Beat Shazam


Beat Shazam is an American television game show which premiered on Fox on May 25, 2017. The show is hosted by Jamie Foxx, who is also an executive producer on the show along with Jeff Apploff, Mark Burnett, Rich Riley, Lauren Zalaznick and Barry Poznick. On July 12, 2017, Fox renewed the series for a second season, which premiered on May 29, 2018. On August 21, 2018, Fox renewed the series for a third season that premiered on May 20, 2019. On January 31, 2020, the series was renewed for a fourth season, premiering in 2020–21 season.

Gameplay

Three teams of two players each compete through five rounds to identify a series of songs, banking money for each correct answer. After the fifth round, the highest-scoring team plays head-to-head against the Shazam app, attempting to increase their winnings by naming up to six songs before it can identify them. Any team that beats Shazam on all six songs wins a grand prize of $1,000,000.
Beat Shazam uses the Billboard Hot 100 music chart as its only source for song titles.

Main game

Season 1

In season 1, the main game consists of five rounds. In each round, a category is given and five songs are played, one at a time. Four choices are displayed for the title of each song; the first team to buzz-in with the correct answer wins money. If more than one team rings in with the correct answer, the money is awarded to the team that locked in their answer in the fastest time. If two or three teams lock in the fastest and have the same exact time, both or all of the teams get the money. The final song of each category is called the "Fast Track" and is played for double the round value. There is no penalty for incorrect answers. For the final episode of Season 1, the Fast Track is now the Fast Track Challenge. Shazam shows the time that Shazam named the song, and the teams have to buzz in before time is up. There is no multiple choice, and the first team that buzzes in with the correct title wins cash. If the team that buzzes in first gives an incorrect title or no title, none of the teams get the money for the Fast Track Challenge.
Category #Value of first three/four songsValue of fourth/fifth song
1$1,000$2,000
2$2,000$4,000
3$3,000$6,000
4$5,000$10,000
5$10,000$20,000

Season 2

In season 2, the main game consists of four rounds. The first round is the Shazam Shuffle where each song is from a different category, the first six songs are worth $2,000 each and the Fast Track is worth $4,000. In the second round, each team picks from two categories and whichever category is chosen by at least two teams is played, the first four songs are worth $3,000 each and the Fast Track is worth $6,000,. In the third round, one member of each team plays, the first four songs are worth $5,000 each and the Fast Track is worth $10,000. The fourth round is a standard round played similar to the main game from season 1, the first four songs are worth $10,000 each and the Fast Track is worth $20,000.
After the third round, the team in last place is eliminated and leaves with nothing. After the fifth round, the trailing team is eliminated and keeps half their money. A team can accumulate up to $126,000 during the main game. In the event of a tie after rounds three or five, one additional song, with no category given, is played as a tiebreaker, using the same rules as the main game. No money is awarded for the Tiebreaker song, and the team that answers it correctly in the fastest time moves on to the final round.

Season 3

In season 3, the main game consists of four rounds with the first 2 rounds played the same way as in Season 2 & two newly revised rounds. The first round is the Shazam Shuffle where each song is from a different category, only the number of songs in the round is reduced from 7 to just 5. The first four songs are worth $2,000 each and the Fast Track is worth $4,000. In the second round, which is now titled That's My Jam, each team picks from two categories and whichever category is chosen by majority rule is played, the first three songs are worth $3,000 each and the Fast Track is worth $6,000. In the third round, Corinne's Choice, the category is chosen by the DJ. The first three songs are worth $5,000 each and the Fast Track is worth $10,000. The fourth round is called Without Words, where the instrumental part of the song is played but with no words, the first three songs are worth $10,000 each and the Fast Track is worth $20,000.

Bonus round: Beat Shazam

The winning team attempts to identify five more songs, one at a time, before Shazam can do so. Each correct answer awards the team $25,000. No multiple-choice answers are offered in this round, and each song is in a different category. The team must answer with the exact wording of the title. A yellow ring on the gameboard steadily disappears to act as a timer; the contestants must buzz in before it is completely gone. If the team fails to buzz in on any song, or fails to identify any song, they lose the opportunity to play for $1,000,000.
After all five songs have been played, the team is given a category for a sixth and final song. They may either end the game and keep their winnings, or attempt to identify this song. If they choose to continue, only one team member may play. If the contestant correctly names the song before Shazam, the team's entire winnings are doubled; if the team beats Shazam on all six songs, the team's winnings are increased to the grand prize of $1,000,000. Giving a wrong answer or no answer on the final song cuts the team's winnings in half. However, if they choose to keep their winnings and not face the final song, they are given a chance to see if they can identify the last song. If they correctly name the song, they are not awarded any money and if they incorrectly name the song, they don't lose any money.
Without winning the grand prize, a team can win up to $452,000 over the course of the entire game, by identifying every song in the main game, beating Shazam on four of the first five songs in the bonus round, then beating it again on the sixth.
On the episode that aired on June 22, 2017, Christina Porcelli and Steve Lester became the first team to successfully "Beat Shazam" and win the $1,000,000 grand prize.
On the episode that aired on June 26, 2018, Donna Natosi and Ryan Walton became the second team to successfully "Beat Shazam" and win the $1,000,000 grand prize.
On the Season 3 premiere episode that aired on May 20, 2019, brothers Aaron and Martin Smith became the third team to successfully "Beat Shazam" and win the $1,000,000 grand prize.

Episodes

Season 1 (2017)

Season 2 (2018)

Season 3 (2019)

Ratings

Season 1 (2017)

Season 2 (2018)

Season 3 (2019)

Awards and nominations

Guest appearances

An episode featuring a guest appearance by Demi Lovato was slated to air on July 24, 2018, but a different new episode was shown instead due to Lovato's hospitalization after an apparent overdose. The episode eventually aired on September 11, 2018 with Lovato's appearance edited out.