How 'The Masked Singer' Works: All About Fox's Celebrity Singing Competition

The Masked Singer is unlike any singing competition you've watched before.

Not to be confused with American Idol and The Voice, which highlights the talents of everyday people, the Fox reality series has been inviting some of the world’s biggest stars to compete on the main stage. If you aren’t one of the millions who have tuned in since the show premiered in 2019, you might be confused about the singing competition show, which features a dozen or more celebrity contestants each season, singing and dancing in head-to-toe costumes that completely obscure their identities.

When The Masked Singer returned for its 10th season in September 2023, the show drew one of its highest-rated premieres in more than a year with 5.8 million viewers tuning in on multiple platforms across seven days, Deadline reported. And if that’s an indication of anything, it’s that viewers at home love guessing the stars behind the masked performance.

So, to catch you up to speed, here's everything you need to know about the show — from what it is and when it airs to some of the mystery celebrities underneath the elaborate costumes so far.

How does The Masked Singer work?

The Masked Singer is an ongoing competition where a group of masked celebrities compete against each other in costume, with the audience and judging panel voting on the performances.

Joining the audience and host Nick Cannon are four celebrity panelists — Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger and Ken Jeong — who try their best to correctly identify each performer based on what little clues they get during each episode.

Although the celebrities get to use their real voices while singing, during pre-taped interview clips (which feature hints about their identities), their voices have been distorted.

At the end of every episode, the losing celebrity's identity is finally revealed.

"What I really like about it is that it's really the only whodunit — or whosangit — show on television and the fact that it's all well-known celebrities. … So the people under the mask are really the star of the show," Thicke told E! News in January 2019.

"Every celebrity gets to pick their alter ego of who they want to be, and that's how we try to figure out … who they are, based on their costumes, based on their film clues and also their performances," McCarthy added.

According to Fox's official page for the series, The Masked Singer is based on the South Korean format, The King of Mask Singer, created by Mun Hwa Broadcasting Corp.

When does The Masked Singer air?

The Masked Singer airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.

Who has appeared on The Masked Singer?

The singing competition show has attracted countless celebrity contestants over the years, including Billie Jean King, Sarah Palin, Nick Carter, Toni Braxton, Patti LaBelle, LeAnn Rimes, Demi Lovato, William Shatner, Kermit the Frog, Caitlyn Jenner, Drew Carey and many more stars.

When did The Masked Singer first premiere?

The Masked Singer first aired on Fox on Jan. 2, 2019.

Its inaugural season featured 10 episodes and saw 12 masked celebrities face off: La Toya Jackson as Alien, Tori Spelling as Unicorn, Joey Fatone as Rabbit, Gladys Knight as Bee, Margaret Cho as Poodle, Donny Osmond as Peacock, Rumer Willis as Lion, Ricki Lake as Raven, Terry Bradshaw as Deer, Antonio Brown as Hippo, Tommy Chong as Pineapple and T-Pain as Monster.

Rapper T-Pain won the first season of the show, with Osmond placing second and Knight finishing third.