Format

Host Joey Fatone with the first six contestants.(Season 1 Ep1)
As mentioned, at the start of the show, the band plays a song and the host "randomly" gives audience members a chance to sing part of the song. If they sing it correctly, they become one of the contestants on the show. This part of the show is actually staged, and the contestants are preselected. During this part of the program, you can sometimes see (as the contestants run up to the stage) that the lyrics for the song are being scrolled on a banner over the stage so that the preselected contestants don't make a mistake.

Round 1
The host would provide the year the song was released, the performer, and the name of the song. A portion of the song is performed, and then the contestant has to attempt to sing the next line of the song. If correct, they advance to the next round, and a new song is introduced, which the next contestant in line must attempt; if not, they have to step back, and the next person in line tries the same song. A song is thrown out if none of the remaining contestants get the lyric correct. The first four people (three people in season two) who get a song lyric correct move on to the second round. Any contestant who hasn't had a chance and loses returns on a future episode.

Round 2

The contestants who advanced go up in pairs to play a mini-game. The winner of the game advances to the championship round. (Note that these games are the only ones that have aired so far. As more episodes air, more games will likely be played.)

"Scrambled Lyrics" (Renamed Random Shuffle): While the band is performing, words from the next line are shown scrambled on screen. The contestant is required to sing the line in its correct order. When one contestant is correct and the other is wrong at any point, the one who was correct moves on to the Championship Round.

"Karaoke Challenge": While the band is performing, the contestant sees the words to the song in karaoke fashion. As the contestant sings the song, he or she will also see blanks, each representing a word in the song. The player who fills in the most blanks correctly (out of a possible 15) wins and goes on to the Championship Round. This round is similar to FOX's Don't Forget the Lyrics! because the contestant is the lead singer in this round.

"Blind Start": The band plays the beginning notes of a song. When the band stops, the contestant must sing the opening line correctly. One of the three contestants is eliminated from the second round.
"Playlist": The three contestants are given 6 categories of song which have comical titles. Whichever two contestants have the most points after the 6 songs move on to the next round.

"Singing with the Enemy": The band plays part of a popular song. The first contestant must do the next line when the band stops playing. The band then picks up with the line the contestant said and stops. The next contestant continues on with the song. This goes through 3 passes. The two with the highest score move on.

Chorus Showdown

This follows a similar format to the first round, but instead of singing a line, the contestant is required to sing the entire chorus without mistakes from the song performed. If both are correct or incorrect (sometimes after two rounds), then they go to a tiebreaker, where they are given the year and the name of the performer and the first person to buzz in will be given the option of singing or passing. If the singer is correct, they win. If the singer is wrong, the other contestant wins.
The winner moves on to the Final Countdown.

The Final Countdown
Ray Chew introduces this concluding round by announcing in song: "It's the Final Countdown!" (based on a song called "The Final Countdown" by hard rock band Europe.) Up to 7 songs are performed in a similar manner to the first round, but the contestant knows nothing about the song, (artist, title, year) and thus must use the lyrics in order to win the big money. For each song lyric that is sung correctly, the player wins $5,000. If the player gets five right, then they win $50,000. However, if they sing a lyric incorrectly, a strike is given. If three strikes are given at any point, the game is over, but the contestant still wins whatever money was accumulated up to that point. Beginning in the second season, the winning contestant also defends as champion title to face three more challengers. On the new CMT version of the show, correctly guessing a song earns $500, and getting five wins $10,000.

Changes for One-Hour Shows

The above format is the standard for a 30-minute episode of the show.
In a one-hour show, several changes are made:

There are two qualifying games.
In each game, six players (only 5 for season 2) are picked from the audience to play Round 1, however, the first three to complete a lyric (only 5 for season 2) advance.
The three players then compete in a Round 2 game. Play continues, including a tie-breaker if needed, until one player remains. In season 2, three rounds are played until three contestants are eliminated.
The two survivors of the qualifying games play the Chorus Showdown, the last player standing plays

The Final Countdown.

Beginning on August 21, in between some breaks, host Fatone goes into the audience to give an audience member a chance at $500. A question about a song is asked, and if the player gets it right, he/she wins the money. On December 28, two audience members were challenged to the same lyrics. The contestant who will wait is given headphones so that they cannot hear the other contestant until the song is completed. If both contestants are correct, both win $500. If only one is correct, that contestant wins $1,000.

Ratings

The first episode premiered with 13.1 million viewers. It was the biggest summer premiere since ABC's premiere of Dancing with the Stars[5]. The performance of the show in its first airing led to NBC switching around the fall schedule to give it a permanent timeslot on Tuesday nights between The Biggest Loser and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. Just before the start of the season, NBC moved the show from after The Biggest Loser to before.

The debut episode finished second for the week of July 9-15, 2007, by an extremely close margin. The number one program, the 2007 MLB All-Star Game, beat "Bee" with an 8.4 rating, to the game show's 8.1

On October 30, 2007, The Singing Bee hit an all-time low in the ratings with a 1.7 rating.
On December 28, 2007, The Singing Bee scored a 3.7/7 rating, and came in second place behind Ghost Whisperer, before it was announced being cancelled.