Good fun–Spike TV’s new celebrity “Lip Sync Battle”

No surprise here. You know what you’re going to get with the show’s title: Lip Sync Battle. Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show lip sync contests where he faces off against everyone from Will Farrell to Emma Stone are the stuff of viral videos now. So it was a smart move for him to lead up a team of producers and Saturday Night Live’s Beth McCarthy-Miller as show director to feature a cable show that spun-off this segments into its own gig.

Spike TV started its new “reality competition” series off this week right, featuring the king of lip sync, the goofy, give-it-all-you-got Fallon against the larger than life charisma of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. LL Cool J serves as the host of the show, with co-host/Spike eye candy model Chrissy Teigen.

Both trash talked each other throughout the show with plenty of good humor. The prize for each episode is a giant boxing belt and midway through battle one Fallon offered up a pint-sized version for Johnson.

Johnson’s songs were Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off” up against Fallon’s take on Harry Belafonte’s “Jump in the Line” song from Beetlejuice. Fallon upped the ante by taking the audience into a Conga line. But the second round was the big production, with Fallon first up, syncing Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” with a back-up choir. But you just can’t beat Johnson sporting John Travolta’s trademark duds from Saturday Night Fever, syncing the Bee Gee’s “Staying Alive.” Both the stars really seemed to give it their all.

What’s clear is the quality of the syncing doesn’t matter, and there are no real stakes here at all. But the choice of the song–pick something hilarious, against character, or, as with Johnson, a song that makes you look simply cool–and the result is what we all want. Light and fun entertainment.

If you missed the opening night this Thursday, you can catch up on the first two episodes of Lip Sync Battle now at the Spike TV website here. Or just check out part one of the first battle here: