The eighth season of the Emmy-winning hit show, The Masked Singer, has recently gotten underway on Fox, and it seems to be the best one yet. The show has become one of the most popular reality tv competitions and doesn’t show any signs of letting up.
The show prides itself on secrecy as viewers try to put their mystery-solving prowess to the test. Masked Singer sports a celebrity panel of judges Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger, Ken Jeong, and Robin Thicke. To establish and maintain such a grip on the real identity of each celebrity singer, these mysterious contestants must adhere to a laundry list of rules. Some actual guidelines are as sensible as each contestant staying entirely away from the judges, at all times. There’s also a rule requiring contestants to choose songs that fit the episode’s theme that week that they must also sing live. How about the contestants being barred from talking to other contestants under any circumstances?
These real rules of the show make sense, sure. However, some might seem odd, to say the least, to those of us on the outside looking in.
There are plenty of other rules that are just as vital to keeping up the mystery
Perhaps the most important requirement for each celebrity contestant is the non-disclosure agreement or NDA. When signed, it binds each competitor to all of the rules the producers put forth, which is obviously for the sake of secrecy.
One obvious rule is no phones. That seems like a given these days when a confidential production must absolutely keep things under wraps. Just ask all the actors and actresses that appeared in various MCU productions over the last several years.
Audiences of the show already know that each mystery singer must wear an elaborate costume that while not fully giving away their secret identity, still reflects each contestant’s real personality. Did you know there’s also a rule keeping each celebrity from taking their respective costumes home while they’re competing? Since they are indeed popular, this keeps any risk of anyone outside of the studios from spoiling the surprise.
Each singer must pre-screen with the show’s producers so that the potential sets of clues during the show contain information that can’t be searched online. From that, another rule stipulates that the celebrity must then read those same clues out loud during each episode. Their voices are always distorted, of course. In addition to the pre-production process, the producers create a codename that is supposed to be used at all times during the competition.
However, each contestant is forbidden to speak out loud, at any point, though they are allowed to only whisper with show producers or their choreographer. These few people are also believed to be the only ones the singers can reveal or discuss their identity with, stemming from a separate rule each contestant must also follow.
These particular rules are demanding, but it’s all for keeping the secret intact
Once a celebrity begins the competition, they must agree to intense security surveillance. This one is very serious considering the singer gets more concealment than the U.S. President, and at least we can all see and identify who that guy is.
Each celebrity also is transported in a similar fashion to the commander in chief. They are not allowed to drive their own personal cars, but they are transported between the studio and a third-party location via a blacked-out security vehicle. It’s also believed that even the drivers don’t know who they’re playing chauffeur to.
When they’re rehearsing, each celebrity must do so only in the time allotted to them to prevent the VIPs from revealing themselves to each other. Also, they must practice wearing their costumes. They are allowed to wear special shirts that say, “Don’t talk to Me,” another part of the producer’s requirements to keep each contestant’s identity a secret. One other vital rule regarding the rehearsals bars any judges from witnessing the celebrities hard at work.
If you think the rules so far are a bit much, well, get this. If a contestant is accompanied by any guests, they, too, will have to undergo strict concealment themselves in order to keep the singer’s identity a secret. This would mean that the guests would have to wear their own, separate disguise while they are on set with the anonymous VIP.