Fox
Tonight is the Season 2 premiere of The Masked Singer on Fox, and newcomers to the show may be curious how this bizarre reality series works.
This season, a group of 16 anonymous celebrities will compete on the show in dazzling costumes. This go around, those costumes are The Egg, The Leopard, The Flamingo, The Fox, The Eagle, The Skeleton, The Butterfly, The Penguin, The Panda, The Ice Cream, The Tree (with Christmas decorations), The Rottweiler, The Black Widow, The Flower, The Lady Bug and The Thingamajig.
How the Premere Will Work
Tonight, just four characters will compete on the show in an attempt to better acquaint audiences with the competitors. After each performance, the celebrity panelists will try and guess who is under the mask– they get clues from the performer that might help them out a bit (but the singers’ voices are distorted in an attempt to throw everyone off). The judges, along with a live studio audience, determine the lowest-rated competitors of the night.
Towards the end of the hour, the two lowest-rated competitors of the hour will compete in a Smackdown competition– this is different than how the show worked last year. Speaking to USA Today recently, Robin Thicke shared, “They sing at each other because it’s a fight song. So you’re seeing an egg and a leopard or something like that, a shake-your-booty fight.”
In the end, the celebrity with the lowest score reveals him or herself. Next week, we’ll meet four new characters on The Masked Singer.
Who Is Under the Mask?
After the success of Season 1, it will be easier to bring bigger and better celebrities to The Masked Singer.
The returning panelists of judges include Ken Jeong, Nicole Scherzinger, Robin Thicke and host Nick Cannon. T-Pain, last year’s winner, will serve as a guest judge. Joel McHale and Anthony Anderson will also be returning as guest judges.
The good thing? Expect fewer spoilers this year! According to USA Today, the show’s buzzworthy status resulted in a slew of nondisclosure agreements. The outlet writes, “This season, the few executives who know the singers’ identities wore a particular color of clothing so the competitors could identify who it was safe to talk to.”
Fox has made it clear they’re banking on The Masked Singer to pull in great ratings once again– they’ve renewed the show for a third season, before the second has even aired. Last year, the reality series brought in nearly 10 million total viewers.
Fox alternative-programming chie Rob Wade tells Variety, “We were told well done, great marketing, great scheduling, great show, but then it swiftly became how do we keep moving this, how do we keep this conversation going,” Wade says.
He adds, “I think the judges themselves and Nick become more of an ensemble. If you look at the first season, we were sticking five people in a room together who didn’t know each other… To create a chemistry is very difficult from the word go. Now they are thick as thieves, if you watch the first couple shows you’re going to notice how naturally that ensemble acts together now, it’s a natural improvement in the show.”
This season, the show will air just one-hour episode each week, even though a number of other reality series are moving to two-hour airings each week.
Be sure to tune into The Masked Singer, airing tonight on Fox at 8pm ET/PT.
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