‘The Masked Singer’ Gets Early Season 3 Renewal With A Huge Post-Super Bowl Premiere

The Masked Singer will be back for multiple seasons. Fox has announced an early third-season renewal for the wacky celebrity singing competition, and it comes with a coveted kickoff time, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Fox will air the previously announced sophomore season of The Masked Singer in the fall with the third season launching Sunday, February 2, immediately after Super Bowl LIV. The coveted slot pretty much guarantees a widely watched premiere for the show’s third cycle. A few days after its mega post-Super Bowl debut, Season 3 of the singing competition will move to its regular time of Wednesdays at 8 p.m. starting February 5.

The Masked Singer will also be used to launch a new Jason Katims (Friday Night Lights, Parenthood) family drama, Not Just Me, in the fall.

The Masked Singer was a breakout hit for Fox after its launch in January. The 10-episode run finished as the 2018-19 season’s highest-rated new series, and now the network will bank on the show’s surprising success for both the fall and spring seasons reminiscent of Dancing with the Stars’ long dual season run.

Fans can expect lots of surprises for the upcoming season of The Masked Singer, which features disguised celebrities belting out popular tunes as the befuddled judges—Jenny McCarthy, Robin Thicke, Nicole Scherzinger, and Ken Jeong—try to piece together clues to figure out their identities.

In an interview on the Best of Shows podcast, Masked Singer executive producer Craig Plestis teased there will be “a whole new batch of characters” next season and every other season the hit show gets renewed. Plestis explained that the reality show will always feel “fresh and different” with never-before-seen masks, although he did tease that some of the beloved older characters could make return cameos.

“You also might see some of the older characters come back, but not in a competition way,” Plestis said.

The bizarre Masked Singer premise, which is based on a Korean format, did not initially impress Season 1 winner T-Pain. The rapper revealed that he received a “weird” pitch for the Fox singing competition and nearly turned it down because he thought it sounded “stupid,” per USA Today. The 33-year-old eventually came around after he saw the fuzzy blue monster suit he would wear on the show.

“Just think of trying to pitch that show to somebody,” T-Pain said. “At first, when I heard it, I was like, ‘Man, this is probably the stupidest thing I ever heard in my life.'”

While T-Pain took some convincing, Masked Singer judge Jenny McCarthy told Page Six she was all in when she heard the concept of the show, despite the fact that her agents told her to stay far away from it.

McCarthy revealed that she watched the Korean version of The Masked Singer and immediately realized that it “checks all the boxes.” Jenny thought the show was weird enough to get viewers’ attention and the celebrity factor was a plus. She also noted the show’s mystery factor and the fact that it can be watched with the entire family.

The Masked Singer returns Wednesdays at 8 p.m. this fall on Fox.