Entertainment

'The Masked Singer' Is The 'Game Of Thrones' Of Reality TV For This One Reason

The Michael Becker/FOX

There's something about The Masked Singer. Whether it's the singing, or the secrecy, or the crazy costumes, this show is nothing like America has seen in reality television. And Season 1 created such a fervor, that its second season is going to be even more secretive — and more epic — than the first. In fact, things are being kept so under wraps that Jenny McCarthy compared The Masked Singer to Game of Thrones. Though, rest assured, if the first season is anything to go off of, The Masked Singer will have a much more satisfying ending than GoT.

In an interview on Sept. 10 with Entertainment Tonight's Lauren Zima at the premiere party for the season, McCarthy expressed how excited she was to come back to the show for a second season. She also dished about the secrecy on set, noting that things were so locked down, it reminded her of the lengths HBO went to keep Game of Thrones spoilers from leaking. "Sometimes they would crouch to walk past me to look shorter!" she recalled. "I was like, 'Oh my gosh!' It's so wild how confidential and secret [it all is]," she added. "It's like the Game of Thrones finale!"

Part of the conceit of The Masked Singer is that judges McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger, Ken Jeong, and Robin Thicke and even host Nick Canon don't know who is under the mask. To preserve the secrecy in Season 1, The Masked Singer reportedly kept all contestants completely covered when they would walk to and from set, so not even their drivers or crew members knew who they were. But Season 2 was even more intense, according to McCarthy. "They were more strict behind the scenes [when it came to] wanting to keep it confidential," she told ET. "There were a couple of times where I needed to go to the bathroom, and one of the contestants was coming in but they had full-on hoods and [signs] that say, 'Don't talk to me.'"

Now that the season has already been filmed, of course, the judges do know who the season's contestants are, which means there's more risk of a leak. But there is one judge who isn't afraid of accidentally spilling the beans, and that's Jeong. "I've been pretty good about that because I have no friends. You need to have friends and you need to get out and be social in order to spoil stuff," he joked to ET. "But, you know, that's great about being socially awkward! No one wants to talk to me, so I leak nothing." There is a bit more to spoil this time around, as there will now be 16 contestants as opposed to last season's 12.

McCarthy, however, did hint that the level of celebrity would be even more surprising to viewers this year due to the success of Season 1. "The first season was so successful that so many... A-List celebrities have clamored to be part of Season 2," she said. "I think you're gonna see people on this show that you'll be like, 'Oh my god I can't believe they're doing this show!'"

It seems like it's going to be nearly impossible to guess the masked singers ahead of time in Season 2, so you're going to have to watch and decipher the clues along with everyone else.