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Bushranger wins The Masked Singer 2020

All 3 singers had been roundly guessed on social media, unmasked in a finale that pulled off the seemingly impossible.

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Neighbours actor Bonnie Anderson has won The Masked Singer 2020, after being unveiled as the Bushranger.

Songstress Kate Miller-Heidke was runner-up as Queen and writer-performer Eddie Perfect finished third as Frillneck.

All three had been hotly tipped on social media for the past few weeks, while Dannii Minogue & Jackie O both guessed Bonnie Anderson & Kate Miller-Heidke, and Urzila Carlson correctly guessed Eddie Perfect.

It was a most unusual finale given the amount of green screen to pull off the fact three cities were in play, with Jackie O & host Osher Gunsberg in Sydney and Urzila Carlson in a hotel room in Auckland.

But producers Warner Bros. did a top job given the technical challenges, including scenes were Gunsberg was virtually standing side by side with singers on stage.  Under such trying conditions it was almost seamless (save for Urzila’s very big hands).

Anderson said of her participation, “I haven’t really been singing, Neighbours has taken a lot of my time. This has sparked a fire in me, and it’s nice to know I can do this. I can’t believe I’ve won this thing, it has blown my mind!”

Kate Miller-Heidke said, “It’s super liberating. I got to leave myself and my normal hang-ups behind and step into this really strong, larger-than-life character.”

Eddie Perfect added: “It was a scary thing to do, and I didn’t want to say no to something just because it scared me. I thought I would live to regret that.”

The finale caps off a challenging season for 10 in which 17 staff tested positive to coronavirus, sending the entire production team into a 2 week lockdown.

Despite the headlines, the show has performed well for 10, which has already announced it will screen The Masked Singer USA soon.

26 Responses

  2. Bonnie’s clearly a very competent singer, but I think she consistently played it safe in the same way that, like, an Idol contestant would have played it safe before being unceremoniously dumped in fourth place. But Eddie always put on an incredible show and KMH was always willing to experiment. I don’t begrudge her winning (again: very competent) but it was a bit of a damp squib of an ending.

    1. It was possibly the outfit. It left little room for creative theatrics but she clearly was the better singer and was consistent. If KMH didn’t have the edge on her outfit and theatrics she would have been long gone. The style of singing she chose put many off. At times lack lustre. As for Eddie charisma shone through but Bonnie just out sung him, she had little to work with and managed to draw people in.

  3. Wasn’t Urzilla the Lindsay Lohan of this year? I thought it odd that she got Eddie Perfect right, I felt Jackie O may have gave her that one, they did kind of a swap. Jackie and Danni are pretty good at guessing, the fact they don’t get all of them makes me think there’s a little rigging involved.

    1. There’s clearly an encouragement to throw out all kinds of names at top of season, otherwise if they just guess Kate MH in ep 1 and lock on her for the rest of the season, the show doesn’t really work. Some talk there are sheets of suggested celeb names. But this year the show was also made while it was screening, so the panel had the ability to check social media where the clue gathering en masse pinpointed correct names. You can see as episodes caught up, the panel were getting them right.

  4. Congratulations to Bonnie/Bushranger. Loved her performances. And well done to Eddie/Frillneck and Kate/Queen. I think they all have been great performers and would have been happy if any of them won.

      1. Last year we had five reality TV hosts (Gretel and Darren McMullen were most obvious, but Millsy had the YTT revival, Kate Ceberano did Nine’s Biggest Loser knockoff and Wendell Sailor did a season of Seven’s summer afternoon filler Australia’s Greatest Athlete) and a bunch of other people who’d done the reality TV circuit. There’s just not that wide a field of talent you could get into the masks in this country. Like, Brett Sutton is not going to be the Croquembouche next season, you know?

  6. You really couldn’t tell the difference with Osher and Jackie bar a few camera angles towards the end. I wonder if this is the future of TV to save flying in big stars from overseas.

  7. I don’t know what it was, but this season was a bit of a let down compared to the first one.

    Maybe it was the absence of Lindsay Lohan, whose ridiculousness even being on the panel when she had no idea who the celebrities were somehow added to the show.

    Maybe it was the fact that 10 promised even bigger stars because of the pandemic but instead we got some ‘who is that’ faces.

    Maybe it was the performances. While the production values were miles ahead this year, I felt the singing wasn’t as good – even though there were many professional singers this year.

    Anyway, congrats to 10 sticking it out and making a full season given all the challenges.

    1. I think they had to change at least some of the cast very quickly. Before the season they were advertising “a big name from an Emmy-winning show” but that never wound up happening. Like the closest any of these people have gotten was Sophie Monk guest starring in one episode of Entourage. The Wiggles have never won an Emmy for any of their shows. Philippoussis’s dating show mercifully never won one. I’m pretty sure Eddie Perfect hasn’t even done any of the NYC-based chat shows since he’s been working on Broadway.

  8. Jackie O was in Sydney with Osher, not Dannii.

    Loved the Grand Final. I was part of the Superfans and voted for Bushranger. I was going to vote for Queen cause it was a killer performance, but I voted for Bushranger twice previously so kept my loyalties.

    1. I am just about to watch Season 4 of The Masked Singer US which starts in a little over a week from now. I think10 will probably start from season 1 – Don’t get on the internet if you don’t want to know who’s who

      2. Why would they start from season 1?

        After reading DK’s article yesterday, I was going to watch elsewhere, but so glad 10 is getting S4, hopefully it airs same day as US, in 9 days time.

        1. I actually thought US Series 1 still the best so far – Although the flow of the program and the knockdown rounds has been welcome additions – UK Masked singer was also good – although their costumes were a bitt naff

  10. The Logies need to create a category for the “Greatest artistic achievement in Editing” because the Masked Singer Finale would win hands down. Apart from the 2 judges appearing on monitors like they do on HYBPA, you had to look really hard to notice it was contrived. It was difficult to spot that Osher wasn’t on stage, let alone in the state when they filmed the final. I just hope they do a behind the Scenes ep for the final, as it would be magic to see how they created last nights magic…

    1. Knowing how they handled the actual behind-the-scenes ep (did we really need a 10-minute segment on Hughsey’s dancing?), I doubt we will get something like that for the finale. We can hope, though! 🙂

  12. Boooo!!! Kate Miller-Heidke was robbed! Robbed, dammit! Her performance last night was untouchable. What’s worse is that Anderson’s performance last night was perhaps her weakest of all (she had delivered far better performances in the weeks prior). I would have understood if the producers “swayed” the outcome in favour of Bushranger had they been a bigger ticket celebrity, but KMH was light years ahead of the competition (and arguably more recognisable thanks to Eurovision). I was so disappointed that she was the runner-up that it tainted my enjoyment of the rest of the show, making Anderson’s reveal all the more anticlimactic.

    Boooo!!!

    1. Every one of us has different tastes in singers and music, I for one was very happy to see Bonnie Anderson win, I admire Kate Miller-Heidke’s talent and voice but wasn’t impressed with what she did to some of the songs.

  13. When I guessed a few weeks ago (or twitter guessed) that Bonnie Anderson was the Bushranger I hoped she would win but thought the Queen would so was pleasantly surprised. The clue that really confirmed it for me was her coming second best to Dylan Alcott. I remembered she was up for the Logie last year & he won it.

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