Karaoke-style reality competition The Singing Bee has found a new home on CMT, which plans to relaunch the former NBC series this summer. CMT will premiere the show after its presentation of the annual CMT Awards on June 16, then will pair the one-hour series with its other singing competition show, Can You Duet, starting June 20. The show is being produced by the Gurin Co. and Juma and will be hosted by actress Melissa Peterman, who starred in the hit comedy, Reba.
CMT’s head of development Bob Kusbit said the network was interested in the show from its inception and lost the initial bidding war with NBC for the rights. NBC debuted the show right before Fox premiered its similarly formatted Don’t Forget the Lyrics (in both shows, contestants try to complete the lyrics of popular songs). Bee opened stronger in the Nielsens, yet Lyrics won the ratings battle in the long haul, and NBC passed on a second season. CMT will be making some changes to the show’s format. Gone are the “Bee” dancers, and the network promises a mix of 60% country, 40% other kinds of music.
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