The Rock hopping around to Taylor Swift? Anne Hathaway swinging in on Miley Cyrus' 'Wrecking Ball?' Mike Tyson channeling his inner Salt-N-Pepa?
"Lip Sync Battle" has surprised viewers in more ways than one in its first season, and the Spike TV series shows no signs of slowing down when the season returns for eight more episodes, starting tonight.
Out of character performances by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Hathaway and Tyson have generated more than 200 million streaming views since the show premiered on April 2. It also has attracted 2.9 million TV viewers on a weekly basis, making it the No. 1 TV show on cable in its timeslot.
And the ratings don't skew more male or more female. Everyone wants to watch celebrities channel their inner divas or favorite rock stars.
"One of the great things about this show is just the cross pollination," executive producer Casey Patterson tells Headlines & Global News in an exclusive interview. "It's genderless. It's ageless. 'Lip Sync Battle' is for everyone."
Actors John Krasinski, his wife Emily Blunt and Stephen Merchant originally created the concept as a party game and later introduced the idea to Jimmy Fallon, who adopted it as a recurring segment on his "Late Night" show and later "The Tonight Show."
Krasinski and Merchant have both battled it out with Fallon on his show, but it wasn't until the jaw-dropping performance by actress Emma Stone who dominated Blues Traveler's "Hook" and DJ Khaled's "All I Do Is Win' that everyone started to take notice.
As season one of "Lip Sync Battle" continues, pop star Justin Bieber, "Broad City" duo Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, and former football pro Deion Sanders will look to top that gold standard.
HNGN spoke with Patterson about the show's "old school" roots, the dynamic duo of LL Cool J and Chrissy Teigen, and how "Empire" star Terrence Howard plans to bring down the "brick house" in the epic season finale.
It's Traditional, Old School Variety
Each of the celebrities perform two songs of their own choosing when they come on "Lip Sync Battle" - one as a straight "sing-a-long" and another that incorporates more theatrical elements. The show employs its own dance troupe and director Beth McCarthy-Miller brings her 10 years of "Saturday Night Live" experience to the show that Patterson calls "very traditional, old school variety."
"Pretty much like doing 'SNL,' we're surrounded by this family and you feel safe and protected. We're going to make you look great up there even though you're performing outside your comfort zone," says Patterson, who also has produced numerous variety and award shows.
"Lip Sync Battle" has no limited songbook, so the sky's the limit when it comes to song choice. Many of the performers come well prepared such as Stephen Merchant, who sang Christina Aguilera's "Dirrty" in chaps or John Legend wearing parachute pants for MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This." As for the latter, Legend's wife Teigen wanted him to go with Britney Spears.
"It was a little tense in the Teigen-Legend household for about 48 hours over song choice," Patterson jokes. "She really wanted him to do 'Hit Me Baby (One More Time)' and he just had a vision. He wanted the Hammer pants and for Juvenile, he wanted the grill. You saw a whole new side of him."
Keeping It Fresh
Patterson believes that the revolving door of talent and the universal love of music will keep the show going strong for years to come.
"A big part of the appeal of the show that you can't ever discount is these songs are the biggest, most iconic, most popular music of all time. You're already winning because you're playing such incredible music of so many genres," she says. "If you love music, you're already loving the show."
The search for season two performers is just beginning, but producers are looking for celebrities with a persona - "the bigger the better" - who can play against type. Fans also love learning more about their favorite stars through their song choices.
"[Fans are] having that shared experience with the stars, like, 'Oh my God, Anne Hathaway loves Miley Cyrus!' That's amazing. We didn't know that about Anne. Or why does the Rock know this Taylor Swift song? You know that wasn't the first time he performed it," Patterson says.
LL Cool J and Chrissy Teigan: The Dynamic Duo
Fully committing to each performance can be a daunting task for the celebrity competitors, but luckily, they have the biggest cheerleaders on stage with them in co-hosts LL Cool J (born James Todd Smith) and Chrissy Teigan. Both create a warm and welcoming environment where the performers can sing and dance like nobody is watching.
"The great thing about Jimmy on 'The Tonight Show' is how supportive he is. He's a fan of everyone. He's 100 percent on your side. The same is true of Todd and Chrissy," Patterson says.
She calls LL Cool J a "revelation" who fans are beginning to see in a new light apart from his role on "NCIS: Los Angeles" and his career as a rapper.
