Don't Forget The Lyrics (2022) - General Discussion

[NotChristine]

Premieres May 23 on Fox

[Diana Berry]

I enjoyed it.

[tracyhmcd]

We also enjoyed it. Turned it on because there was nothing else to watch. That contest - Fletch - was amazing and very engaging. I hope he gets more work from his appearance.

[blackwing]

Haven't watched yet, but I'm glad to see that Niecy Nash is host.  I still am hoping she will replace Nick Cannon permanently on "The Masked Singer" but it doesn't seem like that would ever happen.

As long as networks are reviving reality singing shows...

I'd like to put in a request for "But Can They Sing", a show in which non-singer celebrities performed.  Notably included in this show was the Chinese actress Bai Ling, who at one time looked like she would have a great career (she was in "Red Corner" with Richard Gere) but then became more known for her crazy outfits, exposing herself on the red carpet, and overall lunacy.

And a show that aired also about 15 years ago around the same time called "Hit Me Baby One More Time".  This show involved former stars coming back and singing their biggest hit and then a contemporary hit.  Stars were people like Tiffany, Irene Cara, Thelma Houston, Wang Chung, Haddaway, Howard Jones.  Each week was self contained, it wasn't a season long competition.  There were about five stars each week and the winner got money for their charity.  I distinctly remember Haddaway ("What is Love") writhing on the floor while singing and doing the Britney crawling moves of "Toxic".

My co-workers and I were always embarrassed when talking about this show in the office to say the entire title "Hit Me Baby One More Time".  We would always say something like "didya see 'Hit Me' last night".  Not sure what it was, maybe we didn't want people to think we were Britney fans?  Except for this one guy who had absolutely no problem saying the whole title, it was always funny when he said it.

[HerkyJerky]

3 hours ago, blackwing said:

And a show that aired also about 15 years ago around the same time called "Hit Me Baby One More Time".  This show involved former stars coming back and singing their biggest hit and then a contemporary hit.  Stars were people like Tiffany, Irene Cara, Thelma Houston, Wang Chung, Haddaway, Howard Jones.  Each week was self contained, it wasn't a season long competition.  There were about five stars each week and the winner got money for their charity.  I distinctly remember Haddaway ("What is Love") writhing on the floor while singing and doing the Britney crawling moves of "Toxic".

Blackwing, I remember that show. I LOVED IT! Btw, speaking of 15 years ago, that’s when I first saw Bai Ling. She was Jack’s exotic lover in an episode of LOST.

[blackwing]

Watched the episode.  The guy did really well.  He did have a passing resemblance to Jussie Smollett which I found distracting.

Question on the strategy... there are bound to be some categories that the contestant is really weak in.  I'm curious if people think it is better to get those categories out of the way early, knowing that these are big hits and there will be only three or four words required but risking the chance that they could get eliminated early.  Or save for the end and just hope to get as much money as possible, while knowing that lack of knowledge in that category is likely going to cost them the chance at $1MM.

[ZootSuitWyatt]

3 hours ago, blackwing said:

Watched the episode.  The guy did really well.  He did have a passing resemblance to Jussie Smollett which I found distracting.

Question on the strategy... there are bound to be some categories that the contestant is really weak in.  I'm curious if people think it is better to get those categories out of the way early, knowing that these are big hits and there will be only three or four words required but risking the chance that they could get eliminated early.  Or save for the end and just hope to get as much money as possible, while knowing that lack of knowledge in that category is likely going to cost them the chance at $1MM.

I was also wondering if it might be better to pick those categories when you only have to do a couple words.

[Diana Berry]

On 5/26/2022 at 2:48 PM, blackwing said:

Watched the episode.  The guy did really well.  He did have a passing resemblance to Jussie Smollett which I found distracting.

Question on the strategy... there are bound to be some categories that the contestant is really weak in.  I'm curious if people think it is better to get those categories out of the way early, knowing that these are big hits and there will be only three or four words required but risking the chance that they could get eliminated early.  Or save for the end and just hope to get as much money as possible, while knowing that lack of knowledge in that category is likely going to cost them the chance at $1MM.

