The structure of the show is similar to another FOX game show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, Lyrics's cousin game show. Contestants are given nine categories (such as "pop", "The Rolling Stones", or "divas"). Contestants pick one of the categories. They are then given a choice of two different songs. The contestant then chooses one of the songs and are told how many many missing words they will have to provide. The band starts to play the song and the lyrics are displayed on large monitors in front of the contestant, who sings karaoke style. At some point, the lyrics are shown as blank spaces and the music stops. The contestant then fills in those blank spaces. They can then decide to "lock in" the lyrics (which is the same effect as saying "Final Answer" on Millionaire), choose one of the "backups", which are answer-assistance options that are similar to lifelines, or choose to walk away with the money they have won so far.

Lyric Colors

• Filled in lyrics start with yellow
• Then change from yellow to blue when they're locked in
• Green lyrics are correct
• Red lyrics are incorrect, which ends the game

Sometimes a few words turn green at a time rather than all of them at once, creating suspense; this is often done if one or more words will turn out to be wrong, and the incorrect word or words generally will show up in the final reveal. If the words are all correct, the contestant's score increases to a higher amount, accompanied by music previously used for a correct answer on Show Me the Money (a shorter version of that music accompanies a reveal of part of the lyrics). Lyrics that turn red are incorrect (and if any are shown, this is accompanied by music previously used for an incorrect answer on Show Me the Money) and will signal a game over, but correct words are still colored green. If the contestant locks in incorrect lyrics before hitting the $25,000 mark, all money earned so far is removed from the contestant; going for $25,000 after winning $10,000 is the last point in the game at which a contestant can leave with nothing. After passing the $25,000 mark, the contestant is guaranteed that amount; incorrect lyrics between the $50,000 and the $500,000 songs will knock the contestant's winnings down to $25,000. After nine correct answers, contestants can choose to go for the "Million-Dollar Song".

Million Dollar Song

Identical to 5th Grader's Million Dollar Question, the contestant that makes it to this level must decide whether or not to either attempt the song or play it safe and take the $500,000. There is no other information on the song revealed to the player other than that the song is a #1 hit from one of the nine categories featured in their game. Also revealed is that if the player does go on, the $25,000 guarantee is immediately increased to $100,000 (this is not so on 5th Grader because some contestants have already attempted the million-dollar question and lost, whereas no contestant ever attempted the Million-Dollar Song; prior to January 2008, the contestant would drop down to the $25,000 mark with an incorrect answer to the Million-Dollar Song; during this time, no one attempted it). Any remaining backups (excluding the backup singer) are revoked (taken away or out of play) after locking in the $500,000 song, and the other information is only revealed if the player decides to go for it. After the contestant sings, they can change it if they want but they have the option to lock in something or walk away. If the lyrics to the Million-Dollar Song are incorrect or the contestant opts to walk away by not locking in the lyric, the contestant leaves with $100,000 (This happened only twice). If correct, the contestant wins $1,000,000.

No contestants won $1,000,000, but seven players reached the final level. Two decided to play for the Million-Dollar Song and failed (Losing $400K), while the other five (including one team) decided not to play the Million Dollar Song and walk away with $500,000. A different sound is used for locked-in incorrect lyrics on the Million-Dollar Song.

Backups

Similar to the "3 lifelines" concept from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, there are 3 answer-assistance options, or "backups", that the contestant can use for help if they get stumped. "Backup Singer" (analogous to the now-defunct "Phone a Friend" lifeline on Millionaire) allows one of the contestant's 2 friends or family members the opportunity to help them by singing along with the contestant. Afterwards, the contestant is given the choice of sticking with their lyric or going with their backup singer's lyric if it is different. "2 Words" allows the contestant to choose any two of the missing words after they have answered but before the answer is locked in, and they will be told what those words are. When the player uses the "2 Words" backup after selecting a word that is incorrect or missing as one of the two, it will automatically be corrected. "3 Lines" gives the contestant a choice of 3 possible answers, of which one is the correct response. If the choices have common words within them, the lyrics will have the common words automatically turned green. It is possible to get the full line of the song correct with both the "3 Lines" and "2 Words" backups. Each backup may only be used once, and while the backup singer will still be available for the Million Dollar Song (if it has not been already used) the other two backups will be revoked. Contestants may be required to use up their backups on the $500,000 song if they have not done so already, because there is a warning that, if a backup isn't used on the $500,000 song when the backup(s) is/are available, the remaining unused backup option(s) will be automatically used (except for the backup singer) after the lyrics are locked in.

