Is there really any difference between Name That Tune and Beat Shazam? What's more, do you really beat Shazam on Beat Shazam?
The Jamie Foxx hosted FOX game show Beat Shazam, which had it's season two premiere on May 29, has one main rule: All the contestants need to do for the chance to play for $1,000,000 is beat out their opponents by naming the titles of some of music's biggest hits faster than the others.
It's a simple game that's fun to watch and everyone can play along to. However, if you're a longtime television watcher, you might be saying to yourself, wasn't this game show on television in the '70s?
Technically, the answer to that question is no, especially since Shazam, the popular mobile app in which the game show is named after, wasn't created until 1999.
With that being said though, you might remember this classic game show where the contestants were basically human Shazams.
Yes, it's Name That Tune. The popular song identification game show began on radio and later transitioned to television in the early '50s, but the most recognized version is the 1974 to 1981 revival hosted by legendary game show emcee Tom Kennedy.
Are the shows the same?
When you put Beat Shazam and Name That Tune side by side, the game elements of both are different from each other. The very basic difference is Kennedy said, "listen and name that tune," while Foxx now says, "hit it." Beat Shazam features music genre-based rounds where the teams of two compete to build up the most money in their bank. Name That Tune features music based games like "Melody Roulette" and "Bid-A-Note" where solo contestants try to earn the most points.
However, both shows offer the same ultimate premise, identify the songs being played.
Beat Shazam may have a bigger grand prize and a different format than Name That Tune, but it is essentially the same game. This is why Beat Shazam should instead be called The All-New Name That Tune.
It makes perfect sense. The game show genre today is being dominated by classic game show revivals, such as with the recent return of shows like ABC's The $100,000 Pyramid, TBS's Snoop Dogg Presents The Joker's Wild and FOX's Love Connection, which just so happens to air right after Beat Shazam each week.
With an instantly recognizable title and an automatic nostalgia boost, The All-New Name That Tune would be a perfect fit for today's game show era. In addition, with FOX airing a show called The All-New Name That Tune and Love Connection back-to-back, it could market it as their version of ABC's Sunday Fun and Games, only on a Tuesday, and fully compete with another network's retro game show revival line-up.
Game show purists would disagree
However, there are a couple reasons why calling the show The All-New Name That Tune is not the best option. First, game show purists might knock the show for not being like the Name That Tune they know and love. If the show is called The All-New Name That Tune and does not feature a contestant saying "I can name that tune in three notes," there is going to be a lot of complaining.
The second reason sort of ties in with the first and that is the show has a lot of pressure to live up to the original. This is why many recent game shows, obviously inspired by classic game shows, have been given different titles and are not newer versions of the originals.
A prime example of this case is GSN's Catch 21 which, despite both being created by famed game show producer Merrill Heatter, was just an updated version of the '70s classic Gambit. Another example is NBC's mega-hit Minute To Win It, which was, in a sense, a 21st century take on the daddy of all stunt shows, Beat The Clock.
There's an app for that
Even though having the Name That Tune nostalgia attached to the show is great if that were the title, executive producer Mark Burnett is most likely banking on the Shazam name to draw in an audience.
According to a September 2016 Forbes article, the Shazam app, at that point, had been downloaded one billion times. With a huge number of Americans familiar with the Shazam app, many of which probably use it on a daily basis, it's easy for viewers to instantly connect with the foundation of the show.
People who frequently open Shazam to find out the title of a song in a matter of seconds might be enticed to watch the show and play along just so they can say that they can name a song faster than one of, if not, the fastest song recognizing technology systems.
You don't have to beat Shazam!
The main reason why Beat Shazam should instead be titled The All-New Name That Tune is because not one time during the entire game is a contestant actually beating Shazam. This includes the final round, where the main game-winners, as Jamie Foxx explains, go on to beat Shazam for $1,000,000.
Here's why none of the contestants are actually beating Shazam: In the main game, the three teams of contestants hear a song and are shown four possible titles, one of which is the correct answer. As quickly as they can, they have to hit the corresponding button on their podium to lock in their chosen song title. If the team is correct and locked in their answer in the fastest time, they win money to be added to their bank.
For season two, the team with the least amount of money after the second round goes home. Then, the remaining two teams compete in two more rounds with the same objective. They listen to a song, are shown four possible song titles, and the team who locks in the correct song title in the fastest time wins money for that song. After the fourth round, the team with the most money in their bank wins the game.