"We are bombarded with people going, 'He knows every word to every song. It doesn't matter what genre.' People are actually posting time codes counting down to Todd's reactions or Todd singing lyrics. He's so lost in the music because he loves all music," the producer says.
As for Teigen, Patterson pegs the supermodel as the show's "secret weapon." Her irresistible charm causes everyone to fall in love with her upon first meeting and she even went out of her way at the end of taping season one to bake cupcakes, buy gifts and write handwritten notes for every member of the crew.
Getting Celebrities To Say 'Yes'
"I'll be honest. There were times it was very difficult to book in the first season," Patterson says about getting talent to throw caution to the wind and fake sing their hearts out.
She credits LL Cool J and the other big stars already attached to the show for helping convince the first season celebrities to compete. Other stars came close to signing on, but in the end wouldn't take the leap. Since the show started airing, most of those who were on the fence are calling to say they're ready now.
"This is asking people to perform, which is completely outside their comfort zone and potentially make an idiot out of themselves. Their minds could go either way. It's a scary proposition," Patterson says.
Paying Tribute to the Artists
"Lip Sync Battle" is a low stakes game. There are no winners or losers. Everyone is there to have a good time and provide pure entertainment. But that doesn't mean the stars don't take their performances very seriously.
"The Rock, for example, he was perfecting that and he was taking it very seriously and he was doing The Hustle, his second song, with some of the dancers and hitting every mark and at a certain point, after he finished, he was like, 'Okay. Okay. I nailed it.' You could see that it was really important to him to nail it and then he just lost it. He cracked up like, 'Why am I so nervous? This is ridiculous,'" Patterson recounts.
The preparation for real singers like John Legend and Justin Bieber is no different than the approach taken by the non-singers, according to Patterson. They all want to do justice to the songs and do right by the artists, especially when they invite the actual singer to join them on stage like Anna Kendrick did with Jennifer Lopez at the end of her performance of J. Lo's "Booty."
"It's such a tribute to the [original] performer," Patterson says. "These guys are working really hard to do justice to the performer because they're fans. So it's really cool to see the artists that they're lip-syncing to experiencing those performances. They love it."
Surprises To Come In Super-Sized Finale
The first season will end on an epic note, expanding to a full hour to accommodate the larger-than-life stars of Fox's hit series "Empire" - Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard. Both came ready to put on a show that would rival their on-screen personas, Cookie and Lucious.
"They have such an incredible chemistry with one another, nothing like Lucious and Cookie, it's Terrence and Taraji," Patterson says. "They have chemistry that goes all the way back to 'Hustle & Flow' and beyond. Seeing their personal chemistry, which is hilarious, they're Sonny and Cher-esque. She's the wild one and he's kind of the straight man. He tries to keep it together and then eventually she just gets the best of him. That's their dynamic and it's amazing."
For one of her songs, Henson will choose the ultimate female anthem "Just Fine" by Mary J. Blige, who will stop by to help out her best friend. As for Howard, he will combine a few personalities to pull off his unique interpretation of the Commodores classic, "Brick House."
Patterson explains, "When Terrence called us, he said, 'I know what I'm doing. I'm doing Rick James' "Brick House."' I said, 'That's incredible but you know "Brick House" is a Commodores song, not a Rick James song,' and he didn't miss a beat. He said, 'I don't care! I'm doing "Brick House" as Rick James.'"
Going LIVE from Central Park in New York City
To thank fans for their immense support, "Lip Sync Battle" is staging a live show in New York City and as a bonus, it's FREE! The City Parks Foundation will host the event as part of their annual SummerStage festival in Central Park on Monday, July 13 (gates open at 7 p.m.).
LL Cool J and Teigen will host the event that will feature all new performers and a much larger audience. The tapings usually have 500 ticket holders while Rumsey's Playfield in Central Park can hold around 5,000 people.
"It will be so great for Todd and Chrissy to see all that energy and for the fans to see just exactly what it's like up close to do something like this," Patterson says. "We have these remarkable, unique fans so the opportunity to do something free that's just for them, it's not for television, we're not streaming it, we're not charging for tickets... So just being able to do this for the fans and knowing the kind of year they gave us means a lot to everybody."
"Lip Sync Battle" returns tonight, July 9 at 10 p.m. on Spike.
