The Masked Singer is returning, bigger and better than ever!
After a brief break following the exciting season two finale, the third season of Fox's hit singing competition/mystery game is premiering right after the Super Bowl on Sunday, and it seems like the show is definitely trying to live up to such a monumental lead-in.
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From the elaborate new costumes to the show's revamped competition structure, to the exciting guest stars who will be joining the celebrity panel in the coming weeks, season three has a lot in store for fans.
In anticipation for the wonderfully bizarre series' triumphant return, ET is breaking down everything we know about the new season before its big debut.
The Panelists and Celebrity Detectives
If you've been a longtime fan of the playful chemistry and sarcastic banter between The Masked Singer's panel of famous guessers and commentators, season three isn't going to disappoint.
The whole crew of "celebrity detectives" -- tasked with trying their best to guess who's under each elaborate costume -- is back. Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Ken Jeong and Nicole Scherzinger will still be coming up with wild suggestions and desperately trying to decode all the various clues.
Meanwhile, Nick Cannon will still be taking center stage as the show's charismatic and quick-witted host, so fans won't be in for any major shocks -- at least when it comes to the series' stalwart cast.
The Costumed Contestants
This time around, fans are going to be seeing more clandestine celebrities singing their hearts out and belting iconic tunes than ever before.
There are a whopping 18 contestants this time around -- way more than season one, which featured 12 secret stars, or even the recent second season, which saw 16 hidden hopefuls competing for the coveted Golden Mask trophy. While fans haven't gotten a look at all of them just yet, the show has already given us a glimpse at 14 of the over-the-top outfits, including The Llama, The Banana, Miss Monster, The Frog, The Mouse, The Robot, The Kangaroo, The White Tiger, The Turtle, The Astronaut, The Kitty, The Swan, The Taco, The Rhino and, most recently, The Bear.
For The Masked Singer's army of amateur sleuths playing at home, the show also gave us their usual preseason clue in the form of some hard-number stats regarding the contestants as a group.
Collectively, the 18 performers song-battling it out in season three have 69 GRAMMY nominations, 88 Gold Records, 11 Super Bowl appearances, 160 tattoos, three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and one is a Guinness Book of World Records titleholder.
The Gameplay
Aside from the larger field of singers, the biggest change this time around is the structure of the competition itself.
This season, the competition will be tournament style. So, the 18 contestants will be divided up into three groups of six -- Group A, Group B, and Group C. Then, they will compete amongst each other until there are only three remaining in each group. When the field is whittled down to just nine hopefuls, they will merge into one large group to battle one another.
However, when it comes to the elimination (i.e. the unmaskings), things aren't going to change. We're still only going to find out one identity per episode, until the finale.
As for the clues packages, those are still happening (obviously), but fans are in for a special treat. As an additional type of clue, aside from the pre-taped videos and physical hints, we're also going to get "Celebrity Relations" clues, which means some members of the contestants' families will don masks, have their voices disguised, and reveal some tidbits about their family that might help viewers figure out who's under the mask.
Guest Judges
After the panelists spent the first two seasons guessing that Jamie Foxx was under one of the many masks, the Oscar winner is joining the show as a guest panelist for the big season three premiere. Hopefully, this will keep the judges from constantly suggesting that he's competing on the show.
It's also been revealed that Jason Biggs and Leah Remini will pop up at some point during the season -- and we can only hope that Joel McHale keeps his streak alive with another appearance.
The Masked Singer season three premieres immediately after Super Bowl LIV on Sunday, Feb. 2, on Fox.
For the rest of the season, the show will air Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox. ET will be following along each week with a Masked Singer live blog, breaking down the episode moment by moment, and an after-show every Wednesday night.
Check out the video below for more on the upcoming season of The Masked Singer.
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