Why Jamie Foxx’s Return to ‘Beat Shazam’ Is ‘Something Special’

Music to our ears! Jamie Foxx and his daughter Corinne are together again for Beat Shazam’s seventh season, premiering Tuesday, May 28 on Fox. He hosts and she deejays on the game show where three teams of two compete to identify song titles fastest, with the winning duo going up against the Shazam app for a chance at $1 million.

Jamie missed the previous season due to a serious medical issue he experienced while shooting the Netflix film Back in Action in April 2023; Nick Cannon and Kelly Osbourne stepped in to take over for the family duo. “This is something special, his return,” says Jeff Apploff, the series’ cocreator and executive producer, as well as a longtime friend of Jamie who flew to Atlanta to be with the actor the day the crisis began.

“It’s his first real big project that he’s done since coming back from the illness. As soon as [Jamie] walked on the [Beat Shazam] stage and looked around, you could see the look in his eyes,” Apploff explains. “He was so happy and excited to be back. You couldn’t tell anything had ever happened to him. I was in the control room. I started crying.”

DJ Corinne-Foxx on Beat Shazam (Fox)

Although Jamie acknowledges his health emergency to the audience, the show doesn’t dwell on it. “We’re the biggest party on TV,” says Apploff, who shares that the host is back to his usual entertaining self. Even during commercial breaks, he does stand-up, plays the piano, sings and dances with contestants.

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And those contestants are something special this go-round, promises Apploff. “They’re people who had great reasons to win. When you watch somebody who really needs the money, it’s a cool journey.” As always, there are themed episodes. They include siblings, emergency workers and-—to honor Corinne’s engagement to boyfriend Joe Hooten—couples in different stages of relationships.

But it’s the Father’s Day installment, airing June 11, that is guaranteed to make your heart sing. As the Foxx father and daughter look at family pictures, “Jamie keeps going, ‘You’re hitting me in the tear box,’” Apploff says. “The experience that he’s gone through has made him appreciate life even more. He’ll tell you, ‘There are no bad days, only good days.’”

Beat Shazam, Season 7 Premiere, Tuesday, May 28, 8/7c, Fox