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THE MASKED SINGER
January 2, 2019  | By David Bianculli  | 2 comments

Fox, 9:00 p.m. ET

 

SERIES PREMIERE: This 10-episode singing competition series, hosted by Nick Cannon, is based on the South Korean show King of Mask Singer, but with a key difference. The original series, still running and very popular after several years on TV in South Korea, is kind of like The Voice, with singers competing, sight unseen, before a panel of judges. Instead of having the judges turn their chairs to avoid seeing the singers, though, these singers are disguised by elaborate and highly stylized full-body costumes. For this new U.S. version on Fox, the judges are celebrities (as in all those classic TV panel shows of the 1950s and 1960s) – and so are the singers, competing in an “all-star” Masked Singer edition of sort, with some of them being athletes rather than professional singers. The judges are Jenny McCarthy, Robin Thicke, Nicole Scherzinger, and Ken Jeong – and the singers, who compete against each other and are unmasked weekly upon elimination, are as yet unknown. Don’t expect Elton John or Cher to emerge from the Peacock or Poodle costumes, but hey, this could be fun. And South Korean TV already has inspired at least one popular American television series: ABC’s drama series The Good Doctor. On that U.S. adaptation, though, the only masks in evidence are surgical.

 
 
 
 
 
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2 Comments
 
 
Jeff
This does look good. I hope the premiere tonight lives up to the short clips I have seen already. Who do we think is Lion?
Jan 2, 2019   |  Reply
 
 
Anna
I'm so excited!!! This show looks so good. I've been seeing the previews every time I watch football.
Jan 2, 2019   |  Reply
 
 
 
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