Who’s behind the mask?
On January 6th 2020, ITV premiered a new singing reality show called The Masked Singer. It originally gained global acclaim as the south Korean format The King of the Mask Singer, which became a viral sensation on social media. In the UK, the show is produced by Scottish indie Bandicoot. It premiered with 5.5M viewers, making it the highest-rated show on any channel that day.
The Masked Singer offers a twist to singing competitions by turning into a big game of Guess Who. Celebrities hide underneath intricate costumes and sing, with the goal being to get to the final unmasked. The audience vote for their least favourite contestants, who eventually have to reveal their identities. As with any mystery, this series’ success lies in maintaining suspense and has a lot of weekly media coverage. I contacted Daniel Nettleton, director of Bandicoot, who said maintaining secrecy was very challenging: “making a TV show of this scale that “features” 12 very well-known faces, whose identity must remain anonymous is an incredible undertaking. With so many people working on the show, a studio audience of 500 people every night and then 3 months in the edit before anyone is unmasked, means MI5 levels of confidentiality.”
The format was successfully adapted in the US in 2018, with two seasons broadcasted on Fox. Nettleton confirmed that the American adaptation of the show was crucial to making it in the UK: “We optioned the show from the Korean format owners before the show aired in the US. And we were turned away by all British broadcasters until the show aired in the US. Then everyone was interested, very interested. So yes, it helped a huge amount.”
This series sets a precedent for reality television adaptations in the UK, being one of the only eastern realities adapted for a western audience. This usually works the other way around, with Asian audiences who love reality television and have their own versions of The Voice and The X-Factor. The appeal of reality TV for them is that it shines a spotlight on “real people”. Western audiences are no different. We want to see people we know or identify with, which makes the reality TV genre perfect for remakes and adaptations. The Masked Singer is appealing in the respect that we are watching celebrities — not necessarily “real people” — but having them masked brings them down from their pedestal, making the show compelling to watch.
According to Nettleton, we can expect more Korean shows being adapted in the next couple of years as “the Asian market […] is particularly in fashion.” In 2020, The Masked Singer will have had 22 adaptations in different countries across all continents.
