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Will Australia get The Masked Singer?

Exclusive: TV Tonight asks Seven, Nine & 10 if they are hot for the biggest new singing show in America?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j9XJ0XD5nM

EXCLUSIVE. It’s the highest-rated new series of the season in the US, but will The Masked Singer make it to Australia?

Celebrities in disguise, surrounded by heavy backstage security, perform songs with telltale clues each week for the judges and audience. But just who is under the mask?

Warner Bros. have the rights for this territory so TV Tonight put the question to three network execs.

Here’s what they said…

Angus Ross, Seven Director of Programming:
“It’s a very interesting show, doing good numbers in the US. Who is it behind the mask? They haven’t been major celebrities so far but it’s out there and different, I’ll give it that. And it’s working. I’m sure everyone’s looking at it. It could go either way in this market, but I’d say it’s on everyone’s radar.”

Hamish Turner, Nine Program Director:
“It’s fun. It’s a singing detective show. It’s quirky, even the way they do the interviews. It’s bizarre but engaging. Although it’s about the performance, a lot of it is about who the hell is under that costume. If you talk about co-viewing (wth families) it delivers that, and it’s done a good job for FOX. We look at everything, and you’d be mad not to. We’ve definitely had a look at it.”

Daniel Monaghan, 10 Head of Programming:
“It’s an out of this world format and it appears to be working in the US. I remember it with Ryan Reynolds in the Korean version. I’m sure that someone will make it. Have we got it? No. has it been pitched to everyone? Absolutely. Have we been watching the numbers closely in the US? Certainly. Whether or not it would hold for a number of years, past a ‘stunt’ remains to be seen. You’d have to be mad not to be looking at it, but it’s very, very expensive.”

19 Responses

  1. It looks like something that Daryl Sommers would host (red faces). A short term gap filler might work. My problem is, where is this gap, when the excuse used for axing Blake Mysteries was ‘there isn’t one’. Then again, if someone does have a gap, a Cash Cow suit could be used, to save costs.

    2. What would be the point of the mask if they’re regular Joe’s n Jill’s? They are anonymous with or without it.

      I would have thought the celebrity angle was the whole point of the show.

  5. It doesn’t have legs, and I think it probably needs a more populous country to really work at its best. Australia would be scraping the barrel to find decent singers who we don’t already know can sing or who we’d not recognise immediately. i.e. The Bachelor contestants from 2014 are not celebrities.

    1. Rumer came out and said it wasnt her yesterday on social media. I reckon the peacock is David Haslehoff, the alien Latoya/ Janet Jackson and the raven is Ricki Lake.

          1. Good thought. We’ll have to come back to this post when its revealed! An Osmond I never though of…

  8. My husband and I are really enjoying this show. Not sure what to expect with the first episode but hooked us in by the end of it. I think I know who the final few are. Not sure an Aussie version will work. I remember the aussie singing with celebrities show years ago and it wasnt great from memory. The masked element really makes it worth the watch.

  9. I struggled to watch an entire episode but can’t stand the editing of these type of shows that make it feel so manufactured and soulless (reminds me of AGT but am sure the others are like this). Everything is over explained and cutaways to audiences that aren’t obviously responding to what’s happening.

    A lot of ordinary singing with autotune, so the judges become the actual entertainment. They’re ok, but I don’t see this gimmick lasting long after the first season.

  11. When I saw the photo for this article as I scrolled through my phone, I thought it was a photo for some grotesque horror film and that was the remains of an exploded face on a body. Then read the headline.

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