How come the celebrities who come out of a suit at The Masked Singer always remain a secret? After all, the show was pre-recorded. “The entire audience is simply sent out of the room!”
It is a major achievement: the RTL 4 hit The Masked Singer is recorded in advance, yet the celebrity revelations in the program never leak out. It is a mega risk, because if it leaks out which stars are coming out of a suit before the broadcast, this potentially leads to collapsing viewing figures and ditto advertising revenues.
Leak hazard
Does all the studio audience have to sign a non-silence contract? Or will those revelations be recorded separately and edited in later? “Yes, that’s super interesting. I wondered that too when I started The Masked Singer, because it’s a very big studio. I think there may be 300 people there,” says former candidate Luuk Ikink in the BLVD Podcast.
It is impossible for all those people to remain silent, says colleague Rob Goossens. “Then you can get people to sign contracts. But yes, if one person leaks that, yes: good luck finding out who leaked.”
‘Everyone knows’
Luuk says that many people witness it anyway. “Of course you also have security. You have cameramen, jury/presentation, but also directors, who ultimately, when that mask comes off, all know who is in the suit.”
A whole exit protocol has been drawn up, he says. “You are also a bit prepared for how that will go. From: well, suppose you go out later, then a camera comes at you, you hear a very exciting music. Then you stand with your head and your mask in such a way that the audience does not see you, they only see the back of your suit. Then you hear that music.”
Audience out of the room
Then the camera gets closer and closer. “Then at some point the cameraman starts circling around you. And then you’re going to start taking off that mask. And you do that very slowly slow motion. And at a certain point you almost finished the mask. And then it is said: ‘Stop!’”
Stop? huh? So what? “Then everything falls silent and then all the audience leaves the room. Yes, everyone is leaving. Yes, that’s really incredible. But of course that’s at the very end of the program. So the public has seen everything, but then they leave.”
Too much risk
Too bad for all those people, but the risk is just too great, says Luuk. “Because otherwise you do indeed have 300 men who know exactly who is in the suit, week after week after week. And yes, that is far too great a risk.”
“So I think they left one row of audiences. Then they had them sign the contract. Those are people they trust and the rest just have to get out.”