I was thinking about strategy , too.  He saved county ( sorry can’t remember the other category) for the end.  I figured he was weak in those but he actually ended up doing great on the country song.  It will be interesting how others work it.

[opus]

3 hours ago, Diana Berry said:

I was thinking about strategy , too.  He saved county ( sorry can’t remember the other category) for the end.  I figured he was weak in those but he actually ended up doing great on the country song.  It will be interesting how others work it.

Think it was The Rolling Stones, since that’s the one he didn’t get

About some useless information
Supposed to fire my imagination

[Taeolas]

Two contestants last night, so you know one wouldn't do well. Bonnie wsa pretty strong out the gates, but ultimately messed up the 25k song sadly. Still, she had a good presence and seemed to have fun. 

Shantel did really well, and used her word clues well. I wonder if her sister was just there, since she didn't say a word (literally) when she came up at the end. Shantel realized that and bailed with good reason. I would not have picked some of the songs she did, but that just goes to show people have different tastes. :) 

[Diana Berry]

14 hours ago, Taeolas said:

Two contestants last night, so you know one wouldn't do well. Bonnie wsa pretty strong out the gates, but ultimately messed up the 25k song sadly. Still, she had a good presence and seemed to have fun. 

Shantel did really well, and used her word clues well. I wonder if her sister was just there, since she didn't say a word (literally) when she came up at the end. Shantel realized that and bailed with good reason. I would not have picked some of the songs she did, but that just goes to show people have different tastes. :) 

I did think it was cute when Niecy pointed out that Shantel just wanted tires for her car vs a new car.  Hey tires are very expensive. 

[CrystalBlue]

Tis better to take what money you are guaranteed and run than to get all frisky and risky and lock in the lyrics when you may have even a niggling doubt of the lyrics you just sang from memory.

[Phishbulb]

This show seems like it has a built-in barrier to being exciting, because if the show has 2 minutes until it's over and the contestant is not on the million dollar song yet, you know they're just going to take the money and leave before getting there. It's not like "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" where they'll just stop the show and continue it next week. 

[MsTree]

This week's contestant was way over-the-top personality, and a lousy singer to boot!

Producers, if you insist that the contestants sing, please find someone that can at least carry a tune.

[Snow Apple]

I don't even mind lousy singing but she was too perky for my taste. Enthusiasm is one thing and I like when contestants have fun, but she was just too much for me.

[vibeology]

On 5/26/2022 at 2:48 PM, blackwing said:

Question on the strategy... there are bound to be some categories that the contestant is really weak in.  I'm curious if people think it is better to get those categories out of the way early, knowing that these are big hits and there will be only three or four words required but risking the chance that they could get eliminated early.  Or save for the end and just hope to get as much money as possible, while knowing that lack of knowledge in that category is likely going to cost them the chance at $1MM.

I absolutely think the strategy should be to knock out those weaker (but possibly gettable) categories when you only need a few words. Easy stuff until 25K when you're locking in (that should be a category you're very confident in) and then your strongest categories to get at least as much money as you can. 

Don't pick country if you've never ever heard a country song but if Disco is a weaker but possibly gettable one, do that early when you need to do less.

[opus]

12 hours ago, MsTree said:

Producers, if you insist that the contestants sing, please find someone that can at least carry a tune.

It may be better for the people watching, but I think one of the points of this series is you don't need to be a good singer to succeed, just know the words.

[MsTree]

11 hours ago, opus said:

It may be better for the people watching, but I think one of the points of this series is you don't need to be a good singer to succeed, just know the words.

I agree with you wholeheartedly. Show would be more enjoyable if instead of the contestants singing, they have a house band who does the singing like the rebooted Name That Tune.  

[opus]

9 hours ago, MsTree said:

I agree with you wholeheartedly. Show would be more enjoyable if instead of the contestants singing, they have a house band who does the singing like the rebooted Name That Tune.  

The contestant sings along in their head and takes over at the blanks? That could work.

