The Masked Singer / The Voice 2020 UK

In a move that I think is going to become a signature of 2020, namely 'throw enough stuff at a wall and something's gonna stick', ITV1 are starting two singing contests on the same night. First up is The Masked Singer, starting at 7pm, which is based off the American version of a South Korean TV show, where celebs sing while dressed like football mascots or those characters from It's A Knockout. Then straight after, it's The Voice UK because that's always brought exciting singing talent to the GBP's attention oh wait.

Also this looks like an advert for Monster Munch.
https://www.thewrap.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Masked-Singer-season-3.jpg

OK I am going to watch this
I have an idea about Unicorn
I don't want to see someone guess them all correctly on social media though

I basically watched TMS because it was on immediately before The Voice, but it was way more entertaining than I expected. A lot of work has gone in to the production (Duck's costume aside which looks like something from a fancy dress hire shop).
I would be very surprised if Unicorn doesn't turn out to be John Barrowman. I thought it was him from practically the beginning of the intro video. Chameleon looks like an 80s Doctor Who villain (there was a DW character called Chameleon but he was a companion). Speaking of which, I thought that Hedgehog was Sylvester McCoy but whoever it is sounds too young.
Also, who's more annoying? Bruno Tonioli standing up all the time on Strictly, or Ken Jeong standing up all the time saying "I know who this is"?
Meanwhile The Voice is ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Although it was brutal with the guy with the guitar who got the long VT intro and then no-one turned around.

I thought Jake Shears.

Ken Jeong's bit is getting annoying.

I haven't watched any reality stuff for years so all the padding is excruciating. I'm approx 50% watching because of the costumes.

The Voice is good! It doesn't ever "(bring) exciting singing talent to the GBP's attention" but I don't care about that.

I liked the bit where Davina was on the receiving end of a "And the winner is... going to be revealed after this break!" for once, after years of her doing that to us on Big Brother.

xxp The padding is pretty much par for the course on ITV1 reality shows - an hour and a half programme that could have been edited down to one hour.

Monster is an Olympic gold medalist - it'd be funny if it were tiny Mo Farah inside that huge costume. Fox looks like a Goldfrapp fever dream - the video intro clue about the East End was a bit obvious - Letitia Dean?

Tree is so Peter Crouch.

Tree obvs a footballer - I wonder how many times he hit the wood as a player? haha lol oh *gets coat* Pharaoh isn't Tony Blair. This show is a lot more fun than I thought it'd be - the low expectations for the celeb singers performances makes the occasionally bad singing more tolerable than on X Factor Celebs.

The previews/ads are trying to have it both ways..

"Oh is it Elton John? / Helen Mirren/ Idris Elba?"

These people are not on this show.

They'd want too much money, for a start.

Exactly.

I can confirm I am not a singing tree

— Peter Crouch (@petercrouch) January 5, 2020

Fair enough

So, is anybody talking about The Voice now?

We have to trudge through several weeks of blind auditions to get to the weekend where they suddenly get rid of half of the singers. For the moment, no-one's stood out.

The Masked Singer: it looked like the panel were having to work hard to look enthused. It didn't feel exciting.

The Voice: Of the many singing shows, I quite like this: there's a warmth and a decency. No-one ever seems chosen for being comedy awful and there sometimes seems to be genuine regret (that no-one turned around). I know I'm not the target audience but the panel doesn't work for me. Olly Murs is worse than Ricky Wilson!

Ken acts almost like someone's writing his gags for him. Davina looks enthusiastic but we've seen her do that over the most woeful BB shit. Rita Ora's thinking the whole time that she'd rather be back on The Voice? Wossy is the only one who I can genuinely believe wants to be there, because right now his ITV1 chat show is doing well, so he doesn't really need to be taking an early Saturday evening gig. Whether or not any of the panel give a shit, I still think it's a good show - although as mentioned above the padding kills momentum.

Olly is way less annoying than I thought he'd be - he's still plenty annoying though. I always thought that Ricky was a bit crap as a mentor, no matter how sincere he might have been. will.i.am has dialled back the enforced wackiness over several series - at the start he was unbearable. He'll still take your favourite act and do a stupid collab in a moment though. Meghan it's too early to tell. If Tom Jones wasn't on this show I'd be much less interested in watching - the year he was absent and replaced with Paloma Faith (perhaps not surprisingly the last year it was on BBC before the move to ITV) would have been terrible if it hadn't been for Boy George.

