some controversy or something, like they want me to be intrigued and look it up.  I remember that my friend really disliked him on Idol, and Todrick was kind of annoying on here, but he did play very well.  It's not surprising that a singer and performer would know more music than a retired basketball star, but Sheryl handled his banter well and didn't seem annoyed.  I was surprised by the outcome in Golden Medley because it seemed like he had taken too much time on "Finally" to have a chance.

I suspect they picked out the games with two of the best end results for their premiere, so I hope that the others won't all be duds.  I'm not sure because they keep taking their sweet time listing the players for upcoming episodes.  Jane seemed more energetic in the second game, so maybe the Chris Jericho and Adam Rippon game was taped later and she was over it.  Of course, they were probably in Dublin taping for only a few days anyway (I'm guessing just three or so).

Todrick was on Masked Singer and came in second. To Jewel. 

[KWalkerInc]

In the press release about the Feb. 8 episode, it was referred to as the "winter season finale," which makes it sound like they'll come back with more later (whenever the next hole in the schedule is).

[KWalkerInc]

Do they not tell the celebrity contestants ahead of time that they can continue with Golden Medley even if they get one wrong?  Because not only did they both have extremely poor clock management, but Amber told Jane afterwards that she passed a lot because she was "afraid of getting it wrong."  I don't assume they've watched previous editions, but you'd think there would be some sort of primer on it before they appear.

Clay had a good attitude after his disastrous Golden Medley, that he didn't think he'd get that far and was just glad to raise the money that he did.  He was probably happy to finally win on a show, as unlike Amber (who has a great track record), he hasn't had the best luck with winning competitive reality shows.  (I liked both him and Ruben on Idol although my favorite finished third.)  When they mentioned Jordin being the youngest Idol winner ever, I was totally afraid that Randy was going to blurt out, "She was 17, dawg!" because he made reference to that about a thousand times every time she sang on the show.  (She was very good and I knew she'd be successful on the radio, but it annoyed me that Randy kept mentioning her age and hyping her and then acting blasé about all of Melinda Doolittle's performances, no matter how great.)  I'm guessing Jordin doesn't listen to a lot of music from before she was born, as that was her downfall in Bid a Note before she got the Taylor Swift song when it was all moot.  I wasn't doing much better than Clay with the songs he did get to in GM, so I was relieved to finally get a few when Amber played.

[Rickster]

Pretty surprising that professional singers did so poorly, but Chris Colfer was great in that first round.

[KWalkerInc]

Yeah, and especially impressive because they were playing that "Remixed" game that seems way harder than most of the others.

[KWalkerInc]

The rest of the season begins airing Tuesday, September 19 at 8 PM.

[KWalkerInc]

Press release for the new episodes with list of celebrity contestants.

Even with each episode consisting of two games, it looks like there are a bunch of episodes.

[KWalkerInc]

This show has had a drop in the ratings, and the site where I find them has been saying things like it doesn't draw enough viewers to lead off a night against tough competition and that FOX probably doesn't care that much about it since they put repeats of a scripted show after it.  Well, duh!  It's filler, and always has been since they threw it together during the pandemic.  The only reason it is on now is the lack of fall programming due to the strike(s), but I think they could renew it if they see the need to fill a spot again in the future.

It wasn't surprising that they probably used up two of their most successful results in the first episode, with a win and near-win in the Golden Medley.  Poor Melanie C, who I think fared even worse than Mel B did when she was on the show.  They still have two more Spice Girls who could try if there are more seasons.  (Because I'm highly skeptical that Victoria would do it.)

Belinda Carlisle has never had much luck on shows, as whenever one of her songs is played on Music Choice they report that she was voted off first on a season of Dancing With the Stars.  (I thought Debbie did that show too, but I had to look it up because I wasn't sure.  I know I read she was on Masked Singer not too long ago.)

A couple years ago, Megan Hilty stepped in to a role in NBC's Annie Live because Jane got COVID...hosting this show.  (I know they wouldn't mention that, that would be weird.)  Megan did a good job and was okay in Golden Medley.  Debbie was better but very careful.  It's probably hard to navigate exactly when to pass and try to go back later.  They haven't listed next week's contestants yet, possibly because they forgot the show was on their schedule.

ETA: They're showing baseball next week.

Edited October 6, 2023 by KWalkerInc
Added note about baseball.

[KWalkerInc]

Even I didn't remember to watch this week's episode at first--and I had thought about it earlier in the day because Futon Critic had crossed out the episode like it wasn't going to air for some reason, so I kept checking the cable guide and FOX's web site, who still had it listed.  Yet I still forgot about it (would have set a recording) during baseball and then suddenly thought about it at 9:25 PDT.  Lucky for me I just said the name of the show into the remote and the episode was already available.  The most interesting thing was that it was taken from the Philadelphia station for some reason even though I'm on the other side of the country, so I got to see their local ads, including a weird lottery ad with puppets (but most lottery ads are weird).

Otherwise my main observation is that the producers were getting a little tight with the purse strings even though it's for charity.  It's fine to expect exact answers before they had celebrites all the time, but they're very inconsistent from one episode to the next about how far off a guess can be and still be accepted.  Also, Jessie James Decker was less annoying than I usually find her.  A friend and I really don't like her when she hosts some lottery thing on ABC's New Year's coverage every year, but that's partially because the segment itself is annoying.  It would also be hard to top JoJo Siwa last week, though that was to be expected.  (Because my friend still can't get the station, I was telling her about how JoJo kept leaping into the air before she hit the buzzer and she replied, "Of course she did.")

Edited October 26, 2023 by KWalkerInc
Typo.

[KWalkerInc]

Now that the SAG-AFTRA strike has apparently ended, maybe there's a chance that this season of NTT will actually end someday!  I don't mind watching, but it's likely going to be over a year between the premiere and finale, which is a little weird for a game show.  I think it was lined up to end before Christmas, but then they started scheduling repeats (at least Nov. 21) and preempting it a couple times in December.  I thought they had just given up and wouldn't show all the episodes (17 total), but there was a note at the bottom of a press release about some new game show that starts Jan. 2.  It said NTT was still going to keep having new episodes.  There shouldn't be more than four left by that point, I think?