[Taeolas]

I don't mind the 'bad singing' contestants, as long as they are sufficiently excited for the chance, which they normally would be if casting is any good. 

As for having the house band singing along with them or not; I'm not sure. I think doing it Karaoke is probably better/fairer, since they hopefully won't be as thrown off by the differences between the house band and the popular singer singing styles. (Having the house band play the song is risky enough IMO)

The spirit of the show is basically your favorite song comes on, and you're singing along with it, and suddenly for whatever reason, the stream dies/the radio cuts out/etc... and you're singing "Excuse me, while I kiss this guy!" at full volume in your car. 

So with that spirit, having the house band singing with you would probably make sense... but I'm fine without it as well. 

It would never happen, but I'd love to see them toss in some well known mangled lyrics, just to see what pops up or what they accept. Like "Love Shack"'s line after "Henry!" 

I know Shazam has done a Weird Al category, but I hope some of these other shows will give him his due at some point too. I think one of the choices in this show was American Pie, and Weird Al jumped right to mind since I'm pretty sure Jedi is more familiar to me than American Pie now. (I think Don McLain has even said he has to catch himself when singing American Pie because Jedi's lyrics sometimes slip in :) )

[HerkyJerky]

TPTB shouldn’t show two people at the beginning of the show. Then we already know that the first person didn’t win the $1, 000, 000!

[Phishbulb]

On 6/7/2022 at 6:56 PM, Phishbulb said:

This show seems like it has a built-in barrier to being exciting, because if the show has 2 minutes until it's over and the contestant is not on the million dollar song yet, you know they're just going to take the money and leave before getting there. It's not like "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" where they'll just stop the show and continue it next week. 

So I guess I was wrong about this. It was weird how they interrupted the show mid-the contestant making a decision though. 

[KWalkerInc]

I just got caught up on all the episodes after watching a whole one for the first time on Monday.  I don't like the "previews" they insist on having where they give away some of what will happen next.  That's similar to what they do at the beginning of a game on "Name That Tune," except that they do it even more often here.  I like Niecy and think she's a good host, but I didn't like when the cake maker decided to walk way and then learned his TLC lyrics were correct and she chided him for not following his instincts.  It's better than losing $50,000, especially when I believe he was the one who did "You're So Vain" for $75,000 and ended up getting the obvious "You probably think this song is about you," which he said was the only part of the song he knew.

[Taeolas]

So anyone else get really disappointed when there are two songs, and you know they're picking one but you wish they picked the other? 

Watching tonight's ep, he has the choice between Party in the USA and Stacy's Mom, and I would have loved to see him do Stacy's mom but I knew he'd be doing Party. 

[oldCJ]

On 8/2/2022 at 3:41 AM, Taeolas said:

So anyone else get really disappointed when there are two songs, and you know they're picking one but you wish they picked the other? 

Watching tonight's ep, he has the choice between Party in the USA and Stacy's Mom, and I would have loved to see him do Stacy's mom but I knew he'd be doing Party. 

I do, too! And yeah, I was hoping for Stacy’s Mom. 

[KWalkerInc]

I must not have been paying full attention when the guy was singing Cher's "Believe," because I was just like, "Oh, he's lucky, they just want him to sing the chorus and she says that part about a thousand times in the song."  It wasn't until he locked in the lyrics that I noticed that he said "love" instead of "life."  He was probably too amped up to last very long anyway, and was kind of hard to watch because of that. 

When the lady kept saying she liked taking risks, I was afraid she would end up losing a bunch of money and not being able to save for college like she told her son.  Sometimes the contestants are better off when they don't know at all, like in this case, then knowing or thinking they know most of it and ending up taking a guess they shouldn't.

[kassandra8286]

6 hours ago, KWalkerInc said:

He was probably too amped up to last very long anyway, and was kind of hard to watch because of that. 

