{"id":6512,"date":"2018-10-15T05:00:02","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T09:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2019-09-30T12:01:09","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T16:01:09","slug":"case-study-the-lyrics-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/case-study-the-lyrics-board\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Study: The Lyrics Board"},"content":{"rendered":"

The music-infused game show<\/em> The Lyrics Board originated in Ireland in 1993. The format was created by its owners Andy Ruane and Philip Kampff, who were working in entertainment at Irish pubcaster RT\u00c9.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lyrics Board<\/em> is the most successful and longest-running music game show in the world,\u201d says Ruane, founder of Like It Love It Productions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concept was simple,\u201d he tells TV Formats Weekly<\/em>. \u201cTake a line from a well-known song and guess the song. In the pilot, a board was used to write the line of six words and each word was covered with a number sheet. To play the game, a team had to pick a number, thus reveling the word. To keep control of the board, the team had to sing any song with that word in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"***Image***\"Ruane continues, \u201cIn studio, six monitors were used to display the line behind the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. This formed the backbone of the studio set and became known as \u2018The Lyrics Board.\u2019 Instead of sitting behind two panels like a panel show, the two teams were sat behind two baby grand pianos, completing the dueling piano triangle set with The Lyrics Board behind and the host in front. The team captains were then introduced into the format as piano-playing team captains who anchored every week and were joined by four celebrities\u2014two at each piano completing each team of three. It generally takes about three reveals before the team can guess the song.\u201d<\/p>\n

The house band was introduced in the second season, and the \u2018skip\u2019 word was introduced in season three. If a team picks a skip word, they lose control of the board to the other team. \u201cThis introduced great jeopardy because you don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a skip word until after the number has been picked!\u201d Ruane explains. \u201cIt prevents one team from dominating the round and keeps the game moving. We allow ten rounds per one-hour show and usually use about seven or eight.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Ruane, what differentiates The Lyrics Board<\/em> from other prime-time shows is the game itself. \u201cWe have a truly original game,\u201d he says. \u201cNo game, no show. Talent, quiz and elimination shows tend to run out of steam quicker than game. An original game will play forever.\u201d A testament to this: NRK in Norway has had 26 seasons running in prime time and SVT in Sweden is on season 24. Both are still going strong.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny format that can go for 25 seasons is format royalty,\u201d says Ruane. \u201cYou can count those examples on one hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show got its start as a summer series on RT\u00c9 One and then moved to prime time, where it was discovered by Tony Gruner and Paul Talbot, founder of the\u00a0New York-based Fremantle Corporation,\u00a0which brought most of the big U.S. formats to the U.K. and Europe, including Play Your Cards Right<\/em> with Bruce Forsyth, Blind Date<\/em> with Cilla Black, Family Feud<\/em>\/Fortunes<\/em>, The Price Is Right<\/em>, Deal or No Deal<\/em>, Jeopardy<\/em>, etc. \u201cThey said it was the most original game show they had seen in 20 years and offered a deal then and there on the spot,\u201d Ruane recalls. \u201cThe rest, as they say, is history. Fremantle Corp\u00a0was bought by All American and All American-Fremantle was then bought by Pearson, which merged with CLT-UFA to form the RTL Group, which changed the name to FremantleMedia [now Fremantle], which did a fantastic job and rolled The Lyrics Board<\/em> out all over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The format \u201ctook off like wildfire around Europe,\u201d he adds, starting with Norway, then Sweden, and then the rest of the world. Other countries that have the show on air at the moment or regularly come back to it include Belgium, France, Holland, the U.K., Italy, Ireland, Czech Republic, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Iceland, Denmark, Finland, South Africa, Vietnam, Indonesia, Lebanon, Turkey and Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got 74 percent share in Norway about ten seasons ago\u2014the highest ever in the history of television for a game show!,\u201d Ruane says. \u201cThe great thing about The Lyrics Board<\/em> is that it sells itself. We don\u2019t have to prove that the format works, which is every broadcaster\u2019s nightmare. There\u2019s no \u2018will it work?\u2019 It works. Period. And we only do prime time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The gameplay of The Lyrics Board<\/em> has changed \u201cvery little\u201d over the years. \u201cIt\u2019s a classic game show. Viewers at home love to play along with the celebrities in the studio. It\u2019s one big home viewer game!\u201d The hosts, celebrities and sets have, of course, changed, and the staging of the show has got \u201cbigger and bigger,\u201d says Ruane. \u201cIt\u2019s a big, big show now. Celebrities love doing the show because they always shine.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds, \u201cFor years, we were the only music show in town. Then along came the other music shows like Idol<\/em>, The X Factor<\/em> and The Voice<\/em>, which concerned us at the time. However, these shows have been great for us because they create an ongoing stream of new celebrities, which we mix with existing celebrities. Know that when you win The Voice<\/em>, X Factor<\/em> or any other music show, the next show you will be on is The Lyrics Board<\/em>!\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruane says that through the adaptation process, the format owners are \u201cvery strict\u201d about adhering to its original core concept. \u201cWe always insist that the two teams playing the game are behind two pianos and led by two great piano-playing team captains, a big host and a big house band. The actual game of guessing the song from hidden lyrics is the backbone of the format. The mechanics of production guarantee prime time. It is a well-oiled machine at this stage\u2014a juggernaut, as it\u2019s known as in the business. There are two fantastic moments in each round. The first [involves] the skip words. If you pick a skip word number, you lose control of The Lyrics Board to the other team\u2014it\u2019s a great TV moment! And the second is when they guess the song\u2014a fantastic, real TV moment. Plus, of course, there are great performances in between\u2014TV gold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding how The Lyrics Board<\/em> has been scheduled in various markets, Ruane says: \u201cIt\u2019s always prime-time family viewing. The demographics are similar, for example, to Dancing with the Stars<\/em>. One week the celebrities are singing; the next week they\u2019re dancing. Same audience. It\u2019s probably a bit more flexible as it can age up or down weekly depending on the guests and the music each week, and it\u2019s a stand-alone show, so it\u2019s a scheduler\u2019s dream. It\u2019s actually called Singing with the Stars<\/em> in some territories.\u201d<\/p>\n

