Lip Sync Battle

Overview

Lip Sync Battle debuted on the American cable network Spike, on Thursday April 2, 2015. It is produced by John Krasinski and Stephen Merchant and hosted by rapper and actor LL Cool J. Model Chrissy Teigen serves as color commentator.

The show is a spin-off of a bit first introduced on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Merchant, Krasinski and Krasinski's wife, Emily Blunt, were brainstorming ideas for Krasinski's upcoming appearance on Late Night when the idea took shape. Jimmy Fallon then developed it into a recurring segment on his show. The game pits two celebrities against each other in a lip syncing battle for two rounds with the crowd determining the winner of the battle after the two rounds have been completed.

In 2014, Merchant, Krasinski and Fallon pitched the show to NBC; the network, however, opted to pass on the show because the concept did not seem enough for being developed into a separate show. NBC's cable channels USA Network and Bravo also passed. The competition series was eventually picked up by Spike cable channel, which was in the process of rebranding. "Part of what I wanted to do with Lip Sync Battle is increase co-viewing, but also add diversity to the network," said Kevin Kay, the president of the network.

Lip Sync Battle has been a major success for Spike; with 2.2 million viewers, its series premiere was the highest-rated non-scripted premiere in Spike's history. Kay described the show as "a television and viral rock star for Spike." The show was renewed for a second season on April 22, 2015, with the network ordering 20 new episodes.

The show continued to deliver high ratings; in January 2016, the network renewed the series for a third season consisting of another 20 episodes. "Lip Sync Battle is a multiplatform pop-culture phenomenon that has played an integral role in delivering a new and broader audience to Spike," said Kevin Kay, the president of the network.

In July 2016, the show received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in the Outstanding Structured Reality Program category.

Critical response

Josef Adalian writing for Vulture noted the show's success by saying that Lip Sync Battle is "looking like a legitimate hit, both on TV and online." He also added that the show's creators "opted not to impose artificial demographic targets, they also went out of their way not to futz up the very simple premise that worked so well on Fallon’s late-night shows." Amy Amatangelo of The Hollywood Reporter said that the debut of the show "had moments of great fun," although added that the series "still seems like it is better suited as an interlude on The Tonight Show," and that "some things are better in small doses." Adelle Platon of Vibe wrote that the show "is a welcome break from other singing shows crowding primetime," also adding that "with the in-house crowd serving as judges, the spirit of competition between both parties make it a fun-for-all". Emily Yahr from The Washington Post was more negative towards the show by saying that "taking out all the spontaneity and replacing it with the cheesy-slick production values of an American Idol group medley, Lip Sync Battle will probably wear out its welcome soon."

Ratings

The series premiere of Lip Sync Battle delivered 2.2 million total viewers via Nielsen ratings, including a 1.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic which is the most important to advertisers. The episode notched the largest viewership for an unscripted series debut in the network's history and the largest average audience in the slot in more than eight years. The total audience for the first several episodes of the show, including DVR replays and multiple reruns, has climbed past 15 million television viewers. Spike has also stated that various performance clips from the first three half-hour episodes of the show had already generated nearly 100 million online streams, as of April 2015.

In Australia, the series premiere scored 1.124 million viewers in preliminary overnight viewers, making it the fourth-most-watched program on free-to-air television of the evening. The second episode the following week scored 1.087 million preliminary overnight viewers and ranked the fifth-highest-rated program on free-to-air television of the night. This success has led to suggestions by commentators that a local adaption could be imminent.

Lip Sync Battle Shorties

A one-hour special hosted by Sarah Hyland, aired on Nickelodeon on December 11, 2016 (followed by a repeat airing on Spike). In March 2017, a series order was announced for the kid-centric spin off.