SALT LAKE CITY — “The Masked Singer” will be a little different when it rolls around for season two later this fall.
Rob Wade, the president of Fox’s alternate entertainment, told The Hollywood Reporter in a new interview that Fox made a number of changes to the reality singing competition ahead of its second season.
Wade said the show’s first few rounds will add a new element called a “Smackdown.” The new show style will have four singers compete in two sing-offs. The audience and judges will vote right then and there to eliminate two singers.
Those two singers will then compete in a “Smackdown” where they sing a short song back and forth between each other. The loser of that battle will lose their mask.
“It’s supposed to be funny,” Wade said.
“So we added that element," Wade continued, "But it was partly just, as I said, because we wanted to find a way to reduce the amount of performances in the show and allow the panel to talk more. Boring format reasons, really.”
More details about the second season were revealed back in July, which I wrote about for the Deseret News. Previews showed six of the costumes viewers can expect to see in the upcoming season: an egg, a leopard, a flamingo, a skeleton, a fox and an eagle.
“Masked Singer” judge Jenny McCarthy said back in June that the new season would have some format changes, including 16 contestants as opposed to 12, according to my report for the Deseret News.
“The Masked Singer” season two will premiere on Fox on Sept. 25.