The show is based on an idea by Stephen Merchant and John Krasinski, in which celebrities battle each other with lip sync performances.

In 2014, Merchant, Krasinski and Fallon pitched the show to NBC, who passed on it, despite the attention the Late Night segment got, particularly when Emma Stone lip synched DJ Khaled's "All I Do Is Win".

"Lip Sync Battle is a multiplatform pop-culture phenomenon that has played an integral role in delivering a new and broader audience to Spike," Kay said.

[11][12] In July 2016, the show received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in the Outstanding Structured Reality Program category.

[18] Emily Yahr from The Washington Post was more negative towards the show by saying that "taking out all the spontaneity and replacing it with the cheesy-slick production values of an American Idol group medley, Lip Sync Battle will probably wear out its welcome soon.

[20][21] The total audience for the first several episodes of the show, including DVR replays and multiple reruns, has climbed past 15 million television viewers.

Spike has also stated that various performance clips from the first three half-hour episodes of the show had already generated nearly 100 million online streams, as of April 2015.

[16] In Australia, the series premiere scored 1.124 million viewers in preliminary overnight viewership, making it the fourth most-watched program on free-to-air television for the evening.

[22][23] The second episode the following week scored 1.087 million preliminary overnight viewers and was ranked the fifth-highest-rated program on free-to-air television of the night.

[44] In August 2017, it was announced that Nick Cannon would be replacing Sarah Hyland as the host and that JoJo Siwa would be joining him as his sidekick on Lip Sync Battle Shorties, which premiered in early 2018.