The Masked Singer is a self-proclaimed “who-sung-it” show hosted by Nick Cannon. It revolves around “T.V.’s best-kept secret,” the identity of a performer wearing an over-the-top costume. These performers compete against each other to advance to the next round, but not enough votes from the audience will require you to reveal your identity.
It’s hard to find a good quality about The Masked Singer. One thing I can commend would be the concept. I thought that the suspense in guessing who is behind the mask might be interesting. From a marketing perspective, it’s smart. If you could develop an interesting show around this concept, people will keep coming back to see who’s behind the mask. But The Masked Singer is not interesting. It’s dragged out to an hour of long-winded introductory segments, boring talking segments, and uninteresting performances. All of the contestants so far have been actors, athletes, or comedians, who have pretty amateur and unimpressive singing voices.
The Masked Singer could be saved by a group of entertaining hosts, but it isn’t. Nick Cannon is dreadfully bland, spewing dry puns every chance he gets. And the judges don’t have any chemistry or even interesting personalities, except for Ken Jeong, who contributes some levity. They’re also just so bad at guessing. The catch-22 of judging on this show is that if you guess correctly, it will ruin the suspense in the future, but guessing incorrectly is hard to watch, some guesses making you want to yell “No, you idiot!” at the judge who said it. But I have a little sympathy for the judges. For a show so new, it’s difficult to get well-known people to compete, making it difficult to guess, especially when it is someone who’s never really sung before.
There’s a good show somewhere here, but it’s hidden under so many bad qualities. It’s too long, the judges are bad, the singers are hit or miss, the production is sub-par. The Masked Singer isn’t even enjoyable if you turn your brain all the way off. My recommendation: don’t waste your time on The Masked Singer.