As you can tell, the goal is to beat the other teams to the buzzer and have the correct song titles locked in. The teams are not necessarily beating Shazam at a song naming contest during the main game. In order to win, your mind and hands or your partner's mind and hands have to react quicker than your four opponents.
The Shazam app has nothing to do with the main game. It's not like Shazam is choosing the songs for the contestants to beat the app at its own strength. Hence, the main game is just an updated Name That Tune, a game where quickness against the others playing, and a total score accumulation, wins.
As for the final round, although this is technically the part of the game where the contestants get to face Shazam and hopefully beat it, once again, Shazam is not really the opponent.
In the final round, the winning team will face six more songs, only this time, there is no multiple choice, so the contestants must identify the songs all by themselves. The first five songs are each worth $25,000. If they can correctly name those five songs, the sixth song would then be worth $1,000,000. If not, the final song allows the team to double the amount of money in their bank at that point.
The 5-second rule applies
When host Jamie Foxx is explaining the rules of the final round to the contestants, he says that "Shazam can identify millions of songs, most in between two and five seconds." However, from the elapsing time circle that appears for every song played, it appears that the contestants are given five seconds to name each of the six songs in the final round.
If the name of the show is called Beat Shazam, shouldn't the contestants have to name the song before the exact time that Shazam can name the song?
For the final episode of season one, there was an element in the main game called the "Fast Track Challenge," where the contestants were told the average time Shazam could identify a song. They then had to press their buzzers before the average time expired and correctly name the title without the aid of multiple choice.
Even though the teams are still focused on beating the other teams, at least the average time concept is an element of actually beating Shazam because you are identifying a song faster than the system.
While using the "Fast Track Challenge" format during the final round would increase the legitimacy of actually beating Shazam, there is a better way to ensure that the contestants are actually playing against Shazam.
What should be done for the final round is actually connect the big screen on stage to the Shazam app. This way, once the song is played, the Shazam app is actually working to identify the songs just like the contestants.
The way the final round works now, the contestants are not racing against Shazam, they are racing against a five-second clock. However, if the contestants were truly squaring off against the Shazam app in real time in a classic man vs. machine song naming battle, then FOX has every right to call the show Beat Shazam. However, as it stands now, the show is basically a new version of Name That Tune.
What about creating Shazam to be like Watson?
Now, you might be saying, how would the Shazam app buzz in and verbally say the song title? Well, do you remember when IBM supercomputer Watson played Jeopardy! in 2011?
Technology company IBM developed a computer system that could play America's Favorite Quiz Show against two of the game's most famous players, 74-time champion Ken Jennings and all-time money winner Brad Rutter.
After three episodes of competition, consisting of two full games, Watson became the first ever computer Jeopardy! champion. Watson's creators designed a robotic finger of sorts for the computer to actually ring in using a Jeopardy! buzzer while playing the game. In addition, a voice answering system was implemented for Watson to give his responses.
So, if a system like Watson, which manually hit a buzzer and verbally gave a response, was used on Jeopardy!, why can't it be used on Beat Shazam? The show should hook up the screen to a computer system like Watson's so that once Shazam identifies the song title, a buzzer is hit and the voice system says the song title.
If the team in the final round can name the correct song titles before the actual Shazam app, which is programmed to a system that can manually ring the same buzzer as the contestants push, as well as can speak the song title answer it is giving, then they can honestly say they have beat Shazam.
As a viewer, it would be so cool to watch Shazam actually hit the buzzer and hear it verbally speak the song title it identified. It gives the reality of Shazam actually playing the game and the contestants officially trying to beat the app for the million dollars.
With the only objective in the main game being to beat the other two team's money totals, and with only a five-second clock in place for the contestants to conquer in the final round, the title of the show is a lie.
Use the real Shazam app and it's actual song identification times as an opponent for the contestants, combined with a system that can compete with the contestants in the buzzing in and speaking the correct song title aspects of the game, then the title makes sense, and the game becomes fairer.
However, until all of that is put into place, Beat Shazam is nothing more than The All-New Name That Tune.
Want to read about FOX's other summer game show Love Connection? Bradley Clarke has the scoop about the changes made for season two in his article below.
'Love Connection' is back for some more kiss (or just a hug) and tell