Tom Jones is interesting because he's "properly famous" - the sort of famous that your family would want you to *choose him* even if your FAVOURITE POP STAR IN THE WORLD EVER! was Meghan. It adds interest. Ricky was entertaining because almost no-one was ever going to actively choose him. I could imagine that someone would think "There's no way will.i.am will be interested in me but Ricky might be my new best mate."

Like with Wossy, Tom doesn't need to do this, so I assume that his motivations are less driven by business (the vertical brand that is will.i.am) or a need to keep a career ticking over between albums (Meghan - first album in four years due this year / Olly - at his current rate his next album won't be out until the end of this year).

Gah I was so close to guessing that. The pronunciation of 'through' in the second song was winding me up. Think I wasn't expecting a 'professional' singer.
I can't really hear the vox clearly in the big songs, which may be intentional?

For all the panels talk last week about him being an athlete, I wasn't expecting it to be him.

Yeah I'd resigned myself to giving up as I don't know what any athletes sound like.
Also I've mixed up which character had which clues since last week.

They did TMS in Aus last year and it was excruciating - the singers were all C grade and when revealed, half the judges would be like "wait, who?". Which, if you have Lindsay Lohan as a judge is gonna happen regardless I suppose.

They were going out of their way to not say "Charlotte Church" this week.

xxp some of the clues seem to contradict clues from last week. Duck speaks Italian and Spanish now?

xp the UK version is about half professional singers, half celebs who can sing pretty well, and Pharoah. It was a surprise to hear his singing voice in juxtaposition to the costume. Good job he got voted off in the first week as that would have worn thin very quickly. This show would be worse than X Factor Celebs if none of them could sing.

Just gave it two minutes out of idle curiosity because the costumes are lovely jesus christ I did not need to hear Teddy Sheringham sing

Apparently neither did the panel because he's been voted off.

I particularly like TMS because there's no pretence that they're going to find the next Little Mix or One Direction. Unlike The Voice, which is all serious and earnest about finding the next big star (which they never do), combined with this bland daytime TV aesthetic (especially the VT on the boat, and oh and that's not the first time Tom's worn a captain's hat)
https://igifineart.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/tj010.600x1000_q85.jpg

lol at the guy who was prepared to throw his band under the bus to get famous, but then none of the coaches turned around

TMS unmasking was a surprise tonight. She looked sad to be out this early, would have been a deserving series winner.

be even sadder when it turns out she's lost to Ed Balls or something

or cee lo

Would've thought the audience would be voting for who they most want to see unmasked rather than who 'deserves' to win

Don't think so, they have previously unmasked the ones who can't sing that well.

yes, although iirc one of the good ones was in the 'bottom two'.

Octopus?

Joel Dommett - because Rylan would rather present Ready Steady Cook.

I thought Jake Shears.

― kinder, Saturday, January 4, 2020 11:38 PM (four weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

cough cough

I said this from week 1!

Totally gutted I didn't get Duck. She's always been someone whose voice I've been fascinated with but never guessed. Kind of a mix between steely wee girly and gravelly older soul. I blame the waddly costume.

Surprised how much I'm enjoying this show! Except for Rita Ora

Like, I'm pleasantly surprised it's not all "someone from Made In Chelsea" - they're all well-established people in their fields/genres

Davina said that Duck was Skin a couple of weeks ago. Unicorn has been pegged as Jake Shears for a while now. I said upthread that I'd be surprised if it wasn't John Barrowman, but after a few weeks of performances I'd been moved over to the "It's Jake of course it is" side.
I get the feeling from Rita that she's trying not very hard to pretend that she's excited by this. Maybe because she's sitting between someone who makes a living out of looking at least semi-plausibly excited (Davina) and someone who makes a living out of appearing semi-interested (Wossy).

Meanwhile on The Voice, are the auditions where no-one presses their button more brutal than previous years? Or is it because there are more people auditioning this time, so they're not showing any of the crap or even mediocre acts?

xp it's unusual to see a celeb based reality show that isn't mainly people from reality shows - see the last few I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here's.

No-one guessed Jake Shears until a week or two ago so I'm claiming this one.

did Davina really guess Skin previously?

