Beat Shazam - General Discussion

[KWalkerInc]

I was kind of surprised that the winning team decided to go for it at the end (though it often ends up the opposite of the direction the team appears to be going before the break).  I would probably tend to be more conservative with the money, except in this case, because I actually knew them all.  I was lucky that "Today's Hits" was a song I listen to all the time, the odds of that have to be very low.  But during "Without Words," I was just as baffled as the teams were on a couple of the songs.  I probably still wouldn't know them now!

I always like it at the beginning when Jamie says that they include songs "from the beginning of time" to the present, because I picture Corinne pressing the button and having it be the sound of cavemen banging on a rock or something.  It was funny when he went into the first break saying the losing team would have to walk home.  I was like, "From Ireland?"

[KWalkerInc]

Jamie is always emotional in the Father's Day episode when Corinne says very nice things to him and shows old photos, so of course this one was going to be especially poignant.  He held it together well though.

I think that I would need more than the allotted time to get most Rat Pack songs even if I do know them.  The guy got it really fast.  I've probably mentioned that I sometimes will have on the Y2K or Hit List music channels during my late-night snack so that I can be familiar with more songs just in case they are on one of the musical game shows.  It actually paid off with "Tipsy."  And I got another 2020s song, because Entertainment Tonight has to mention "Karma" every time Taylor Swift changes the lyrics because her man is at the concert.  (It's also on Soft Rock a lot.)

The game was pretty good overall between the tiebreaker to determine who went home first and the last song deciding who won, even though the winners lost half their bank.

[KWalkerInc]

The ratings were up quite a bit this week, apparently the highest in the last two years!  Ratings for game shows can be so random, often depending on what the competition is from week to week.  (Sometimes repeat episodes end up doing better than the originals had for this reason.)

I'm not sure why the contestant thought that the Mariah song would be "Be Without You" when the song with that title (Mary J. Blige) had just played a few songs earlier.  It was probably just nerves.  I incorrectly guessed "Shake It Off" for Mariah (not to be confused with the Taylor Swift one).  I think I only remember "Touch My Body" for the part where she references Wendy Williams.  I know that the contestants typically go for it, but not the best idea when losing half your bank gives you less than you had before the Beat Shazam round.  The show probably loves that for budget reasons though.

 

[HerkyJerky]

KW, this was a rough one! I knew ALL the songs during the regular game play but the Beat Shazam round, I think I knew two. LOL😬

[KWalkerInc]

Besides the Mariah song, I didn't get the country song "Heart Like a Truck," which I think used to be played in a commercial but it was at least a year ago.  After I'd gotten two right, I was like, "It will probably be country next though" and of course it was.  They hadn't played country at the end this season, so that's why I had that feeling.

[Diana Berry]

Giving the ladies credit, I also know Queen like the back of my hand ( and knew the song) but I couldn’t get the title out in time either.  

[KWalkerInc]

I'm glad Darren managed to pull out "Abracadabra" in the end so that they got a lot of money.  It looked like he was going to run out of time!  I couldn't get Bruno Mars even though I have some of his songs--he has a lot.  I was like, "Strawberry what?  I don't know this song" even though the title was familiar.  I was upset though that I almost couldn't get "Too Much" by the Spice Girls.  I don't know how much that song is played now, but I listen to an old CD of them a lot.  Stevie's "Part-Time Lover" was also in this week's Name That Tune episode that I saw the first half of tonight.  It could have been on Don't Forget the Lyrics too if that were on right now.

[KWalkerInc]

I'm surprised that Jamie acknowledged at the beginning of the show their latest effort to keep costs down:  reducing the amount of time they have to answer before Shazam figures out the song.  I hadn't noticed in the other shows this season, but they now only have four seconds instead of six!  This is getting ridiculous, and although it may save them on their pay-outs, it could hurt ratings if people can't really play along anymore.  They had already years ago taken away the ability to play along with an app, which many said they enjoyed even without the 10K prize being part of the equation.

Of course, they still had money to spend on the Beatles catalog, which proved rather difficult for the hairdresser team.  Their comeback to win the game was surprising and impressive; but after they only got one right at the end, I figured they would go for it anyway and get it wrong.  I couldn't get the last two songs, although I should have known the Lewis Capaldi one by now from all the times Soft Rock plays it when I try to take a nap on Sunday.  I probably would have run out of time on Metallica anyway with the limited time now, even though I knew it.

When the guy couldn't figure out the addition before the last song of Without Words (that they could still win), it reminded me of the running gag last season about Kelly Osbourne using various equipment to figure out how to double the money on a Fast Track.  She and Jack are supposed to team up on the new season of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, which I imagine will be interesting even if they get along better than they did.

[KWalkerInc]

The winning team was very impressive with how fast they were during the regular game.  The second-place team repeatedly got the right answers with fast times but were still beaten out.  The winners (and I) didn't too particularly well at the end, though I got the last three.  I was already off to a bad start and then they have to go to "today's hits."  The Selena Gomez song is a moderate hit (#19), but it wasn't too surprising that the guys had never heard of it.  The audience had so little faith in them that they seemed to groan over the father answering the Crowded House song, even though he was right.