Ratings

In its debut, Don't Forget the Lyrics! averaged 3.4 million viewers in adults 18-49.^[6]

Since the show's debut, FOX had reordered two additional runs of 13 episodes each during the 2007-2008 television season.^[7][8]

Over the show's 54 episodes, a total of $10,735,000 has been given away, with $2.3 million being won by celebrity contestants for their charities.

Notable Contestants

• Contestant #1, Katie Moeser, was reportedly a grad student in entomology. Her MySpace page shows her education to be a partial completion of an undergraduate degree in communications^[9]
• Contestant #2, Luke Adams, is a professional actor with an entry on imdb.com.^[10] The show reported that Adams is a "bar manager" however his personal website states, "I consider myself lucky to have been able to make a living performing on stage for over 10 years."^[11]
• Contestant #3, Eddie Mui, is a professional actor who has appeared in a number of roles, including a guest spot on 1990s hit show Beverly Hills, 90210^[12]
• Contestant #4, Theresa Ryan, is a professional actor and comedian who has spent time at The Second City in Las Vegas and received a degree in acting from SUNY-Purchase University^[13]
• On the season premiere on September 6, Taya Asimos, is an actor appearing in The Wanderer and Voyeur^[14]
• Also on the season premiere, the minister from Topeka, Kansas, Venson Quarles, is actually a musician with "Venson Quarles & Company" and was performing as recently as August 19, 2007 at the Pechanga Casino in Temecula, California^[15]
• On October 14 2007, Tony Gubelman became the first contestant to walk away with no prize money after he didn't get the lyrics to "Piano Man" at the $25,000 level.
• Dottie Harris became the first contestant to make it to $500,000 before she passed on the Million Dollar Song opportunity. The song remained unrevealed.
• Ashley McCohn had been a contestant on an episode of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? screened the same evening as her Don't Forget the Lyrics! appearance. She had the first question on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? incorrect and was invited by Wayne Brady to participate on his show. She won nothing on either show (missing the $10,000 song on the latter). This is the main part of the 2 hour TV game show crossover called "A 5th Grader's Lyrics", which is a crossover between 5th Grader and this show.
• Shamari Berkley became the first contestant under the age of 18, as he was 11 when he played the game with the rules changed slightly—even if he got a song wrong, he would never lose the money he had earned one level earlier, rather than the usual drop to either $0 or $25,000. He was also given a pass for one category at the beginning of his game, automatically giving him $2,500 in case he missed his first song. Considering his age, many of the songs dealt with something kids would know, such as Take Me Out to the Ball Game and the Hokey Pokey. He walked away with $350,000. Shamari is also a child actor ^[16].
• John Adams, a father of 3, was the first person to make it to the $100,000 level and still have all of his backups. He left with $200,000. (Theres is another chance earned in 1st or 2nd song, in the next season.)
• Boyz II Men appeared as celebrity contestants, playing for charity, on an episode aired on February 21, 2008. They were given the chance to do the $1,000,000 song but ended the show with a concert instead. Again, the Million Dollar Song remained unrevealed. The two songs they sang were a re-make of the Four Tops' It's the Same Old Song, and their own hit, End of the Road. Of note, one of the categories on the board was a Boyz II Men category (which was purposely saved for last).