The format is bigger now than it ever was, he says. There is a spin-off of The Lyrics Board<\/em> coming out next year as well as a new app. \u201cThe Lyrics Board<\/em> is a global worldwide brand, but Netflix, Apple and Amazon are game changers for music television\u2014watch this space,\u201d Ruane teases.<\/p>\n

He has his sights set on the U.S. market next for the format. \u201cIts natural home in the U.S. is a prime-time broadcast network,\u201d Ruane says, envisioning eight shows a year, team captains like Elton John and Billy Joel, a big house band (\u00e0 la band leaders like Kevin Eubanks, Max Weinberg, Paul Shaffer, Questlove or Brian Setzer) and shooting for a week in Vegas. \u201cInternational tape sales would be huge,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely an NBC, CBS or ABC show. We\u2019ve had lots of offers but they\u2019ve never made financial sense for us; for others, yes, but not for us. [Not making a] deal is better than a bad deal, so we\u2019ve kept the rights very clear for the U.S. In a lot of Europe we license directly to the broadcaster, so we\u2019ll probably use that model for the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruane continues: \u201cWe get compared a lot to Wheel of Fortune<\/em> in the U.S.\u2014[both are] similar, very long-running game shows. We don\u2019t have to prove it can go 26 seasons in continuous production with one broadcaster. We\u2019ve already done it in Europe, and counting. So we know when it does land in the U.S., it will be a very long runner. Actually, Lady Gaga would be a great team captain!\u201d<\/p>\n

Now more than ever, viewers want something that is authentic and not over-produced, Ruane adds. \u201cThe joy of The Lyrics Board<\/em> is watching big artists step out of their comfort zones and have fun with the game. It\u2019s also great having music in prime time\u2014no judges, no elimination, just singing and playing the game for the joy of it with the comfort of a 26-season safety net underneath you. Celebrities love doing the show because we always make them look good. It gets an average rating of 40 percent-plus. You just cast it and the format does the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The music-infused game show originated in Ireland in 1993 and has gone on to travel widely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":6513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,69],"tags":[369],"class_list":["post-6512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-the-lyrics-board","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nCase Study: The Lyrics Board - TVFORMATS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/case-study-the-lyrics-board\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Case Study: The Lyrics Board - TVFORMATS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The music-infused game show originated in Ireland in 1993 and has gone on to travel widely.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/case-study-the-lyrics-board\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVFORMATS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-10-15T09:00:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-09-30T16:01:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2017\/07\/2018-10-15-Lyrics-Studio-thumb.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"259\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"138\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kristin Brzoznowski\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kristin Brzoznowski\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/case-study-the-lyrics-board\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/case-study-the-lyrics-board\/\",\"name\":\"Case Study: The Lyrics Board - 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