'The Singing Office'

In "The Singing Office," ex-Spice Girl Melanie "Mel B" Brown (no longer Scary, now Nice) and goofy 'N Sync vet Joey Fatone invade ordinary workplaces to field teams of vocalists to compete in a choreographed sing-off. (Finalists split $50,000.) The show, which premieres Sunday on TLC, is everything I think reality television should be and so often is not: straightforward, down-to-earth, concerned with the corners of a world that, even in extraordinary circumstances, is recognizably one we inhabit ourselves. Its small budget and modest ambitions only increase its appeal.

I love it.

Some, perhaps not many, will recall last fall's similar "Clash of the Choirs." Like most modern TV game shows, it was built on the scale of a Las Vegas hotel, pumped up with glamour and glitz. (It was pretty good, notwithstanding.) The purse there was five times greater, the choirs much larger, the involved celebrities marginally more celebrated, the competition national, the network broadcast-major. "The Singing Office" is a little motor lodge with hand-sewn curtains by comparison.

In Sunday's opener, Mel draws her five-person team from the ranks of 1-800-DENTIST, while Joey scouts the Allen Edwards hair salon. (Future battling workplaces include JetBlue, the L.A. Zoo, Sit 'N Sleep and Horace Mann elementary school.) Management and labor alike are encouraged to sing from provided lyric sheets -- "Like a Virgin," "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'," "I Say a Little Prayer." Some shrink: "Why is everyone zoomin' away from me?" Mel B pants as she races among the cubicles looking for prospects.

There is more talent than you might suspect hidden behind the walls of a place like 1-800-DENTIST. Even people inside the walls seem surprised by that fact, and their evident shared delight in the discovery is one of the nicest things in the show. The best of these singers would not make it through the "American Idol" auditions, as plainly expressive as some are; the least would be crushed in short order. But even the tone deaf come off as endearing here. Humiliation is not on the program. Sweetness reigns.