‘The Masked Singer’ Played a Major Trick on Viewers This Season

Season 5 of The Masked Singer came to an end recently. During the course of the season, there were many shots of the audience. But, was there actually an audience on the set of the Fox competition? Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Masked Singer implemented a number of changes in order to keep everyone involved safe. One of those changes tied back to the audience, which was not present for the shows despite the fact that it appeared as such, per The Sun.

Craig Plestis, the executive producer of The Masked Singer, previously explained all of the set’s changes to The Wrap. Prior to Season 4, which also aired during the course of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the producer told the publication that they’ve implemented new aspects for the show in order to ensure that it has the same feel as it did before. He even mentioned how they’ve incorporated an “augmented” audience in order to make it seem as though there is a packed crowd watching all of the masked singers take to the stage.

“When the pandemic hit, there were two big points, at least for myself and my team: How to be creative in this pandemic — make it look like a bigger show than we’ve ever done before, but with the limitations of shooting in a pandemic? And then the second part is how to make a show with fewer people on the stage area, so everyone’s protected,” Plestis explained. He went on to share that one of the biggest changes that they’ve made is including a “virtual” audience of sorts.

“We used a lot of virtual reality in our set pieces on the stage and around the stage, creating worldscapes,” the executive producer continued. “And that was done mainly so we didn’t have to bring in extra crew and extra props and more people on the stage. You’ll see a lot of differences this season to with the virtual reality stuff, with the animation, with adding America’s votes — since we couldn’t have a full audience of 300 people, though we’re utilizing some audience footage from pasts seasons to get that audience feel.” In order to make it seem as though there’s a packed audience to watch the singers, they utilized specific technology (and footage from seasons prior) to create that pre-pandemic feel.

“We’re augmenting some of the clapping and stuff to get that audience feel, kind of like what sports does,” Plestis added. “But we want to make sure our show comes back and doesn’t feel like a Zoom show. And for myself, as a viewer, not a producer, when I come home at the end of the day, I want to watch TV. I don’t want to watch another Zoom. I Zoom almost 24/7, so that’s the last thing I want to see is little boxes. I want to watch my old TV show.”