It was interesting when they had the brief break with Dan (?) offering to officiate for Corinne's wedding, and the discussion of that in the middle of the end game.  Usually that would have happened at the beginning of the show or something, when Jamie goes to talk to each team.

The next two weeks are repeats opposite the Olympics, and they'll also show other repeats on Wednesdays to fill in the 9 PM slot.

ETA: It looks like the ratings were pretty awful this week.  I was afraid that would happen with Celebrity Family Feud starting in its new regular slot.  They should have left that on Sundays!

 

Edited July 25 by KWalkerInc
Ratings note.

[KWalkerInc]

This week is still a repeat for some reason, but there will be a new episode next week.  The odd thing is that if there is only one episode a week through the remaining scheduled weeks there will be 11 shows, but one episode that aired earlier had a production code of 712 (season 7, episode 12).  So that could mean they're holding one off for some reason.  I don't know if they're doing another Christmas show, but that's one possibility.

[KWalkerInc]

It was weird that it seemed like the songs at the end were easier than many of the multiple choice for me.  On many of those, I wouldn't know it or would just get it on a wild guess because I recognized a title.  I wouldn't have gotten some of the Nirvana ones right if I'd had to come up with the titles on my own even though I'd listened to a collection somewhat recently.  Interesting that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" wasn't included.  I tried to look up who licenses their music, but it was confusing.

I'm sure Adrian from the second-place team was beside himself backstage when the winners didn't get "I Have Nothing," given the story about his love of Whitney.  Even though they were way behind at one point, they were pretty close in time on a bunch of songs that both got right.  The third team (father and future son-in-law) seemed to mainly get on to sing at the piano, which was probably not the same one Mariah Carey sat at for a second in season one (unless it got hauled to Dublin).

ETA: "How Sweet Is Is" by Marvin Gaye is not from the '70s, but they played it during that category in "That's My Jam."  I wonder if they wanted the James Taylor cover but couldn't clear it or something.

Edited August 24 by KWalkerInc
Marvin Gaye note.

[KWalkerInc]

The clowns were kind of getting on my nerves a bit and it seemed like they were testing Jamie's patience a little, though he's too professional to really let it show.  It's fine to not know the answers for whatever reason, whether it's just not being able to pull out a title of a familiar song, the bad luck of getting songs you just don't know or (as they said) just being better at multiple choice.  But the answer is never going to be the last lyric that the artist sings before you hit the buzzer, because that would be too easy.  And they kept giddily blurting those out on every song like that was going to ever be successful.  At least they did reverse course and take the nice $30,000 instead of throwing half away when they weren't going to have a chance. 

On the bright side, Funk was finally selected for "That's My Jam!"  I don't know how many time it was an option only to be rejected in the past.  Jimi Hendrix was a tough category as I didn't think I knew more than a song or two, but I was fortunate that "Foxy Lady" was used for a funny scene in "Wayne's World" that I can still picture and "Crosstown Traffic" made the soundtrack for a biopic (one of two) about tragic Olympic distance runner Steve Prefontaine, a sort-of local.

[HerkyJerky]

It did seem kind of funny, KW, that they were SO good in the regular round but SUCKED in the final round. Since last season they gave away $1 million a couple of times, do you think they’re making the songs harder this year? It certainly seems to me!

[KWalkerInc]

The songs at the end can vary depending on what categories they choose to include (I knew they would put Today's Hits on last night's because there hadn't been any like that the rest of the episode), but they also of course cut down on the time allowed, so they definitely are trying to save.  (Though not all of the songs the clowns didn't know were obscure.)  It seems like they're also trying to make some of the multiple choice harder sometimes, even though more of the money is (at least usually) given out in the final round.  I was glad that other team got the last song right in Without Words even though they couldn't come close to catching up, so at least they got a tiny bit more than the minimum of $1000.

[KWalkerInc]

It looks like they might be showing two episodes to close out the season on September 17.  The listings show it airing from 8 to 10, and the end of my recording of this week's show said that The Quiz With Balls had its season finale this week.

[KWalkerInc]

It was interesting that they didn't flip the two episodes, but I guess maybe they figured having the one with the better ending first would entice people to stay on and watch the other one.  Both teams did very well in the earlier rounds, even though one was a blow-out and the other came down to the last song.  I was felled by The Weeknd once again in the first game.  He has so many songs and  they have seemingly played ALL of them on this show.  (I know some of them, but not whatever this one was.)  Then his sometime duet partner, Ariana Grande, was in "Today's Hits" (of course) in the second game.  Maybe I would do better in that category if I listened more to the radio than Music Choice (which often plays the same songs whenever I'm listening), but the radio has so many commercials.  The contestants now seem to always act like they're going to walk away but they don't.  At least it worked out for the first team.  I think I only knew that part of "Strangers in the Night" because they would play that song when they used to have Kiss Cam at the baseball games, so thank you, Kiss Cam!

I was happy during the second game because they had both Disco and the Spice Girls as categories for entire segments.  Then they played some disco song I'd never heard of before, but I think I guessed so I could save face (because I would always complain at the contestants when they would turn down disco as a choice).

It was very funny when Corinne had sincerely thanked Jamie for making her a big sister and he said to enjoy it because he won't be making more kids, she was like, "Way to ruin the moment" or something like that.

[KWalkerInc]

Corinne got married this weekend.