Presented with a group of six mystery singers identified only by their occupation, a contestant must attempt to eliminate bad singers from the group without ever hearing them perform live, over the course of six rounds. The contestant is assisted by clues regarding the singers' backgrounds and performance style, and observations from a celebrity panel and musical guest. The contestant must eliminate one singer at the end of each of the first five rounds, receiving $15,000 ($10,000 in season one) if they eliminate a bad singer. • In the first two rounds, the "Lip Sync Showdown", the six singers are divided into three pairs, which each compete in a
lip sync battle against each other. The bad singers mime to a
backing track recorded by another vocalist, while the good singers mime to a recording of their own performance. The contestant may use the "Golden Mic" once during the rounds, during which they may hear additional clues and observations from a celebrity guest off-stage. • In season 1, this round was conducted as the "Lip Sync Challenge", which featured the singers giving individual lip sync performances. • The third and fourth rounds are conducted with two of three rotating formats: • "A Day in the Life", where the contestant is presented with a video package chronicling the daily lives of one of the remaining singers. • "Super Fan", where the contestant is presented with a video package featuring a "super fan" of one of the remaining singers. • "Secret Snoop", where the contestant "tours" the remaining singers' homes for clues (which may include
red herrings) for 60 seconds. • In the first season, "Unlock My Life" was played as the third round, where the contestant is presented a video package relating to one of the four remaining singers of their choice. This was followed by "Secret Studio", where the contestant is presented with video from a recording session by one of the three remaining singers of their choice, but pitch-shifted to obscure their actual vocals. • The final round is the "Interrogation", where the contestant may ask questions of the two remaining singers for 60 seconds. The good singers are required to give truthful responses, while the bad singers must lie. At the end of the game, the contestant may either end the game and keep the money they had won in previous rounds, or risk it for a chance to win the grand prize of $100,000 if the last remaining singer is good, as revealed by means of a duet between the singer and one of the celebrity panelists. ==Background==