The competition is fierce! On the Wednesday, September 25, premiere of The Masked Singer, eight new stars took the stage to perform and proved that for season 2, everything really is bigger and better. The mystery artists this season have a combined 140 films, 22 Broadway musicals, 22 gold records, 20 platinum records, six multiplatinum records, 31 Billboard No. 1 singles, 19 Emmy wins, 10 Grammy Awards, 10 Lifetime Achievement Awards, three Walk of Fame stars, 15 marriages, 29 children, 28 tattoos and eight divorces.
“We topped last season by having more contestants, making the costumes even better and also, making the show even more difficult to play. They’ve made the clue packages way more difficult, and the contestants are playing with us,” judge Jenny McCarthy told Us Weekly exclusively ahead of the premiere.
The singers are also trying to throw the judges off this year. “Literally, they know the show now so they come in saying, ‘All right, I’m gonna mess with the judges and the audience. I’m gonna throw my voice, I’m gonna put on a whole different persona,’ so that’s how you level up,” the former View cohost, 46, continued. Judge Robin Thicke added that physically, the singers are making changes too: “They’re putting on bodysuits so we can’t tell their body types!”
This season’s costumes are definitely more complex than ever. During the premiere, viewers were introduced to the Butterfly, Egg, Thingamajig, Skeleton, Ladybug, Rottweiler, Tree and Ice Cream, and it’s safe to say that the clues were … not as easy to solve as last season. A simple Google search doesn’t work this time around!
Additionally, this season includes a new element. Just like last season, each time two singers perform, the audience and judges will vote on who gets to stay in the competition. Now, when two singers are left in the bottom, they will go head-to-head in a smackdown performance! Then, the panel of judges — Thicke, McCarthy, Ken Jeong and Nicole Scherzinger — will decide which singer wins each smackdown and deserves to keep going. The other singer will be unmasked.
On the finale, both the Ice Cream and the Egg were unmasked after two smackdowns! Scroll through the gallery to see all the clues from the first week, the judges’ guesses — and ours — and to find out the two identities.