I think so.

I just skipped through to check - she basically says Mel C every time. No mention of Skin by any of them!

I wonder where I heard that Duck was Skin? Because apart from this thread and watching the show, I haven't been watching/reading anything else about TMS. Although I'm aware of Skin, mainly from Skunk Anansie, I never would have thought that she was Duck.

very odd to see skin in a small tent screaming about a baby drawing a swastika over furious punk rock then see her a quarter of a century later singing the song from titanic dressed as a giant duck, on ITV. Jake / unicorn was too obvious from the start, and his choice of song this time didn't work.

I love queen bee and hope to god she is Nicola Roberts and not someone shit. I will wager something she is not Ellie Goulding, sounds nothing like her. Think they got too close last week, so this time the clues were silly and their guesses ridiculous.

Worst one is fucking hedgehog, he may well be Michael Ball.

Roisin Conaty, stupid autocorrect

yay I got one
Bush is definitely Diane Morgan

I don't know who anyone else is, and this guess is probably wrong, but I got a real sense from tonight's clues that Wolf is Adam Ant.

I did guess Macy Gray, and when she got the ex-vote and walked off, I was convinced.

I'm absolutely 100% convinced that Wolf is Marti Pellow. Sounds like him, moves like him, and the umbrellas in the clue package are clearly a reference to Wet Wet Wet

See, I now think Bush is Sophie Willan (why are we putting guesses in spoilers, they're just guesses)

yeah but I don't always want to see because i like to guess myself!

Yeah, fair enough. I'm pleased I got Teeth right anyway. Bear is really confusing me.

ffs someone put a gag on Joel.

It's movie theme week - and as an aside I think theme weeks all the way back to X Factor are a stupid idea - so Joel is rolling out every terrible impression he, or at least his scriptwriters, can think of.

In summary, I like this show but they make it so. fucking. hard.

loool I have never been so wrong-footed on this show as I was with Kingfisher.

after inadvertently reading YouTube comments saying he was Simon Farnaby, I was totally convinced it was him throughout every song - it sounds exactly like him! the only doubts I had were none of the clues related to anything I could think of, and he's not exactly a household name.

he did the voice of a kids' reading game app that I heard constantly over Covid times, so I was pretty familiar with it.

I'm still taken aback, haha.
As for the other one, well again I'm glad it's someone that a person of my era would be familiar with, but I detested everything they did at the time. They sound crap next to Pufferfish.

Oh, I was 100% certain it was Harry Hill, every intonation and breath as well as the singing voice just screamed him. I'm still not convinced we've not all just been pranked.

i would never have agreed with you about Wolf just going on memory... sounds like a real golden-oldie crooner... but having listened to his recent output you're probably right! and not David Hasselhoff lol

totally wrongfooted again! would've put money on hearing a northern accent there and someone else's intonation!

Yeah, was convinced it was Sophie Willan despite saying otherwise earlier. Was nowhere near Bear.

4/8 from my guesses up thread in the end. Absolutely convinced on Wolf from day one, still can't believe not one of them recognised his voice.

I'm surprised he wasn't guessed at all, but to my ears he sounds properly ancient!

would never have guessed Pufferfish altho I was guessing the Let It Go singer. My husband goes to London regularly so recognised her from posters but they haven't made it down to where I live!

Yeah, was nowhere on Pufferfish, but she has an absolutely terrific voice and definitely deserved the win. Wouldn't have grudged any of them the win - Dressed Crab was obvious but he's just so very good at singing and seemed to be loving it.

The Masked Singer Christmas Special is on now on ITV1. Joel Dommett somehow manages to be even more desperate and annoying than last time.

I got the first one immediately (kinda weird as I don't ever hear him very much? ). the others I had no clue.

It didn't help that the panel knew and this one time couldn't pretend that they didnt.

I tend not to comment on threads where I don't like things and know that others might but (having accidentally seen some of this) ... I wonder if Jonathan Ross and Davina McCall pretending to be enthusiastic on this is actually the worst thing ever?

YES MISTLETOE!!!

Can I just say, what a FANTASTIC start to the show! Isn't it, ladies and gentlemen.

Even my kids are sick of it

This Saturday it's the start of the main series, so I'm hoping the crap acts were shunted into the Christmas Special. This can be a very entertaining and enjoyable programme when it's working well.

