92 First Round

Because Masked Singer is recorded rather than broadcast live, it is impossible to reflect real-time voting.

The only people who decide which contestants advance to the next round are the 80 members of the general-public panel and the 20 celebrity judges present at the venue.

While voting, the celebrity judges also guess the contestants’ identities and ask questions, helping create entertaining moments beyond the performances themselves.

The most important part of all that is pretending to be shocked by a contestant’s identity.

That is because the show only becomes entertaining when they do so.

Even among the relatively seasoned celebrities making up the panel these days, there were far too many truly obscure entertainers whom no one knew.

If they just looked like they had no idea who someone was, it wouldn’t exactly make for a lively atmosphere.

“Hey. Have you heard who’s appearing today?”

“Hyung. I’m not part of the production staff. How would I know?”

“Geez. Those guys are so thorough. Would it kill them to tell us?”...