The Singing Bee (on CMT) is a singing competition show unlike any other.  Instead of competing to be the best singer, The Singing Bee totes the catchphrase, “You don’t have to sing it well, just have to sing it right.”

This karaoke style competition takes place after six audience members are chosen by host Melissa Peterman to come up on stage.  After they introduce themselves they play a game called “Pick Four” to narrow it down to four contestants.  The house band plays a song and when the music stops, the contestant has to finish the lyric.  The four that finish correctly get to move on to the next stage.

The next stage of competition comes in three rounds.  The first is called “Random Shuffle.”  The band will play a song and the words to the lyric that needs to be sung will appear on the screen.  However, the lyrics are jumbled and the contestant must sing them in the right order to gain five points.  After that comes “Singing With The Enemy”  where the contestants are split into pairs.  The band will play a song and the contestants take turns singing correct lyrics when the band stops playing for five points each.  The last step is “Karaoke Challenge” where the contestant sings a song excerpt like one would during karaoke, but words are missing on the karaoke screen.  For every correct word, the contestant gets two points.  The two contestants with the highest points at the end of this stage move on.

Now that it’s narrowed down to two, the contestants participate in “Chorus Showdown.”  The band plays a few lines from a song and the contestant has to sing the chorus, word for word.  The contestant who wins this stage is declared the champion of The Singing Bee and is moved on to compete for $10,000.

The last stage is called “Final Countdown.”  The band will play up to seven songs.  Like earlier in the competition, when the band stops, the champion has to sing the next line in the song word for word.  Each line sung correctly gets the champion $500, but on the fifth correctly sung line, the champion gets $10,000.

This show is the most entertaining thing I’ve watched so far.  It’s average people, not being praised for singing magnificently, but being praised for remembering the music they enjoy.  You get wrapped up in their enthusiasm and find yourself cheering for all of the contestants.  Melissa Peterman is funny and incredibly bouncy, enough to get anyone on their feet.  The Singing Bee is absolutely adorable and I encourage you to watch it as often as possible.  We could all do with a little enthusiasm in our lives.