‘The Masked Singer’ Season 2 Episode 1 Betting Odds

• ‘The Masked Singer’ is a US adaptation of a hit Korean TV series.
• The season 1 winner was T-Pain aka ‘Monster’
• Season 2 of ‘The Masked Singer’ will premiere on September 25, 2019 at 8 PM Eastern on Fox TV

I’ll preface my preview of The Masked Singer Season 2 with the same bit I used last year. I would have loved to be in the room to hear the pitch for The Masked Singer. Here’s the premise–it’s basically like Dancing With The Stars only with singing. Celebrities from up and down the hierarchy of fame compete to win the title with one eliminated each week. This continues until there are three remaining and they compete in the finals to determine the winner.

Here’s the gimmick–the show is just like it says on the marquee and the contestants’ identities are concealed. The term ‘masked’ isn’t quite accurate–they’re actually covered from head to toe in a very elaborate costume with a face mask. Supposedly none of the relevant on air personalities know the identities of the singers–not the audience, the judges or the other contestants. And to preclude any spoilers Fox TV and the show’s producers have beefed up security from last year. Reportedly, there were only 25 people who knew the identities of the contestants in Season 1 and the hope is to reduce that number significantly this year.

I hope you people enjoy The Masked Singer since you’re going to get plenty of it. The series has already been renewed for a third season and they’ll start to air it right after Super Bowl LIV on February 2. It’ll then continue in its regular time slot starting on Wednesday, February 5 2020 at 8 PM. The show is now being produced in-house by a new Fox unit called ‘Fox Alternative Entertainment’. As a result, the budget for the forthcoming season is lower than for Season 1.

Due to the success of Season 1, Fox entertainment CEO Charlie Collier clucked about the ‘reach and immediacy’ of broadcast television and cited The Masked Singer as an example. Sure, his comments are contravened by a ton of data and metrics validating the fact that broadcast TV is going the way of the fax machine and Fotomat stores but I can’t blame the guy for leading with his best material when he’s trying to sell advertising:

“The advantage of being a broadcast network is that we are home to programming for mass audiences. Technically, Masked Singer could have ended up on any platform but you have to note that it didn’t.”

In other news, I could have been born a girl but you’ll note that I wasn’t.

A LEGIT RATINGS JUGGERNAUT

I’m not going to clutch to the success of The Masked Singer as a sign of life in the flatlining broadcast TV industry but you can’t deny that Fox has a hit on their hands. Here’s what Variety had to say about The Masked Singer in a rundown of their most watched shows of 2018-2019:

Who would have thought that a campy show about celebrities attempting to sing pop hits, while under heavy masks and costumes, would be this year’s primetime sensation? Fox’s “The Masked Singer,” based on a South Korean format, blew audiences away as the No. 1 new TV show of the year. And not just that, it’s the top-rated entertainment series overall, tied with “This Is Us,” on the broadcast networks. It’s also the highest-rated reality show in four years.

“It’s the kind of confirmation that it’s still possible to launch new hits, especially with fresh formats,” said Fox research head Will Somers. “The talent competition and singing competition genre was ripe for a breath of fresh air.”

Fox is taking advantage of the hit, scheduling two cycles next year and also airing an edition after the Super Bowl. “The Masked Singer” also flew counter to most talent competition shows this season: “The Voice” and “American Idol” are down, while CBS’ “The World’s Best,” despite premiering after the Super Bowl, was a flop.

The trick now is to sustain these massive ratings going forward with the ‘novelty factor’ of the show diminished to some degree. Early signs are encouraging–a September 15 ‘Super Sneak Peak’ on Fox went up against NFL Football, Big Brother and Celebrity Family Feud and pulled a 1.4 rating/6 share with 4.52 million viewers. It’ll be interesting to see how the ratings look for the Season 2 premiere on September 25. No football, but it’ll be up against the season debut of Survivor and the penultimate episode of Big Brother.

‘MASKED SINGER’ SEASON 2 SPOILERS = MASSIVE CLICKBAIT

One metric of a show’s popularity is the frequency of its use as ‘clickbait’. From that standpoint, the Masked Singer looks like it’ll be a huge hit again in Season 2. You won’t believe how many websites have articles titled ‘Masked Singer Season 2 spoilers’ or ‘You won’t believe what we know about the Masked Singer Season 2′. Even Newsweek has a landing page titled ‘Masked Singer Spoilers‘. Yahoo–that company that used to dominate search on the Internet–is now digging around for eyeballs using ‘Masked Singer spoilers’ as a search term. Some sites promise a ‘full reveal’ and only deliver press photos of the costumes. Other sites promise ‘Masked Singer Season 2 secrets revealed’ and bring nothing to the table.

Here at SPORTSINSIDER.COM we hold ourselves to a much higher standard. We’d never suggest that we had Masked Singer spoilers you won’t find anywhere else in hopes of attracting drive by web traffic. Sure, we could stuff our odds coverage with promises that we have the TRUE IDENTITY of all 16 Masked Singer Season 2 contestants. We take what we do seriously and we’ll never try to hoodwink a gullible public by using clickbait like ‘You won’t believe what we know about Masked Singer Season 2′. It’s all part of our commitment to you, the international gaming public.

Here’s the official website for Fox TV’s The Masked Singer:

‘THE MASKED SINGER’ OFFICIAL WEBSITE

And here are the official SPORTSINSIDER.COM opening betting odds for the second season of The Masked Singer:

‘THE MASKED SINGER’ SEASON TWO BETTING ODDS

TO WIN ‘THE MASKED SINGER’ SEASON 2?

Rottweiler                             +500
Butterfly                              +500
Eagle                                  +650
Flower                                 +650
Flamingo                               +900
Black Widow                            +900
Penguin                                +900
Egg                                    +1500
Tree                                   +1500
Fox                                    +1500
Ladybug                                +2500
Thingamajig                            +2500
Ice Cream                              +2500
Leopard                                +5000
Panda                                  +5000
Skeleton                               +5000

‘THE MASKED SINGER’ SEASON TWO EPISODE 1 BETTING ODDS

‘THE MASKED SINGER’ SEASON 2 EPISODE 1 VIEWERSHIP

Over 7.75 Million                      +110
Under 7.75 Million                     -130

‘THE MASKED SINGER’ SEASON 2 EPISODE 1 RATING

2.5 or Over                            -150
Under 2.5                              +130

‘THE MASKED SINGER’ SEASON 2 EPISODE 1 SHARE

Over 8.5                               -150
Under 8.5                              +130

The previous three TV ratings propositions will be graded using data reported at TV By The Numbers.