• Jill Small ^[17], a working actress with about a dozen credits, won a grand total of $350,000, on an episode that aired on February 28, 2008. Small also had her own instructional break dancing video.
• REO Speedwagon frontman Kevin Cronin appeared as a contestant on the March 27, 2008 episode. Like Boyz II Men, he ended the show with a concert, singing Roll With the Changes.
• On April 17, 2008, American Idol Season 2 contestant Kimberley Locke became the first contestant in "Lyrics" history to attempt the Million Dollar Song. She sang "You're Sixteen (You're Beautiful, and You're Mine)" by Ringo Starr of The Beatles. She also became the first person to save all 3 backups until the $350,000 song, the latest that anyone had held onto them. However, she was unsuccessful in winning the million-dollar prize and brought home $100,000 for her charity, Camp Heartland and committed to earning an additional $400,000 on her own. She ended the show singing the song "Band of Gold". Camp Heartland has since been renamed to One Heartland.
• On May 1, 2008, Poison frontman Bret Michaels won $200,000. He donated $100,000 to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and $100,000 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
• On May 15, 2008, contestant Diana Drake became the 2nd contestant in the show's history (and the 1st regular contestant) to attempt the Million Dollar Song, but lost when she didn't know the words to Milli Vanilli's "Blame It on the Rain". She thus dropped down to $100,000.
• On November 7, 2008, all 4 original members of En Vogue appeared to compete for the charities of their choice, winning a total of $300,000 for the Cancer Centers of America, St. Jude's, and RBI International (the $50,000 went to taxes).
• On December 12, 2008, three Miss Americas, Kirsten Haglund (Miss America 2008), Heather French Henry (Miss America 2000) and Susan Powell (Miss America 1981) competed for the Miss America Scholarship Fund. There was an erroneous $350,000 song titled "Jingle Bell Rock", and they lost $175,000 when they sang the line. 9 of the 10 missing words (the first 4 and last 5) were correct, but the fifth word, "riding", was marked as incorrect, and the correct word was "gliding". There were actually 2 correct answer combinations, 1 with the wrong answer and 1 with the right answer that are believed to be correct because there is a newer version which uses the incorrect word.
• On January 16, 2009, Penn & Teller appeared on the show with Carrot Top as one of their helpers. They lost $75,000 after getting the $200,000 song wrong. Penn was singing "Love Me Two Times" by The Doors. He said word 2 wrong (it should have been "girl" but he said "baby") and walked away with $25,000.
• On May 22, 2009, Meat Loaf and his daughter Pearl, had no problems on getting to $500,000 before opting to walk with the money and donating it to The Painted Turtle.
• On June 5, 2009, Matt and Mike Landis were the first and only twins to be contestants on the show and walked with $350,000, despite that they had the correct lyrics to Stevie Wonder's Part-Time Lover on the $500,000 song, but they had no backups and opted to play it safe. Colin Hay of Men at Work also made an appearance on the show to support the twin brothers.
• On June 19, 2009, Deanna DellaCioppa was the show's final contestant of the third season winning $350,000 before she couldn't figure the missing lyrics to Steve Miller Band's Fly Like an Eagle. The show's third season was the last network television season; the show was not renewed in primetime, but after 15 months off the air, will return as a daily syndicated show with Mark McGrath hosting.

