| Hosts | |
| Paul Shaffer & Sky Nellor | |
| Broadcast | |
 | |
| Packager | |
| VH1 | |
Cover Wars was a short-lived weekly musical-themed game show where the country's top cover bands competed against each other, tournament-style in a battle that tested their musical accuracy and performance.
Gameplay[]
Each week, the show challenged three bands in a game designed to test their set list of musical skills. Over the course of the season, all but three bands were eliminated from the tournament. The last bands left standing would meet in the "cover wars" finals to vie for the grand prize, a fully loaded van and the title of "Cover Wars" champion. In addition, a panel of three experts judged each weekly competition.
The series consisted of three rounds:
Round 1: The Human Jukebox[]
This round tested each band's repertoire as well as their ability to move from song to song while in the heat of performance. A song that every cover band should know was chosen by the judges. When the round began, the band had to play it or f*** it. As the band played, another song was chosen and the band had to move right into the new song (again, whether they know it or not) Each band was given three songs in the attempt, with each song not exceeding 30 seconds in length. After each band had an opportunity to compete, the judges gave a score from 1 to 10 and explained why the band earned that score.
Round 2: Style Jam[]
Bands were assigned to play a given song in a randomly selected style; each band was given a classic song by Shaffer, after which the style of music the song had to be played in (i.e. Disco, reggae, country, punk, etc.) was chosen at random. After the band had played at least 30 seconds in the first style, a second style of music was chosen and the band had to continue the same song in the second style from the exact point where they left off the first style. When time ran out, the judges would give their scores. The scores from Round 1 & 2 were totaled, with only the two highest-scoring bands moving on to Round 3.
Round 3: Chops[]
The two remaining bands determined the day's champion by directly challenging each other's repertoire. At the top of the round, the two groups were shown a video screen containing the names of ten popular songs, some of them were well-known and easy, and some were a little more obscure and difficult. The highest-scoring band led off by choosing a song from the board that they were confident they knew, and had to play it from any point for 15 seconds. After the 15 seconds passed, the song was "tossed" to the second band, who had to pick it up from the exact moment the song left off. If they couldn't successfully pick it up, the band that tossed the song scored a point; however, if they did pick it up, they scored a point. The band that last earned the point kept control of the board and the first band to reach three points was the winner.
Trivia[]
Host Paul Shaffer is best known as the musical director, band leader and sidekick for Late Night with David Letterman for NBC since 1982 until 1993 and on Late Show with David Letterman for CBS from 1993 until 2015.