Yeah, he was stressing me out big time, lol. When he locked in "love after love", I'm all, wow, I thought it was "life after love" all this time, but he seems so sure, maybe I'm wrong? But of course not, lol.  And the opposite with Black Velvet, I thought the lyrics were "a new religion that'll bring 'them' to their' knees, not "ya" to "your" knees, so I was fully expecting her to lose that round but yay! she didn't.  Totally agree it's better to draw a complete blank and walk away. It's painful to watch when you know they're wrong, but they can't hear you yelling at them from your couch.

I admittedly haven't watched every season or episode of this show but has the "friend" ever helped in any meaningful way? Seems like every time they bring them up to the stage they just shrug their shoulders. 

[Taeolas]

So far I think the friends have been completely useless when brought up. But admittedly, the friends tend to come up when they are completely desperate, and it's just bad luck the friend doesn't know the song. (I think the closest we had was the young woman who had her father come up. they both KNEW the road song, but the lyric was deeper in the song and they both blanked on it). 

Black Velvet was a close one, I thought she got that one wrong as well.

As for Cher, I was screaming that he was wrong but sadly he didn't hear. :) 

I do like that when they have to guess the lyric, it is a full lyric (or two). they don't cut it off in mid line. So if you make your guess and it isn't a complete line, then it's a good strong hint that you messed up somewhere. 

[Meedis]

On 7/29/2022 at 4:38 AM, KWalkerInc said:

I just got caught up on all the episodes after watching a whole one for the first time on Monday.  I don't like the "previews" they insist on having where they give away some of what will happen next.  That's similar to what they do at the beginning of a game on "Name That Tune," except that they do it even more often here.  I like Niecy and think she's a good host, but I didn't like when the cake maker decided to walk way and then learned his TLC lyrics were correct and she chided him for not following his instincts.  It's better than losing $50,000, especially when I believe he was the one who did "You're So Vain" for $75,000 and ended up getting the obvious "You probably think this song is about you," which he said was the only part of the song he knew.

Agreed.  I have to mute those "previews" and look away from the TV since they give a lot away.   But otherwise I love the show.

[KWalkerInc]

It's nice to see that ratings went up quite a bit this week, even opposite football and the Emmys.  Like I said in the Beat Shazam thread after their finale, I don't know why FOX had so many repeats only to schedule new episodes on a holiday (Labor Day).  Even before the time started dwindling, I figured Cade didn't make it to the million-dollar song or else they would have blabbed about it in commercials and the incessant "coming up" segments during the show (I feel silly during those muting the TV and trying to catch enough out of the corner of my eye to be able to tell when they're over).  It appears if a contestant did get all the way through, they have to decide to go for the million dollar song or not, and if they play they can't walk away with their money, they drop down to $25,000.  That's harsh!  Apparently in the original version, they made it so that the $100,000 was guaranteed at some point in the series.  This would probably be a smart move because the huge drop could definitely be a deterrent against someone going for the million, which is supposed to be the big thing to draw in more viewers.  Doesn't look like anyone has ever won the million.

[Taeolas]

Yeah, I agree that they should have another guaranteed level higher up to make it more tempting to push on and/or to give you a bigger cushion if you do decide to go all in. As is, dropping down to 25k is too damaging when you're playing with hundreds of thousands of dollars. I suspect the overall payouts wouldn't change much regardless since most people fizzle out at the 75k and 100k levels regardless. 

[KWalkerInc]

New season premieres Tuesday, May 23 at 9 PM.

[KWalkerInc]

A "backup singer" who actually provided more help than just some moral support!  I was shocked.  I think the Fleetwood Mac lyrics they picked were a little easy for that level, but the contestant didn't know the song and was smart to walk away.  There were plenty of songs on the earlier levels where I had no clue and he just cruised right through.  I knew he was going to be successful because they only listed one player for the whole episode.  Between listing how many contestants appear in each episode in the press releases (which I now try to avoid) and the constant "previews" in the early part of the episode, it's rather annoying.  I think they were trying to give away the outcome of every contestant for the entire season.  I had to have it muted and look out of the corner of my eye until the show logo came up.  They usually do that for the episode that's airing, but this was extreme.

