With The Door Wide Open For Celebs of All Kinds, THE MASKED DANCER Delivers Disguises and Surprises

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Paula Abdul knows how to get everyone’s imaginations dancing with possibilities. Abdul is one of the judges on the upcoming CTV series THE MASKED DANCER, which debuts on Dec. 27 at 8 p.m. ET, before moving to its regular timeslot, Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET, beginning Jan. 6. THE MASKED DANCER, of course, is a spinoff from THE MASKED SINGER, which airs its two-hour Season 4 finale on Wednesday, Dec. 16, at 8 p.m. ET on CTV. While promoting THE MASKED DANCER in a recent virtual panel interview – where Abdul was joined by fellow judges Ashley Tisdale, Brian Austin Green, and Ken Jeong, host Craig Robinson, and executive producers Craig Plestis, and James Breen – Abdul came up with the perfect tease to link the newcomer to the highly successful original. “There are some known singers that probably wouldn’t be on THE MASKED SINGER, because their voice is so identifiable,” Abdul said. “But there’s another chance for them to come on THE MASKED DANCER.” Now that’s intriguing! Which well-known singers could Abdul be talking about? No matter who shows up, the basic idea of THE MASKED DANCER is the same as THE MASKED SINGER: celebrities perform anonymously in extravagant costumes, and the judges try to figure out who they are, aided by a series of clues. But thinking about it logically, isn’t THE MASKED DANCER going to be way harder for the judges than THE MASKED SINGER? “It is harder,” agreed Green, who was the third contestant eliminated in the current season of THE MASKED SINGER. “There’s a different way of viewing this show, and sort of a different focus for people. At the end of the day, even though this show is more difficult as a panel, we did a pretty good job, we surprised ourselves. It was really fun for us, and hopefully really fun for people watching. But I think with the clue packages, there’s a lot more information in them.” Plestis concurred that tweaks had to be made with the clues on THE MASKED DANCER, because it’s simply far more difficult to identify someone who is dancing in an outlandish costume, than someone who is singing in an outlandish costume. “We added in a special clue for the first time – it’s called ‘Word Up,’ where you actually can hear their real voices speak,” Plestis explained. “We’ve never heard their (speaking) voices underneath the mask before (on THE MASKED SINGER), so that’s a big clue on THE MASKED DANCER, in terms of the identity of some people. The panel was pretty observant of that.” This experience is entirely new for Tisdale, but she figures there might be a wider pool of celebrities willing to go on THE MASKED DANCER, as opposed to THE MASKED SINGER. “I have never judged anything, I’ve never been on a panel before, this is my first time doing something like this,” Tisdale said. “I have strictly just stuck to my acting side of stuff on TV.  And I have to say, this is the most fun show I’ve ever done. I went into it thinking, ‘Oh, I know celebrities, this is going to be pretty easy.’ And it was so difficult, especially for me. I can see how celebrities who haven’t sung could be really nervous to go out and sing. But dancing, I feel like everyone loves to dance, which opens it up to even more people. So it could be anybody.” Jeong perhaps has the most unique perspective of all, in his position as a judge on both THE MASKED DANCER and THE MASKED SINGER. “All of these shows are hard – I can’t do any of them,” Jeong said. “But I am the most long-winded judge on two shows.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv