‘Sing On!’ is making karaoke competitive
Netflix game show used computer to analyze vocals
Karaoke since the 1990s has been a beloved (and sometimes reviled) avocation in the United States, performed in homes, bars and private rooms nationwide. It plays into the American urge to be the center of attention.
A new Netf lix game show — “Sing On!” — tries to “quantify” the quality of karaoke in a way that is more scientific and enables them to score singers who could win as much as $60,000.
“It’s about celebrating brilliant lovely people who love to sing,” said “Sing On!” executive producer Victoria Ashbourne. “It’s not about laughing at people who can’t sing. It’s not that show. It’s an uplifting show.”
Another element that feeds into the joyous atmosphere is host Tituss Burgess, the Georgia, native best known for his role as the eccentric and selfcentered Titus Andromedon on Netf lix’s comedy “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.”
“It’s one big Titus party,” said Burgess in an interview with The Atlanta JournalConstitution. “I got to contribute a lot of the content and write some of the jokes. This is not ‘The Voice’ or ‘American Idol.’ These are everyday Americans, which is part of the charm.”
And he communicated what the producers wanted by telling the audience before each taping that there would be no booing. “It changed the way people perceived it,” he said. “We want everyone to feel like they have a shot to win.”
A professional singer with huge range and Broadway credentials, Burgess could sing Lynyrd Skynyrd and opera with equal dexterity. And he opens each episode with a song representing the episode’s theme, be it 1980s, country or movie songs.
Each episode, six contestants — who could be doctors, truck drivers or waiters — are introduced while singing bits of that opening song, be it “I Love Rock and Roll,” “All About That Bass” or “Can’t Stop the Feeling.”
The players then compete over five songs, which can range from reasonably easy (“Take Me Home, Country Roads”) to deceptively tricky (“Moves Like Jagger”) to obviously difficult (“My Heart Will Go On”). Most songs are broadly familiar, made famous by huge artists like Bon Jovi, Whitney Houston, Lady Gaga and Adele.
But the show also landed one weird exception to American ears: During the rock round, the British producers cleared Wheatus’
“Teenage Dirtbag,” a minor alternative rock hit in the States two decades ago but huge in Europe. Fortunately, the contestants are given a week to familiarize themselves with the songs so nobody comes in cold.
The “vocal analyzer” provides an average score from 0 to 100 for each singer, giving viewers realtime info as they hit the notes — or not.
Contestants typically score between 55 and 80 with an average of around
70. Only one performer hit 90 over a single song during the first eight episodes while the worst score was
38. The higher the average score as a group, the more money is pocketed. For instance, during a $10,000 round, if the group of six singers averaged a 70, the pool of money grows $7,000. The top scorer in each round cannot be eliminated. In the first three rounds, each person votes out the others, choosing either a potential foe or someone they feel is dragging the entire score down. It’s not uncommon for the person with the actual lowest score to survive.
Burgess said he has great relative pitch and can usually tell who was the least accurate singer without even looking at the computer scores, but “I had to play dumb.”
And to encourage the “fun” part of karaoke, he at one point each episode offers up a $500 “Tituss” prize for the best performer, regardless of singing skills. And during the final three performances, if a singer holds a particular note well, they pocket an extra $1,000 bonus.
Once in the finals, the person who had the higher score in the previous round gets to pick between two songs, with Burgess providing a snippet in his own voice. The computer decides the winner between the final two. Typically, the eventual victor pockets around $40,000 to $45,000.
Given the oddities of the way singers are judged, a singer could have a relatively weak voice or strange tone but rack up high scores by successfully mimicking the original singer’s pitch and timing. Sometimes, they can beat a person with a stronger voice who can’t quite match the original singer as well.
Since its release Sept.16, the show has received decent reviews. Stuart Shawcross and Ashbourne, two British producers for “Hello Dolly,” came up with the idea after watching a mass karaoke event near Tower Bridge in London with a live band.
“We wanted to capture that energy and atmosphere and make it feel more like a concert” by having the audience join in on the song at certain points, Ashbourne said.