'The Masked Singer's Origin, How it Became a Hit Show on FOX
FOX 2022Reading Time: 3 minutes
Years back, Craig Plestis decided to debunk the preconceived idea that America would find it ridiculous to witness a banana or a T-Rex performing good music on live television. Today, The Masked Singer is the ultimate celebrity guessing game, that is dominating television.
The Masked Singer Revived the Dull Reality TV Genre
Hosted by Nick Cannon, The Masked Singer is a reality singing competition series that features celebrities wearing head-to-toe costumes that first premiered in 2019. The show conceals identities of celebrities until they get eliminated. Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg, Nicole Scherzinger, and Robin Thicke sit on the panel. They guess the identity of each celebrity, while audience members vote for elimination.
The Masked Singer has been said to revive the lagging genre of non-scripted entertainment. As of writing, the show is a two-time Emmy winner and has received multiple nominations from various awarding bodies. The show remains popular as ever since beginning its eighth season on the network. How exactly did TMS become a hit show? Let’s get back to where at all began.
Executive Producer Craig Plestis Got the Idea at a Thai Restaurant
Veteran TV show producer Craig Plestis was in a Thai restaurant with his daughter when he saw an adaptation of South Korea’s King of Mask Singer. The moment he saw how glued people were to the game show, he immediately did his research. Upon knowing the show’s premise, he knew that America must have its own.
Plestis secured his company’s right to produce an American adaptation of the show. He spent his “whole weekend” creating a presentation for FOX to see the “magic” he felt when he watched the game show. Quickly, the company believed in the uniqueness of the idea and trusted Plestis to develop the reality series.
“They loved the idea of being behind a mask and no one knowing who they were, and showing off the talent that no one knew that they even had,” Plestis told The Hollywood Reporter.
Then, he got involved with executive producer Izzie Pick Ibarra. Together, they worked to Americanize the guessing game and enhance the original format. After months of in depth research and creation, The Masked Singer released it first trailer.
Right off the bat, The Mask Singer fascinated a massive crowd. The new show brought in 9.4 million viewers and a 3.0 rating on the night of it’s premiere. Such has been the highest-rated show since The X Factor.
The show stimulated the public through the mystery of the mechanics. They found it a challenge to outwit the panelists by guessing celebrities right. In relation to this, The Masked Singer has consistently created a buzz in social media, with people competitively investigating who the stars behind the costumes are.
Throughout the first season, viewers saw a Monster, Peacock, Bee, Rabbit, Lion, and Alien among others, performing captivating music. The Monster ultimately won the season and was revealed as hip hop star T-Pain. The Masked Singer Season 1 ultimately scored an average of 11.4 million viewers and ended at a 3.6 rating.
The Show Attracted More Viewers in the Next Seasons
The following seasons did not disappoint. Each week, the competition gets tough for the masked singers, so the audience becomes more engaged until the finale. To date, the competition has included several celebrities from prominent singers to unanticipated personalities. Last season, the show sparked controversy when Rudy Giuliani was revealed as the person inside Jack in the Box costume.
COVID-19 changed up the dynamic of the The Masked Singer a bit, but it’s recently returned to it’s original format. The guessing game show has drawn attention from people across various age groups and cultures. This makes The Masked Singer even more special. All family members can sit together and watch the show, brainstorm who the celebrity singers are or play against one another.
With the success of each season of The Masked Singer, it’s clear that this show is far from over. We cannot wait to see which celebrities appear on the show in future seasons.
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