The revamp of The Masked Singer is not well received by everyone. The premiere scored cautiously yesterday and viewers complained about the commercial breaks. “It’s more boring now.”
The RTL 4 show The Masked Singer is back on the air and some changes have been made. The most important change? The panels no longer consist of two celebrity duos, but of five stars who have to guess individually. The score? More than 1.8 million viewers watched it last night. The big question is: what does Tina Nijkamp think about that?
Reason for cake
Tina is the most important ratings expert in our country and is careful in her approach analysis. “It is a good figure, much higher than what the final of Holland’s Got Talent scored linearly last week: almost 1.3 million. Yet there may also be a bit of disappointment: after the start of the first season, it is the least watched start so far.”
The first four Masked Singer series kicked off with 1.5 million, 2 million, 2.4 million and 2.2 million viewers. “Delayed viewing is increasing every year, and The Masked Singer is extremely well-delayed every year, so I think it will reach 2.4 million viewers. All in all Reason for cake.”
Criticism of advertisements
However, according to the Veronica guide, viewers express very strong criticism of the long commercial breaks. However, according to Tina, that is mainly a feeling. “There is NOT more advertising than in previous years. Each commercial channel broadcasts twelve minutes of advertising per hour (the law does not allow more), divided into two blocks of 6 minutes.”
Including promos for programs, each block on each channel lasts about 8 minutes, Tina believes. “The viewer may have the feeling that there is a lot more advertising, but that is not the case.”
‘Much more boring’
Why do viewers feel that way? “That feeling is probably because viewers found it more boring than previous years. And I do agree with that. 1) No more nice conversations between Carlo and Loretta. 2) There were no right/wrong hints. Made it more boring.”
She concludes: “3) It felt less pleasant because the jury sat very far away from the stage. And 4) The opening scene at ‘school’ for the introduction of Monica Geuze was real cringe.”