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Psst, TEN! Here’s a show worth making.

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Last summer TEN screened the US version of So You Think You Can Dance to reasonable ratings. The second season proved more popular for the network. The local version is about to air as one of TEN’s biggest hopes for 2008.

So TEN could easily do the same thing with Don’t Forget The Lyrics. Last night over 1m people sat down to watch an American game show, a notion rarely heard of these days. After all who wants to see Americans win American money?

Admittedly the competition on the other FTA commercials was tennis or cricket. But the show has enjoyed a loyal following amongst those who revel in its mix of Singing Bee meets Millionaire.

Don’t Forget the Lyrics is actually a better format than Singing Bee, primarily because there are ‘lifeline’ options and higher stakes. Singing Bee consciously aims for a feelgood karaoke game show. Lyrics puts the contestant in a ‘make or break’ firing line.

An Aussie version of this would fit well in TEN’s format, and the network only has one locally produced primetime quiz/game show.

With the ongoing writer’s strike TEN has just greenlit a revival of Good News Week. They should add this idea to their 2008 slate too.

12 Responses

  1. I noticed that So You Think You Can Dance was mentioned here, so I thought I would ask – what is the name of the song that Ten is using to promote the Australian version of the show?

  3. Good idea! However it would need a good host. Anyone but Rove. The US host is excellent. Maybe someone like Hamish and Andy would be good for this show….they already are on Rove and they have a really good following in Australia.

  4. Don’t Forget The Lyrics…. David are you having a joke?

    Sorry, this scares me.. is this really what we’ll have to deal with because of the writers strike?

    I liked Wayne Brady in “Whose Line Is It Anyway?“, but I find this karaoke show to be so slow and boring, I’d rather watch the news read in a foreign language!

    I think Don’t Forget The Lyrics and Singing Bee should be sentenced to boring weekend night shows! (like Funniest Home Videos!)

    Regardless of the ongoing writer’s strike, surely TEN can come up with something better than karaoke!!? And if not they could always play old episodes of The Simpsons and Futurama again! I’d rather them over these karaoke disaster shows!

  10. I think Ten had that in mind all along – they are making savvy programming choices. Unlike Nine who couldn’t make a decision on a host and then used the US host at great expense on the cheaper looking Australian version, Ten was able to make audiences familiar with the format and gauge ratings before going to the trouble of duplicating an Aussie version. Nine should have shown the US Singing Bee as well and then worked out if they could come up with a similar quality if it had rated well. Now the big question will be is whether Ten have the courage to find a great local talent – preferably an unkown to host it. Let’s face it, the US version still did okay and most people here would not know their host.

  11. I normally never watch this show … but last night, we were immediately engaged by that wonderful, humble, talented contestant and were eventually screaming the house down when she won the $500,000. What a fabulous voice too!
    But the important thig is … we MUST like the contestant and WANT her to win … most of them are just clowns so not worth watching.
    Jack!

  12. Not a bad idea! Surely ten could make a half hour version for 7pm for the part of the year that TBL and BB are not on…I think this show easily becomes tiresom, but having it on only a couple of months a year could overcome that…..

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