Fox Flash Frog on 'The Masked Singer'
The final nine contestants on The Masked Singer will compete on Episode 10, which is expected to air on Wednesday, April 1.
This season, 18 celebrities were split into three groups of singers: A, B, and C. The contestants in each group then went head to head until they were narrowed down to just three. When Episode 10 rolls around, the top nine competitors will face off.
The Super Nine Special Will Last 2 Hours
According to Deadline, the “Super Nine special” will last two hours.
Fox’s Alternative Entertainment President Rob Wade tells Deadline, “To create a story arc, we do three groups of six, so it is more palatable for the viewers.”
In terms of a story arc, Wade explained that last season, viewers at home were attracted to Victor Oladipo’s story– specifically, the fact that he can sing even though his profession is in sports.
After the show comes together for the Super 9 special, it will proceed in the normal format.
There Are More Household Names in This Season’s Cast
This season’s celebrities, which were cast back in September, are bigger and the competition fiercer this season. Showrunner and Executive producer Izzie Pick Ibarra previously told Variety, “We have a wish list… We do our research for who might be interesting for the show, so the way we cast is mixture of things that we look for — we look for people who have amazing stories that can drive that person’s narrative throughout their singing on the show, and then there are people who are very much in the zeitgeist.”
She adds that just because the show has become more popular, casting has gotten easier. “I think certainly people are more keen to do it because they know we are a show that doesn’t have a bad bone in its body and we’re certainly not looking to ruin careers. People can see we’re a show that wants to have fun. No one is singing for their life. It’s not a show that creates stars — it’s a show about celebrating them, and I think that celebration has helped us a tremendous amount.”
Another change that has come with this season is the clues packages, which have been made especially tricky.
Ibarra says of The Masked Singer fans, “They seem to analyze everything. We actually found out that some of those rabid followers were taking off our voice modulation. It gets that serious. We’re trying to constantly adjust ourselves to all of that,” Ibarra says. “I think for next season, we’ve realized how people work things out faster than other clues, which clues are ones that maybe get too definitive answers, so we’re trying a slightly different approach for how we do our clue packages for next season.”
This season’s guest judges include Jamie Foxx, Jason Biggs, comedian Gabriel Iglesias, and Will Arnett. And T-Pain and Joel McHale, veterans in the world of The Masked Singer, will also join the lineup.
The Masked Singer airs Wednesdays at 8pm ET/PT on Fox.
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