The Masked Singer abandons theatre audience, for virtual voters.
Plans for an audience in Sydney venue are out, as voting opens to fans on their couches.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under Coronavirus, News, Top Stories
It was such a novel idea, to shoot The Masked Singer in Melbourne and have an audience voting at Riverside Parramatta … but now producers have cancelled plans in favour of an online crowd.
Ticketed patrons have now been invited to log into a live Zoom session to watch and vote.
The good news is, ticketing and voting has now expanded to Australia wide.
TV Tonight understands the venue was unwilling to commit, given the changing nature of COVID in Sydney, leaving producers Warner Bros. Australia to scramble a back-up plan.
“We are unable to have a studio audience for this season of The Masked Singer but that doesn’t mean you can’t be involved in Australia’s favourite guessing game!” the show declares.
“We are looking for a team of Masked Singer SuperFans from across the country to participate in our exclusive ONLINE voting panel, all from the comfort of your own lounge room.”
The online SuperFan Voting Panel will help watch proceedings at 7pm on Saturday to help eliminate the first act from the singing show.
“The Masked Singer will be pre-recorded, so all audience members must agree not to disclose any details about the show before it airs on Channel 10 at a later date. We don’t want any spoilers for the viewing audience at home!”
But they won’t get to see the all-important unmasking of the celebrity, which is strictly limited to the celebrity panel and essential crew at Melbourne’s Docklands studios.
All other dates which had been scheduled for the Riverside venue are now cancelled.
Latest clues for acts including Bushranger, Cactus, Sloth, Frillneck, Echidna, Dragonfly are here.
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21 Responses
With Melbourne widely expected to increase restrictions in the coming days, it’s hard to see how this will proceed.
They’d be in a hotel bubble I’d think.
Just FYI, All tickets gone now, sold out all shows.
Loving the look of the Bushranger !
Out of the 10 dates available only 2 left already. I booked for those 2, can’t wait for The Masked Singer to return
Why didn’t they just bring the whole thing up to Qld where we don’t have such strict restrictions?
Because the cast and crew are in Melbourne and aren’t allowed to leave. it would also cost way to much money to do that.
Why ever have studio audiences again in the post-covid world?
My lounge room is very comfortable especially where theres a 7 hour shoot for a show. I’m not held hostage without food or water.
Yeah, they didn’t do too well last year when it came organising the audience…especially for the first one or two episodes.
They could have easily done it in Perth or anywhere that has low COVID numbers
Very sad to hear this, although it’ll definitely be harder to keep as many of the identities secret if they’re streaming it to audience members all across Australia. Hopefully everyone who watches will keep to their confidentiality agreements…
It’s mentioned in the article, the audience don’t see the reveal.
But they likely can hear the judges guesses or make guesses and assumptions from being able to hear the voices behind masks.
If the judges’ guesses are as stupid as they were last year I don’t think this will be a problem.
You mean like when there was a live audience too last year?
I was thinking just today maybe they should’ve go with an Adelaide or Perth audience instead given the uncertainty about future restrictions in Sydney.
That’s such a good point. Production teams should look at this to film there big shows next year. Help the film industry in Perth or anywhere out west. They could have “normal” studio audiences for Ninja, The Voice, Got Talent, Dancing with the Stars etc.
I think the issue here is the judge’s and the celebrities don’t won’t to travel to Perth or Adelaide
Spot on Martin2015.
Also TV ratings numbers are weak in both Ade and Per (As it should be per population) But, on top that I fear these cities lost their remote controls years ago and the TV sets are just stuck on Network 7.
Kind of have to agree, I think it would be taxing on anyone to fly the ~10 hour east/west coast return trip each week — especially something like DWTS or The Voice when they go to their live shows, they would have to be based in that city for all weeks or it just wouldn’t be worth it.
Whether they want to or not would current rules even allow the talent to travel out of Victoria?