[blackwing]

He was a good contestant.  I enjoy watching this show on the website or app the next day.  It goes by so much faster when I can just fast forward through all of the hemming and hawing, the "what are you going to do", the repeat scene when it comes back from commercial, showing the contestant's lyrics and talking about whether they are right or not, the pregnant pause waiting to find out if the contestant was correct.

I did chuckle when Niecy said that as an "old Black mother" she knew exactly what his expression meant.

[Taeolas]

A solid contestant, who knows his lyrics for the most part, and can actually sing pretty decently. 

I'm watching it on the weekend after it aired, so him picking the Tina Turner song is a bit of a heart stab. I know they didn't plan anything, but seeing her song come up the day before she died was a choke moment. 

[HerkyJerky]

https://access.tv/messages/my-big-fat-mouth-criticizing/

This week’s contestant talks a little bit about her start in music.

[KWalkerInc]

This episode wasn't the one that was originally scheduled.  The (always woefully outdated) TV page of the newspaper mentioned the show under "what to watch" and it mentioned there being two players.  They probably wanted to move up one with a stronger player to help the ratings, and they did go up.  I hadn't realized they swapped it out for another episode, so I initially thought Liz wouldn't be on for long.  And I learned that, as is the case with many songs, I really didn't know the lyrics to "Walking on Sunshine."  I was cringing thinking she was wrong about "Don't it feel good" and then of course it lights up as correct.  I heard that song today, and even with knowing now what she was singing, I still couldn't hear it as "don't it" for about 99 percent of the dozens of times it is said in the song. 

I think that the lyrics Liz was saying for "You're Still the One" are in another part of the song, like she thought when she was pondering it.  They did sound familiar.  I'm glad she walked because I could tell with the small amount of time left that she either walked or got it wrong.  I suppose they could have saved a million dollar song for another episode if she had gotten it right.  (I guess the other option could have been if she had gotten the song right and then walked, because I think they have some rules about the million dollar song that make it very risky.)

[HerkyJerky]

This show is so much harder to win a million dollars vs Beat Shazam.  There you just need to know song titles but here you need to know the actual lyrics and they make it progressively harder too.  They should at least have another guaranteed level at maybe $100,000?

[Diana Berry]

I was also glad she stopped at you’re still the one.  The lyric did sound very familiar ( as noted probably another part of the song ) but 12 words no way.

i also thought she would have chosen Jack and Diane since it flows as more of a story ( I think she went with walking on sunshine for that  category)

[blackwing]

This week's episode, the first contestant lost and I thought oh here comes a new guy but there's not much time left so he's going to lose quickly.  And then they do a "to be continued".  I get it, but it's annoying.

And he's totally wrong on "Flowers".  It's "I can hold my own hand, yeah I can love me better than you can".  He said "myself" instead of "me".  How can anyone get this song wrong?  It's been on the radio constantly for months and there's like only 2 or 3 verses in the whole song.  This bit is actually from the chorus which is repeated several times.

[KWalkerInc]

Maybe the guy will end up realizing he's wrong; otherwise there's not much point in dragging it out to another episode.  It must be an interesting job for the editors to have to piece things together from the contestants who don't last a full show to fill out however many episodes they have in the season.  I liked it once last year when they had a new contestant mid-show and Niecy said, "Did I just change outfits in two seconds?  Yes, yes I did." 

The schedule doesn't go past July yet, but I'm hoping there will be some episodes in August or it will be a very short season.  The week after next some movie is on, and the MLB All-Star Game is July 11.  I also can't imagine there being new episodes of this and Beat Shazam on July 4 unless the network really doesn't care at all.  That would lead to only 8 episodes in the season if it doesn't go into August.

[HerkyJerky]

"Their house is a museum
When people come to see 'em
They really are a screaming
The Addams family"

Is this what they said on the show?

[blackwing]

So the brother ended up changing "myself" to the correct "me" but it seemed like neither of them were that familiar with "Flowers", they didn't get all of the notes right.

The guy ended up not having a whole lot of knowledge and he flamed out at $25,000.  He picks Motown and then said he didn't know either of these songs?  He should at least have been familiar with "It's the Same Old Song", no?  

