'The Masked Singer' Promises New Animals & A Pineapple For This Week’s Face-Off Round
It's been a long time since a reality TV series took the world by storm. Back in the early aughts, it seemed like every new reality competition was the biggest hit TV had ever seen. But at some point after the debut of The Voice, returns began to diminish, until the premiere of The Masked Singer last week. Based on a popular celebrity singing contest show airing in South Korea, The Masked Singer drew 10 million viewers to the premiere and became an instant meme-able sensation. The Masked Singer Season 1 episode 2 promo promises the weirdness isn't going anywhere anytime soon either.
Unlike the original series, which features real head-to-head competitions between ornately costumed celebrities, The Masked Singer takes a more American Idol driven approach, with 12 contestants whittling down to two.
Last week the first half performed in three head-to-head competitions: Peacock, Hippo, Monster, Unicorn, Deer, and Lion. The losers of each battle (in this case Hippo, Unicorn, and Deer) then formed a Bottom Three, for viewers to vote on. Sorry Hippo, you're out.
This week, fans will get to meet the other half of the cast: Rabbit, Alien, Raven, Pineapple, Poodle, and Bumblebee. Check out the promo:
The matchups of which of these characters will go up against each other were announced in the episode synopsis:
Episode 2, titled “New Masks on the Block,” will feature three brand new head-to-head matchups: Pineapple vs. Raven, Poodle vs. Bee and Alien vs. Rabbit. The studio audience will name the three winners from each battle, and then those three will immediately move on to the next round. The bottom trio will then face the judges, who vote anonymously to save two and eliminate one. The losing singer must unmask in front of America.
For those who put great stock in the clues provided to help figure out which celebrity is which, and who is under the mask, Here are the pre-episode hints provided:
- Rabbit snaps pictures with a camera.
- Pineapple dances the hula.
- Alien has a gold record.
- Raven holds a pregnancy test.
- Bee has tennis balls.
- Poodle’s clue is... a second Poodle
Yes, because what is really needed here are more Poodles.
The panel of celebrity judges, including Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Ken Jeong, and Nicole Scherzinger aren't masked. Instead, they're just mostly useless in their guessing. Nick Cannon, aka the ex-Mr. Mariah Carey plays host doing a great job pretending he has no idea who he's talking to when interacting with the creatures on stage.
But keeping the secrets of those under the masks is the main draw of the show. Over the last week, the exponential number of posts claiming to have figured out which contestant is which has shown the allure of the guessing game.
Of course, the real question is if Ryan Reynolds will turn up under one of the masks since it was his appearance on the original South Korean version that helped spark interest in doing the show here in America.
The Masked Singer airs on Wednesdays, at 9 p.m. ET on FOX.
