The Masked Singer Australia will return to Aussie TV’s on Monday, 13 September at 7.30pm on 10 and 10 Play On Demand.
Mediaweek caught up with 10 ViacomCBS’s head of entertainment Stephen Tate about what to expect from the year’s biggest costume party.
With last year affected by Covid, Tate said that they have learnt from every production during the pandemic and were lucky that they got through this season without incident.
“I probably shouldn’t say this, but if there is anything positive to come out of Covid, it’s that it helps with casting because so many amazing people are available. The people that are under the masks this year will absolutely astound you. They would have been touring the world or doing festivals right now. The performance and recording industries have been very hard hit by Covid. We’re one of the few gigs where they can actually work.”
Stephen Tate
The Masked Singer Judges
Leading the nation’s biggest guessing game are judges Dannii Minogue, Dave Hughes, Jackie O and Urzila Carlson.
“They’ve become a real family or more like a slightly naughty classroom. They are all really engaged in the whole game. They’re not particularly competitive. I mean, they’re all naturally competitive people, but they actually build on each other’s clues and really encourage each other to back their hunches,” said Tate.
Although Tate said that the judges will have a harder time guessing who the secret celebrities are this year after some tweaks to the show.
“We’ve intentionally made it more cryptic. Because the feedback was the audience was really loving playing the game. We don’t want to make it easier. We certainly want to make it more fun. And we’ve done that.”
Where to from here?
With the show entering its third season, Tate said that there is no reason to reinvent the wheel but there would be at least one interesting change this year.
“It’s only the third season, and let’s face it, there are lots of franchises around that are in their 10th and 12th season etc. It is in its infancy. It only requires 12 artists to say yes every year, so I don’t think we’re going to run out of singers. And certainly, Tim Chappel is not ever going to run out of crazy ideas for masks. We do have one major innovation, which I can’t actually talk about in detail yet but we do something mid-series that we’ve never done before and when you see the look on the judges faces, I think you’ll agree it worked.”
Despite 10 being the under 50 network, Tate said that this is one of the broadcaster’s shows that are for all ages.
“Absolutely all ages. We’ve got artists under there who have performed for all generations. The beautiful thing about music is it’s universal. I really can’t emphasise enough that the artists that we’ve attracted this year are household names, and faces. They will appeal to all ages.”
Keeping the secret
Obviously, a large component of the show’s appeal is the secret identities of its competitors so security is an important factor, Tate said that the show uses a tried and tested formula for keeping the secret which is done the same way all over the world.
“I can’t even tell my family. I’m one of only about three people at 10 and that is an equal number at Warner that were actually part of the casting process itself. Once we were in production, we have to bring a small handful of highly professional individuals into our confidence in order to make the show. But if you saw that the protocols that we go through, when we actually do a reveal, you’d be astounded. It’s like a military operation, the entire studio is swept for devices. Everybody that is non-essential is cleared from the studio. You think, oh, maybe that sounds a little bit over the top for such a light, fun, entertaining show but what we’re trying to protect is a surprise for the audience.”