He'll host The Singing Bee, the karaoke series NBC is rushing out on July 10th, to compete with Fox's Don't Forget The Lyrics!, a series which, in true Fox style, was rushed into production to beat NBC to the punch after Bee was announced.
Now Bee will premiere a day before Fox's quick copy, even though they haven't even begun shooting. The reason for NBC's sudden dive into the nasty competitive mud?
Their new programmer, the party animal and show importer Ben Silverman who wants NBC to rock-- and is even supposedly trying to lure Fox's evil genius and master of reality, Mike Darnell, into the mainstream fold.
(Don't Forget has the jump on Bee, with several episodes in the can and versatile Wayne Beady as host.)