The Singing Bee is an Australian game show which is based on the original American version of the same name. By combining karaoke singing with a spelling bee-style competition, contestants have to sing lyrics to songs without making a mistake or risk elimination.

The show premiered on Sunday 7 October 2007 on the Nine Network, which ordered the production of an initial eight episodes. It was filmed at the Nine Network's GTV-9 studios at Richmond, Victoria. The Singing Bee followed the basic rules of the American version of the show but some rule changes have been made for the Australian version.

On 22 March 2008, it was announced by the Nine Network that The Singing Bee would return for a second season, with filming set to take place after the 2008 Logies. Tim Campbell took over as host from Joey Fatone. The season premiered on the Nine Network at 8.30pm on Thursday 10 July 2008. Melbourne radio host Craig Huggins was the announcer and voice over on both seasons.

Host and singers Former NSYNC singer and host of the original US version of the show, Joey Fatone was announced on 24 September 2007 as the host of the Australian version and was at the time in Melbourne for the show.

It was originally announced that it would be hosted by Australian musician David Campbell but due to other commitments, he was unavailable to host the show. Other media outlets have mentioned that personalities which were being considered for host included Kate Ceberano, Jon Stevens, Michael Falzon, Toby Allen and Rob Mills. The Nine Network held auditions for the series in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Out of the four regular singers featured on the show, Rob Mills and Andrew De Silva have been announced as two of them. Lucy Holmes, former host of The Mint is also a regular on the show.

The 2008 and 2010 seasons were hosted by Tim Campbell. Singers in the house band for Season 2 include Nilusha Baeder, Lucy Holmes, Sandii Keenan, Kelly Wolfgramm, Andrew De Silva and Judd Field. The house band was headed up by Dorian West.

Format At the start of the show, the band plays a song and the host randomly gives audience members a chance to sing part of the song. If they sing along to it enthusiastically, they become one of the six contestants on the show. This section refers to the original format of the show and not the current celebrity series.

Round 1 The host provides the year the song was released, the performer, and the name of the song. A portion of the song is performed, and then the contestant has to attempt to sing the next line of the song. If they are correct, they advance to the next round are told to walk over to the "musical chairs" and sit down. If the contestant gets the lyrics wrong however, they have to take a step back, and the next contestant in line must sing the same line of the song. This continues until someone gets it right. If no one correctly identifies the exact lyrics, the answer is given, the song is thrown out, and a new song is put into play. The first four people to correctly sing the given lyric go on to the next round, and the other two contestants are eliminated. For the celebrity edition, the contestants are given points, two for a correct lyric, and zero for a wrong answer. No one is eliminated, but the scores carryover into the next round.

Round 2 For round two, the four contestants who advanced through get paired up to play a game chosen at random in each episode from the following games:

Karaoke Challenge The contestant sees the words to the song in karaoke fashion, similar to Don't Forget the Lyrics!. As the contestant sings the song, they will see blanks in the lyrics being displayed, each representing a word in the song. The person out of the pair who fills in the most blanks correctly (out of a possible 15) wins and goes on to the third round. If both contestants get the same number of blanks filled in each, a tie-breaker is played. For the celebrity edition, there are 13 missing words. For every word correctly sung, the player is given a point. The player who culminates the fewest points in Round 1 and 2 combined is eliminated from the game.

Lyric Scramble While the band is performing, words from the next line of lyrics to a song are shown scrambled on the screen. The contestant is required to sing the words shown, in their correct order. When one contestant is correct and the other is wrong at any point, the one who was correct moves on to the Championship Round. If both contestants are incorrect, a tie-breaker is played, but if both contestant are correct, the round is repeated.

Round 3 (Chorus Showdown) The two contestants who advanced through battle each other in a game called the "Chorus Showdown". This follows a similar format to the first round, but instead of singing a line, the contestant is required to sing the entire chorus without making a mistake. If both contestants sing their chorus lines correctly, the round is repeated. If both contestants sing their chorus lines incorrectly, a tie-breaker is played.

Round 4 (The Final Countdown) The last remaining contestant who advanced through gets to play in the money round called "The Final Countdown", based on the song of the same name. Up to 7 songs are performed in a similar manner to the first round. For each song, if the lyrics are sung correctly for it, the player wins $5,000. If the player gets five songs right, they win $50,000. However, if they sing the lyrics for a song incorrectly, a strike is given. If three strikes are given (three songs are sung incorrectly) at any point during the round, the game is over but the contestant still wins whatever money was accumulated up to that point, if any. All money round contestants receive a trophy regardless of the outcome.

Technicalities

Tie-breaker Tie-breakers apply only to rounds two and three and are used when contestants get even results while playing the games. In the tie-breaker, the two contestants are given the year and the name of the performer and the first person to answer the name of the song correctly is given the option of singing the song themselves or letting the other contestant sing it. If the singer sings the tie-breaker song without mistakes, they win and move on to the next round. If they make a mistake, the other contestant goes through.

