Ideal pair for the singing game show: The Roderick-Amy tandem is back with a vengeance

MANILA, Philippines - In 2008, The Singing Bee invaded Philippine TV. The show, which originated from the US, is a combination of singing karaoke-style and spelling bee competition. Then hosted by Cesar Montano, the popular singing game show aired on ABS-CBN every weekend (Saturdays and Sundays) and successfully ran for nearly two years.

Recently, The Singing Bee was revived on ABS-CBN, hosted by the come-backing tandem of Roderick Paulate and Amy Perez. The duo is an ideal pair for the singing game show. They are close friends and they previously worked together in the now-defunct noontime show, Magandang Tanghali Bayan.

Their brand of comedy and humor is natural. So building their rapport on TV is no longer an effort for the production team when Roderick and Amy worked again in The Singing Bee.

Musical director Mel Villena is back to lead the Bandle Bees, while the sexy dancers are called the Honeybees. Meanwhile, the Voice of the Philippines artists (Yuki Ito, Jessica Reynoso, Maki Ricafort, Isa Fabregas and Penelope Matanguihan) make up the Songbees, the show’s resident singers who croon the lyrics to the songs.

The Singing Bee is made up of four exciting rounds. Five contestants will be selected to compete in the first round, To Bee Continued, where each one has to remember the line of the popular song that will be left blank by the Songbees. The first four who get their song correctly will advance to the “musical chairs.”

In the Jumble Bee round, lyrics to a certain song are shown scrambled onscreen and the contestant has to sing the song correctly to earn points. In the Beedeoke round, the four remaining contestants have to consecutively fill in the blanks of a particular song.

The song will be played continuously while the players attempt to sing the correct lyrics in the blank. The player with the highest points will face-off the defending champion in the jackpot round, the Final Countdown.

For the pilot episode, Ogie Diaz, Kiray Celis, Eric Fructuoso, Buboy Garrovillo and Carmi Martin played in the show. As contestants, the celebrities competed to win the grand prize of P1M (if one gets to sing four correct answers in the Final Countdown).

Eric turned out to be the first winner to get The Singing Bee trophy. He scored two correct songs and took home P40,000. He returned the following week to defend his throne. On the second week, the celebrity contestants were Andrew E, Hajji Alejandro, Randy Santiago, Jamie Rivera and Jenine Desiderio.

Eric was made to face off with Jenine in the Manuhan portion, where a contestant has to initially give a song of the singer mentioned by the hosts (Help by Bee Gees, My All by Mariah Carey or Please Be Careful with My Heart by Jose Mari Chan). Then in choosing a category in the board, they will try their best to supply the missing lyrics of the song.

Jenine was unsuccessful to unseat Eric as the reigning champion, so the latter gets The Singing Bee trophy again and scores another week of being the defending champion.

You don’t have to be a good singer or you can even be out of tune if you want to be a contestant in The Singing Bee. You simply have to remember the lyrics of the songs and sing them correctly.

Aside from the Philippines and the US, The Singing Bee airs in many other countries like the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Israel, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

The Singing Bee airs every Saturday afternoon after Showtime (taking over from the timeslot of Showbiz Inside Report).