Shazam: The Game Show

If you have a smartphone (and you probably do), there’s a good chance you have the Shazam app installed. First conceived in 1999, Shazam is that magical app that “listens” to a song you don’t know and identifies it for you. Since it went online, songs have been Shazamed more than 25 billion times and has hundreds of millions of users around the globe.

I use Shazam a lot, especially when I’m watching TV and I need to know the name of a song in a commercial or show. When I was auditing professional sports teams for the music they played during their games, I was Shazaming all the time. In short, I’m a fan.

FOX is a fan, too. Mark Burnett, the guy behind Survivor, Celebrity Apprentice, The Voice, Shark Tank and a ton of other TV shows, has sold a concept to the network called Beat Shazam. It’s basically a modern update of Name That Tune, an NBC game show from the 1950s. Contestants will compete to identify songs, just like the app does. But when it comes to the top prize, they will have to beat the app itself.

FOX is so bullish on the concept that it’s quietly being touted as a replacement for American Idol, which has gone away after fifteen seasons. There’s no date for a premiere yet, but it’s coming.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)