Penultimate Song Correct ($500,000 in 2007-09 version)

• Dottie Harris (first civilian contestant to win $500,000)
• Boyz II Men (February 21, 2008) (first ever celebrity contestant to win $500,000)
• Asia Craft (October 10, 2008)
• Mark Weiser and J'Nae Fincannon (first ever team to win $500,000) (December 19, 2008)
• Meat Loaf and Pearl (May 22, 2009)

Final Song incorrect ($400,000 loss in 2007-09 version)

• Kimberley Locke (April 17, 2008)
• Diana Drake (May 15, 2008)

Top Prize

No contestant or team on Don't Forget the Lyrics has won or shared the top prize in the United States.

International versions

Country	Name	Host	Channel	Premiere	Jackpot
Australia	Don't Forget the Lyrics		Network Ten	March 4, 2009
Austria	Sing & Win	Rainhard Fendrich	ATV	March 6, 2008	€50,000
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia	Ne zaboravi stihove!	Igor Mešin	Nova TV		HRK500,000
Denmark	Så det synger (So it sings)	Michael Carøe	TV 2 Denmark		DKK 500.000
Finland
France	N'oubliez pas les paroles!	Nagui	France 2	December 2007	€100,000
Germany
Greece
Hungary
India	Bol Baby Bol	Adnan Sami	STAR One	November 9, 2007	Rs.25 lakh
Indonesia	Missing Lyrics	Irgi Ahmad Fahrezi	Trans TV		Rp100.000.000
Israel	Sing it	Assi Azar	reshet,Channel 2	TBA	100,000
Italy	Canta e Vinci	Amadeus & Checco Zalone	Italia 1		€500,000
Malaysia	Jangan Lupa Lirik!	Aznil Nawawi	Astro Ria	May 25, 2008	RM1,000,000	and season 1 (2008), season 2 (2009)
Mexico
Netherlands
Nigeria	Don't Forget The Lyrics Nigeria	Kamal Salau	All Major stations (Nigeria)	Nov/Dec 2008	N20,000,000.00
Norway	Kan du teksten (Do you know the text)	Tshawe Baqwa and Yosef Wolde-Mariam	TV 2 (Norway)	April 2008	NOK 500,000
Poland	Tak to leciało! (It was sung like that!)	Maciej Miecznikowski	TVP2	March 9, 2008	zloty 150,000
Portugal
Singapore	Don't Forget The Lyrics Singapore	Gurmit Singh	MediaCorp Channel 5	November 27, 2008	S$500,000
	我要唱下去	曾國城	MediaCorp Channel 8	August 25, 2009
Slovakia	Lyrics - Vyspievaj si milión! (Lyrics - Sing for the million!)		TV JOJ	August 8	€100,000
Spain	No te olvides de la canción (Don't forget the song)	Àngel Llàcer	La Sexta	September 26, 2008	€100,000
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan	百萬大歌星 (One Million Singer)	庾澄慶 (Harlem Yu)	TTV	May 10, 2008	NTD300,000
Thailand
Turkey
United Kingdom	Don't Forget the Lyrics	Shane Richie	Sky1	May 11, 2008	£250,000
United States	Don't Forget the Lyrics!	Wayne Brady	FOX	July 11, 2007	$1,000,000

Australia

The Australian version was rumoured to be airing on Network Ten in late 2008, with a jackpot of $500,000, after strong ratings to the US version over the summer non-ratings period. However, there has never been any confirmation and no production has begun. This may be due to lower ratings for episodes of the US version airing during the ratings period.

Austria

The Austrian version premiered on March 6, 2008 and aired on ATV entitled Sing & Win. It is hosted by Rainhard Fendrich. The jackpot for this version is €50,000. So far, only one person managed to win the jackpot: the female singer Alexandra Poetzelsberger.

Belgium

{Information needed}

Bulgaria

{Information needed}

Croatia

The Croatian version premiered on March 17 2008 and aired on Nova TV entitled Ne zaboravi stihove!. It is hosted by Igor Mešin. The jackpot for this version is 500.000kn.

Danish version

The Danish version premiered 22 Mar 2008 (Easter Saturday) and aired on TV 2 Denmark entitled Så det synger (So it sings). It is hosted by Michael Carøe. The jackpot for this version is DKK 500.000.

France

The French version premiered on December 2007 and aired on France 2 entitled N'oubliez pas les paroles!. It is hosted by Nagui. The jackpot for this version is €100,000.

Germany

{Information needed}

Greece

{Information needed}

Hungary

{Information needed}

India

The Indian version premiered on November 9, 2007 and aired on STAR One entitled Bol Baby Bol. It is hosted by Adnan Sami The jackpot for this version is Rs.25 lakh. They have had one winner of the grand prize so far.

Israel

The Israeli version for "Don't forget the lyrics" is called Sing it. The host of the show Is Asi Azar. The show is broadcast on Channel 2 television.

Italy

The Italian version aired for a pilot on December 2007 on Italia 1 entitled Canta e Vinci, then it had a season split between Spring and Summer. It is hosted by Amadeus & Checco Zalone. The jackpot for this version is €500,000.

Malaysia

The Malaysian version premiered on May 25, 2008 and aired on Astro Ria entitled Jangan Lupa Lirik!. It is hosted by Aznil Nawawi The jackpot for this version is RM1,000,000.^[18]

Mexico

{Information needed}

The Netherlands

{Information needed}

New Zealand Version

The New Zealand Version The Singing Bee, [1] Television New Zealand

Norwegian version

The Norwegian version is hosted by Tshawe Baqwa and Yosef Wolde-Mariam from the Norwegian hip hop/rap band Madcon. It is aired on TV 2 (Norway).