Production Auditions were held in Melbourne during the weekend of 18–19 August, with some 125 trying out on the Saturday and more the following day. Auditions are done in the style of Round 1 of the show, with five contestants taking turns to complete a lyric of varying degrees of difficulty once the lead-in music stops. Channel Nine's A Current Affair taped a segment on the Saturday, which was then shown on 20 August 2007 to promote the show. Auditions were held in the Temptation studio at GTV-9 in Richmond, Victoria.

Episodes

Series 1 Episode 1 (7 October 2007) Round Number Year ArtistSong Contestant selection 1983 Cyndi Lauper Girls Just Want to Have Fun Round 1 1985 Katrina and the Waves Walking on Sunshine 1982 Men at Work Who Can It Be Now? 1981 Joan Jett and the Blackhearts I Love Rock 'n' Roll 1967 Marvin Gaye I Heard It Through the Grapevine Round 2 1981 Toni Basil Mickey 1972 Bill Withers Lean on Me 1997 Aqua Barbie Girl 1979 Little River Band Lonesome Loser Round 3 1983 Donna Summer She Works Hard for the Money 1963 Lesley Gore It's My Party Round 4 ChampionShane Money won$20,000 1998 Britney Spears ...Baby One More Time 1979 Mental As Anything The Nips Are Getting Bigger 2005 Ben Lee Catch My Disease 1980 Blondie The Tide Is High 1975 Kiss Rock and Roll All Nite 1982 Billy Idol White Wedding 1978 Gloria Gaynor I Will Survive

Episode 2 (14 October 2007) Round Number Year Artist Song Contestant selection 1980 The Romantics What I Like About You Round 1 1981 Rick Springfield Jessie's Girl 1979 The Pretenders Brass in Pocket 2005 Pussycat Dolls featuring Busta Rhymes Don't Cha 1985 Bananarama Venus Round 2 1983 Billy Joel Uptown Girl 1964 The Drifters Under the Boardwalk 2001 Kasey Chambers Not Pretty Enough 1987 Crowded House Something So Strong Round 3 1979 Robert Palmer Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor) 1981 The Go-Go's Our Lips Are Sealed Round 4 ChampionGlenn Money won$50,000 1978 John Paul Young Love is in the Air 1980 Blondie Call Me 1983 Pat Benatar Love Is a Battlefield 2005 Bernard Fanning Wish You Well 1988 The Bangles Eternal Flame 1977 Bonnie Tyler It's a Heartache

Episode 3 (21 October 2007) Round Number Year Artist Song Contestant selection 1987 Kylie Minogue The Loco-Motion Round 1 1982 Hall & Oates Maneater 1983 Cyndi Lauper Time After Time 1991 Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit 2003 Delta Goodrem Lost Without You Round 2 1990 Heart All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You 1996 Savage Garden Truly Madly Deeply 2004 Kelly Clarkson Since U Been Gone 1981 Christopher Cross Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do) 1996 R. Kelly I Believe I Can Fly Round 3 1984 Madonna Like a Virgin 1998 The Goo Goo Dolls Iris 1991 Billy Ray Cyrus Achy Breaky Heart 1973 Billy Joel Piano Man 1971 Daddy Cool Eagle Rock Round 4 ChampionMelanie Money won$15,000 1975 Queen Bohemian Rhapsody 1979 The Police Every Breath You Take 1992 Whitney Houston I'm Every Woman 1988 The Bangles Walk Like an Egyptian 1964 The Kinks You Really Got Me 1980 The Romantics What I Like About You

Episode 4 (28 October 2007) Round Number Year Artist Song Contestant selection 1999 Vanessa Amorosi Absolutely Everybody Round 1 1984 The Bangles Manic Monday 1975 Rocky Horror Picture Show Time Warp 1985 Mr. Mister Broken Wings 1987 Kylie Minogue The Loco-Motion Round 2 1987 Belinda Carlisle Heaven Is a Place on Earth 1984 Mondo Rock Come Said the Boy 1982 Eurythmics Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) 1997 Sixpence None The Richer Kiss Me Round 3 1975 ABBA Dancing Queen 1979 Kiss I Was Made for Lovin' You 1970 Rod Stewart Maggie May Round 4 ChampionSarah

Money won$50,000 1980 Cold Chisel Cheap Wine 1978 Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta You're The One That I Want 1987 The Choirboys Run To Paradise 1997 Shania Twain Man! I Feel Like a Woman! 1965 The Righteous Brothers Unchained Melody 1982 John Cougar Jack And Diane 1977 Status Quo Rockin' All Over the World

Episode 5 (4 November 2007) Round Number Year Artist Song Contestant selection 1990 John Farnham Chain Reaction Round 1 1991 Jimmy Barnes Ain't No Mountain High Enough 1982 The Waitresses I Know What Boys Like 1975 KC and the Sunshine Band That's the Way (I Like It) 1968 Dusty Springfield Son of a Preacher Man Round 2 1985 Madonna Material Girl 1973 Steve Miller Band The Joker 1964 Petula Clark Downtown 1982 Culture Club Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? Round 3 1977 Queen We Are The Champions 1997 John Farnham and Human Nature Every Time You Cry Round 4 ChampionVanessa

Money won$0 1968 Tammy Wynette Stand By Your Man 1964 Roy Orbison Pretty Woman 1993 Dannii Minogue This Is It

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