Who would have possibly guessed that Fox would have the classier of the season’s two “can you remember the words to this famous song?” game shows? Watching Don’t Forget the Lyrics last night, I was amazed by how restrained it all was, from affable stump of a host Wayne Brady to its Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?-esque “lifelines” to the fact that the contestant could actually kinda, sorta sing. Compared to the gaudy, eye- and ear-harassing cattle call that is NBC’s Singing Bee, it was positively … subdued. Which means it shouldn’t have a prayer against a show that has both Joey Fatone and Europe’s “The Final Countdown,” but apparently Fox was ratings champ last night (by a scant .8 million viewers). Surely some of that is down to the success of So You Think You Can Dance? (go Lacey), but as long as Fox keeps Dance as Lyrics‘ lead-in, it looks like we’re looking at the summer of the battling tuneless d-bags.

“Dance,” “Lyrics” Combine for Ratings Victory [Zap2It]