Do The Contestants On The Masked Singer Get Paid

Network Ten’s hit new show The Masked Singer has already amassed a huge audience – but some fans aren’t convinced the performances are genuine. Viewers were quick to slam the singers on social media, suggesting they weren’t actually performing their songs live.

• Do The Contestants On Masked Singer Get Paid
• Do The Contestants On The Masked Singer Get Paid Money
• Are Contestants On The Masked Singer Paid

• It's based on a South Korean show. The viral competition series isn't an American original — it's.
• It is correct that most celebrity-based reality TV competitions do not end with a large prize-bucket of winnings, as the contestants are typically paid a negotiated sum for their appearance. Recently Masked Singer host Nick Cannon opened up about the show, and revealed that he does not know who is under the costumes, but added that he does know how fans can better guess the celebrity identities.

Fox's The Masked Singer started out as a strange, goofy, somewhat bizarre competition between celebrities. It's definitely still all those things, but now it's also a bona fide phenomenon. With the season finale airing Feb. 27, one costumed contestant will finally take home the Masked Singer prize. But what exactly do they win?

Well, right now it seems like it might just be bragging rights. According to USA Today,there's 'no particular prize.' Metro News echoed that sentiment, writing that 'like most celebrity-based reality television, The Masked Singer doesn't boast a big prize at the end.' And per the International Business Times, the main components of the show's prize are just bragging rights and a trophy.

While those may seem like pretty lackluster winnings against a reality TV landscape that frequently hands out record deals and hundreds of thousands of dollars, it makes sense for The Masked Singer. Each person behind the masks is a celebrity of some kind who presumably has plenty of money and opportunities, so it wouldn't make sense to give them even more. Some other celebrity competitions ask competitors to each choose a charity to compete on behalf of, and donate any winnings to, but that doesn't appear to be the case here.

The point of The Masked Singer is pretty obviously not for its contestants to duke it out for a bunch of cash. It's just about having fun — and perhaps there's no need for a prize at all.

The show is an Americanized version of a Korean series, Kind of Mask Singer, according to Vulture, and also has versions in other countries. It's an off-the-wall idea: celebrities obscure their identities behind elaborate, outrageous costumes while performing songs and occasionally dropping clues about who they are until someone guesses right, or they're eliminated. But somehow, it works, and even functions on some level as a deeper commentary about celebrity culture.

Vulture's Kathryn VanArendonk even wrote in the same piece that 'The Masked Singer is absolutely imbecilic, except for the fact that it is also a pretty fascinating examination of celebrity culture, mass appeal, performance, image, and fame.'

The has certainly had its fair share of critics, too, but even so, people can't seem to stop watching. As Vox's Todd VanDerWerff wrote:

'The Masked Singer is so ridiculous and so terrible that it wraps right back around to being one of the most compelling things on television. It's a reality singing competition that's barely interested in the words 'reality,' 'singing,' or 'competition.' It's an excuse for Hollywood to let its freak flag fly, but by 'Hollywood,' we mean, 'Z-list celebrities you might not have heard of.' And yet it's undeniably compelling and compulsively watchable in the way that reality shows that blow up in the ratings often are.'

What's more, according to Esquire, The Masked Singer has yielded between 7 and 9 million viewers every single week right up until the end, which is definitely enough to qualify it as a hit.

Heading into the finale, there's still plenty of speculation about who's behind each remaining mask. Only time will tell who takes home this prize, but no matter what they win, this surprisingly successful show will be sticking around in our minds for some time to come.

The Masked Singer have anonymous celebrities dress up in costumes and perform. The panel and everyone at home can then guess their identity. Of course, the premise of the show really relies on costumes to hide people’s identities. Fans may wonder if celebrities get to choose their costumes. Well, here is everything to know about how the costumes are selected and more.

Costume designer, Marina Toybina started with 20 sketches of costumes but selected 12

Marina Toybina is the mastermind behind the elaborate costumes, according to Vanity Fair. She started by sketching 20 possible characters but ended up using 12. So do those characters get assigned or picked by the celebrities?

Celebrities are given options of a rendering of possible costumes and then get to choose

Do The Contestants On Masked Singer Get Paid

(L-R) Nick Cannon, Jenny McCarthy, Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke Rachel Luna/Getty Images

Margaret Cho revealed to E! News how her poodle costume on the show was chosen. First, she looked at renderings of possible costumes, she picked one, then had to go through multiple fittings.

“I was presented first with an artists’ rendering of the Poodle and the Alien,” the comedian explained. “I could choose between which one I wanted and chose the Poodle because I’m a dog lover, and I thought that would be really fun, and I loved how strangely robot the dog was, so I went with that.”

The costume got the job done because Cho is good friends with Ken Jeong and he had no clue it was Cho. She still was very nervous he would find her out.

“He, of anybody, is, of course, going to know,” said Cho. “But lucky for me, they kind of went on a different track, like oh it’s Judge Judy or Jane Fonda, and then they got kind of warm with Kathy Griffin. But it was tough, because I was really nervous, like Ken is going to know my voice, he’s going to know me.”

Do The Contestants On The Masked Singer Get Paid Money

Toybina talked about the poodle design with Vanity Fair saying she was inspired by the dogs that are popular in Beverly Hills. She then put a twist on the recognizable breed by including geometric shapes “so it had this playful, high-end fashion feel to it, but also was a little bit on the diva side.”

Some celebrities don’t have a preference and then are assigned a costume

Picking one of the crazy costumes sounds fun. But not all celebrities have a preference of what they would like to perform in so when that happens Toybina has assigned the costume.

Are Contestants On The Masked Singer Paid

The designer revealed to Vanity Fair that her favorite costume so far is the lion “because it was so rich, as far as doing a sketch and figuring out how to make this character be royal, in a sense—god-like.” The mask is mostly likely expensive given it’s made out of pure gold.

So celebrities are given sketches to choose from but not all of them decide to choose so they get assigned a costume. They then have to go through multiple fittings before the show.

Read more: The Masked Singer: What is Host Nick Cannon’s Net Worth?

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