I liked the next woman a lot better than him.  She flamed out on TV themes, I loved how Niecy was all "wait a minute.  You just said 'I didn't even know the Addams Family theme had words.  Let's go with the Addams Family.' "  If "Cheers" was before her time, how was the "Addams Family" not before her time?  Did they sing the theme in the movies?  I totally would have picked "Cheers" but I grew up watching these shows.  I was really hoping for "As Long As We've Got Each Other" (Growing Pains) or "Without Us" (Family Ties).

16 hours ago, HerkyJerky said:

"Their house is a museum
When people come to see 'em
They really are a screaming
The Addams family"

Is this what they said on the show?

The answer shown was When people come to see 'em, they "really are a scream".

[KWalkerInc]

I'm guessing that the contestant had heard the Addams Family theme played at sporting events, where it is only instrumental.  I also enjoyed Niecy ribbing her about picking that song after not knowing it had words.  It's probably an easier theme than Cheers, but she was lucky to have her three words to use.  I also liked when Niecy told the first guy that she knew the words to "Love Machine," while acknowledging that this wasn't helpful information for him.  It's too bad he didn't know it at all, as that was one of the easier parts of the song.  The exchange where Niecy said she wished she could have helped him kind of reminded me of when Jimmy Kimmel was hosting Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and they had no studio audience so they could ask Jimmy as a lifeline.

[opus]

On 6/16/2023 at 5:40 AM, KWalkerInc said:

The schedule doesn't go past July yet, but I'm hoping there will be some episodes in August or it will be a very short season.  The week after next some movie is on, and the MLB All-Star Game is July 11.  I also can't imagine there being new episodes of this and Beat Shazam on July 4 unless the network really doesn't care at all.  That would lead to only 8 episodes in the season if it doesn't go into August.

Maybe Fox decided to hold some for the fall to help fill the schedule due to the writers strike.

[KWalkerInc]

That may be why they haven't listed anything either way for August, that they've taken a wait-and-see approach.  I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't even show new episodes the other two weeks in July unless there's an unexpected end to the strike.  They already decided to hold onto half a season of Name That Tune presumably for the same reason (but they did that months ago, so I'm a little surprised they didn't plan out what they were going to do for the whole summer sooner).

[KWalkerInc]

FOX put out a press release for a new episode on July 18.  The schedule on Futon Critic lists the show running into September, but that of course is subject to change.

[KWalkerInc]

It was too bad that the ex-bodybuilder ended up with nothing, but I could tell that was going to happen because this was the episode they originally scheduled back in the week when the pastor who got very far was on, so there wasn't going to be any cliffhanger. 

The guy (Sunshine) who won the $75,000 did a nice job.  There kept being a commercial where they made it look like he didn't know the words to "Milkshake" when he actually had no trouble.  Just some clever editing for the ad.

[Snow Apple]

The second contestant was so stupid. She should have used all three words to get the guaranteed $25k, or at least used it for the third word. I thought that was what she was going to do because it's easier to fill in the last word if you know the one before it.

[blackwing]

I watch online and use the +15 seconds button a lot when watching, I didn't realise that the guy's name is actually Sunshine, I thought that was just a pet term that Niecy was using for him.

He picked Country for his dad and said he knew both songs but I guess he didn't know "Jolene" well enough.

Are the categories somewhat tailored to the contestants?  There will always be one category that is a single artist.  Am I reading too much into it that the black guy got "Earth Wind and Fire" while the Italian bodybuilder lady got New Jersey Italian-American "Bon Jovi"?

6 hours ago, Snow Apple said:

The second contestant was so stupid. She should have used all three words to get the guaranteed $25k, or at least used it for the third word. I thought that was what she was going to do because it's easier to fill in the last word if you know the one before it.

She was so confident which is why she didn't use the last one.  Using the word to confirm "Girls" was such a waste when it seemed likely to be the answer because the previous line ended with "Guys".  I agree that she should have used the word for the third word.