Poland

The Polish version premiered on March 9, 2008 and aired on TVP2 entitled Tak to leciało! (It was sung like that!). It is hosted by Maciej Miecznikowski. The jackpot for this version is zloty 150,000.

Portuguese version

{Information needed}

Singapore

English Version

The Singapore version, hosted by Singapore Idol host Gurmit Singh, premiered on 27 November 2008 on MediaCorp Channel 5. It airs every Thursday night at 8pm. Contestants will sing their way to the top prize of S$500,000. The first episode featured Singapore Idol contestants Hady Mirza, Jonathan Leong and Taufik Batisah for a Pop Stars Edition of the show. They earned a total of S$25,000 for charity.

Special Episodes

During the Comic Mayham episode in the Singapore version on March 5, the show ended with the three contestants running away due to the time, and ended with the lyrics not locked in, remaining the same.

The Contestants for the Sitcom Special were Phua Chu Kang (Gurmit Singh) from Phua Chu Kang, Barberella (Michelle Chong) from The Noose (TV series) and Sgt. Dollah (Suhaimi Yusoff) from Police & Thief.

The next part continued on March 12, where other contestants will take the former ones' places. They won S$50,000.

Another Special episode featured local babes in the form of Fiona Xie, Jade Seah and Andrea Fonseka. On the $50,000 to $100,000 mark, Andrea was confident of her answer to the song of The Boy is Mine with 12 missing words, so all 3 agreed to lock in the lyrics. However, one word was wrong, and the money dropped down to $10,000 which was given to charity.

On the finale on April 9 2009, MPs Maliki Osman and Baey Yam Kheng participated in the game show. The duo raised $25000 for charity.

Both episodes are being done for charity

Chinese version

The Mandarin version of Don't Forget the Lyrics (Chinese: 我要唱下去) premiered on 25 August 2009 at 8pm every Tuesday. It is hosted by Taiwanese Zeng Guo Cheng (Chinese: 曾國城). Contestants will be competing for S$500,000. As at the last episode, there were 10 normal episodes and 4 celebrity episodes.

Prize Progression Ladder: $1,000, $2,000, $5,000, $10,000 (guaranteed sum), $15,000, $25,000, $50,000, $100,000, $200,000, $500,000.

The highest amount won was $200,000 by a female contestant Wu Huixin (Chinese: 吴惠欣) over two episodes aired on Oct 7 and Oct 14 2009. She chose not to attempt the $500,000 song. She became the highest money winner on a Singapore gameshow in almost eight years since a male contestant won $250,000 on a Dec 27 2001 episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire.^[19]

The Mandarin version is the only version that sees a few contestants reaching the "safe haven". Adding on, host Zeng did not mention how many missing words are there in each round, opposing to other versions of the show.

Celebrity specials

The first episode was a celebrity special consisting of 3 local comedians, Mark Lee, Michelle Tay and Henry Thia. They managed to win $10,000.

The second celebrity special on the fifth episode saw local singers Joi Chua, Kelvin Tan and Chew Sin Huey winning $10,000.

The third celebrity special on the tenth episode saw local artistes Jeff Wang, Kym Ng and Quan Yifeng winning $25,000.

The fourth celebrity episode on the last episode, the fourteenth episode saw 3 deejays Dennis Chew, Xie Jia Fa and Siau Jia Hui winning $50,000. The highest celebrity payout of the four episodes.

Slovakian version

The Slovakian version premiered on February 22, 2008 and aired on TV JOJ entitled LYRICS - Vyspievaj si milión!. It is hosted by Andrej Bičan. The jackpot for this version is now 100,000 euros because Slovakia is joining the Eurozone, which results in the 1,000,000 koruna prize being dropped.

Spanish version

The Spanish version premiered on September 2008 with the name "No te olvides de la canción" (Don't forget the song)^[20]. It is aired at La Sexta and hosted by Operación Triunfo academy's former director Àngel Llàcer. The jackpot prize is €100,000.