I'm watching on delay. but don't really get why there are only 5 proper ones and one who only did a wee bit then got unmasked.

I wonder if Jonathan Ross and Davina McCall pretending to be enthusiastic on this is actually the worst thing ever?

THANK YOU

i only see the trailers and that's enough to know they are unwatchable

xp there's another 6 singers tonight. I take it as a good sign that the person who couldn't really sing last night got voted off. The second series of The Masked Dancer particularly was notorious for the judges keeping in crap dancers week after week.

There should have been 6 last night but one was scheduled to sing Disco Inferno so it was pulled because of the fire in the Swiss nightclub.

Joel's outfit tonight reminds me of Roy Scheider's sleazeball look in the movie 'All That Jazz'.

xp ahh I see... presumably they will appear next week? or are they gone for good?!

I think they're still in, just couldn't be shown last night.

anyone watching? my attention to this show dwindles with each series, although I still enjoy trying to id the voices. didn't get today's at all... in theory a good person to have on the show, but not in practice maybe.

got an idea for Arctic Fox... but only based on what seemed like a Doctor Who reference and not because I think it particularly sounds like them.

I'm watching. I spotted today's eliminated contestant, didn't get either of last week's.

I'm pretty sure on voice alone that Arctic Fox is Anton du Beke (not hiding as it's just a guess not a spoiler)

I'm still watching, but there are more crap singers than last year and the panel seem to be intent on keeping them in. Yesterday's elimination, let's just say that every time John Lydon appears on something like this I'm not surprised and am not even disappointed anymore. It's just what they do now.

The panel voting off Arctic Fox but keeping in Red Panda is just madness.

yep, it's actually pissing me off.
genuinely surprised by the second unmasking. i had a completely wrong theory!

i wish they wouldn't spend so much time on the clues. the only way of identifying people for me is by recognising their voices, which is hard with all the whooping and they can be low in the mix.

i hadn't had a clue re Moth until today a tiny snatch of vocals suddenly clicked and I'm sure it was Keisha Sugababes .
although I hadn't thought she was that good - but I thought that about Nicola Roberts, ha

first episode i thought Sloth had the voice of James Corden but now I'm not convinced and also he must know no-one here likes him

It's a one and a half hour ITV1 Saturday evening light entertainment show, so an amount of filler is a given. But they've pushed it even further this series and put in a load of unessential nonsense. No-one cares who Mole Dommett is - it'll be one of Joel's showbiz mates and he won't believe who it is lol what a shocka larfs!!! Joel himself has become more irritating, like the little brother who won't stop showing off. Shut up, no-one's here to see you. The show is becoming more indistinguishable from the Butlin's ad break bumpers. It's like everything that made this show entertaining and fun has been sidelined. It comes to something when Davina and Jonathan aren't even the biggest irritants.

I'm pretty sure Sloth is David Baddiel. Toastie is a brilliant singer so will probably be knocked out by fucking Red Panda.

Somehow I'm even more annoyed now that Red Panda has been voted off and unmasked as Harry Hill. At least they won't be getting kept in at the expense of a better singer. Looks like the panel no longer get a say in the voting either.

that was one of my guesses for Red Panda! although I'm sure I've been sure it's him before and this time I was less sure...

there's a rubbish clip of his cut performance in ep 1 on YouTube.
tbf I've watched a LOT of this person and he's disguised his voice fairly well... listening to Bat Out Of Hell, I could imagine how he would sing it and it wouldn't be like that, but clearly couldn't disguise every aspect of his voice as I had it written down from one of the performances (not this one).

They were doing a very good impression of Alan Carr to the point that the unmasking surprised me.

wasn't there a previous series (possibly xmas special?) where one sounded exactly like Alan Carr but turned out to be Julian Clary ...

It was Christmas 2023.

If, as Wossy thinks, that Sloth actually turns out to be Shane Ritchie I'll put my foot through the fucking TV screen.

would never have gotten Sloth. don't think I've ever watched anything with him. thought it sounded like Jamie Oliver!

The 2nd one, I was clueless about until one of the panel suggested him and then I thought it was likely. I've not seen or heard him in anything except presenting the Hit List!

Was absolutely convinced Sloth was David Baddiel, was nowhere near the actual answer. I've actually met the other one a few times through work and still didn't get him.