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"Singing Bee" gets second chance at CMT

James Hibberd
Wed Apr 29, 2009 10:55pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "The Singing Bee" is coming back -- but not to NBC.

Television  |  Media

The musical reality competition has found a new home on cable network CMT, which plans to relaunch the former broadcast series in the summer.

CMT will premiere the show after its presentation of its annual CMT Awards on June 16. It will then pair the one-hour series with its other singing competition show, "Can You Duet," starting June 20.

CMT's head of development Bob Kusbit said the network was interested in the show from 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.

"We jumped at it," Kusbit said. "To have had a launching pad like a network where it's been out there in front of a lot of people, it's great. It's perfect for our audience coming here in the summer months."

CMT is making some changes to the show's format. Gone are the "Bee" dancers. The series will have a mix of 60% country, 40% other kinds of music. Ten episodes are ordered.

The network is near a deal on a host for the show. Former 'N Sync singer Joey Fatone hosted the first incarnation.

(Editing by Dean Gooodman at Reuters)
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