Sweden

{Information needed}

Switzerland

{Information needed}

Taiwan

The Taiwan version is called "百萬大歌星" (One Million Singer), hosted by Harlem Yu. This program is aired in Taiwan Television Enterprise, Ltd. (TTV). But it's not the authorized program from the origin. The top prize is NTD300,000.

Thailand

The Thai version was first aired on 11 March 2007. It is currently hosted by ??? and airing on ??? from ??? to ???PM.

Turkey

{Information needed}

United Kingdom

The UK version premiered on May 11, 2008 and aired on Sky One entitled Don't Forget the Lyrics!. It is hosted by Shane Richie. The jackpot for this version is £250,000.

United States

The original US version premiered on July 11, 2007 and aired on FOX entitled Don't Forget the Lyrics!. It is hosted by Wayne Brady. The jackpot for this version is $1,000,000.

Missing Lyrics in Indonesia

There is also an Indonesian version "Missing Lyrics" airing on the national TV channel. The top prize for this version is 100.000.000 Rupiah (about $10,000).

Trivia

• Both Wayne Brady and Joey Fatone, host of the competing show The Singing Bee on NBC, attended Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Florida.
• When a contestant selects a song from a band with more than one backup singer, Wayne Brady will call one or two audience members at random to be the contestant's backup singer alongside him.
• The show was parodied at the 2007 Primetime Emmy Awards, when Wayne Brady had Kanye West compete with Rainn Wilson from The Office for the chance to become a presenter. The category was "Kanye West songs," and each participant had to sing the correct lyrics to West's new single, Stronger. West inadvertently sang the last line as "...That's how long I've been on you", and Wilson won by using the correct ending word ("ya"). Afterwards, as both men presented the next award, West complained: "I never win," alluding to his own recent awards-show losses.
• As it had happened on Deal or No Deal back in April, 2006, on September 20, 2007, a proposal was being made by one of contestant Gabrielle Hatchett's supporters—her boyfriend Nathan Reid. Gabrielle picked the "Motown" category and both songs were "written" by Nathan, one "I finally got the ring!", and the other "Will you marry me?". Everyone appeared clueless (apparently thinking that that was the real title of the song) until the camera zoomed in on the "WILL YOU MARRY ME?" part of the screen. Both Gabrielle and the audience caught on at the same time. Nathan promptly approached Gabrielle and posed the question once again; Gabrielle accepted without hesitation. She walked away with $350,000, a couple of months before Dottie Harris overtook her total.
• In one episode, the host of Don't Forget The Lyrics! walked on to the set of the TV show Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?, which was filmed inside the same building. After a lady had answered the very first question on 5th Grader wrong (she normally would have walked out with $0), he invited her to be on Don't Forget The Lyrics!, which was just a few doors down. In the show, you could see them following the camera down the hall, and right onto the set of Don't Forget The Lyrics!
• Don't Forget the Lyrics!, along with The Singing Bee, was nominated for a 2007 Teen Choice Award for Choice Summer TV Show but lost to Degrassi.
• While Don't Forget the Lyrics! is more of a quiz show, The Singing Bee is more of a word show because it is like a spelling bee.
• Football player Jerry Rice made an appearance on the show to help boost contestant Michael Oliver's confidence after Michael got off to a shaky start.
• One of Ashley McCohn's song choices was "China Grove" by The Doobie Brothers, which coincidentally is also the show's theme song. She chose to sing the Green Acres theme instead (the category she had picked was "TV Themes", and that was the song she lost $5,000 on).
• The UK version features a more cross sectional list of contestants than the semi-professional US original. Early episodes feature a primary school teacher, a doctor, an A-Level student and a policeman as contestants.
• The "LIVE" band on the show is the same core band from American Idol (FOX, Fremantle, 19 Entertainment) led by Rickey Minor. The vocalists are Dorian Holley (a vocal coach from American Idol) and Amy Keys.
• Typically, when a celebrity (mainly a famous singer) is the contestant, at least one of the categories or songs on that show will be a famous song associated with them.

See also

• All Star K!

References

External links

• UK Sky One's Official Don't Forget The Lyrics! site
• Don't Forget the Lyrics! at the Internet Movie Database
• Don't Forget the Lyrics! at TV.com