Don't Forget the Singing Bee -- NBC wins round 1

OK, it's official. NBC's "Singing Bee" won the first round in the battle of the singing-competish reality series. "Don't Forget the Lyrics," Fox's spin on the "insert-lyrics-here" reality-competish genre bowed Wednesday in the 9:30 p.m. slot to 8.6 million viewers and 3.4 rating/10 share in the adults 18-49 demo, according to prelim Nielsens. That compared to 13.3 million and 5.1/14 on Tuesday for NBC's "Bee," in the same time period. Hosted by the ever-charming Wayne Brady (pictured at left), "Lyrics" didn't move the needle compared to the final 30 minutes of its 90-minute lead-in, "So You Think You Can Dance" (8.4 mil viewers, 3.4/10 from 9-9:30 p.m.). But then again, people didn't flee from it either, so that's something. And wannabe warblers plus the "So You Think You Can Dance"-ers were strong enough to give the Fox the nightly win (7.7 mil, 3.1/10) by a comfortable margin in both measures.