Ken Jeong reveals why ‘Masked Dancer’ will be so much harder than ‘Masked Singer’

It’s no secret—like zero—that Ken Jeong is probably the worst at correctly guessing the celebrity identities on The Masked Singer. Sure, he’s been known to come up with a gem or two in the past (particularly when it involves an athlete), but whenever he says he knows EXACTLY who someone is, he usually isn’t even close.

So you can imagine how much harder it’s going to be for him to guess the famous people under the masks on his latest spinoff series, The Masked Dancer (premiering Dec 27 at 8pET on CTV). Jeong himself is the first to admit that while Singer is hard, Dancer—in which the panelists have to use dance moves rather than voices to guess the secret identities—is the hardest. “All of these shows are hard,” he said recently during a Television Critics Association press conference for the series. “I can't do any of them.”

Ken has some backup on that

Jeong isn’t the only one who thinks this show is harder. Brian Austin Green, who appeared on the fourth season of The Masked Singer as Giraffe, agrees that Dancer is much harder—at least from the panelists’ point-of-view. That’s why, when the series was first brought up as a gag on The Ellen DeGeneres Show with Jeong, no one thought it would actually work.

“It is harder. This show is harder,” Green added. “The clue packages, there's a lot more information in them. There's a different way of viewing this show and sort of a different focus for people to put on what it is they are watching. But 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.”

He added that once he, Jeong, and fellow panelists Ashley Tisdale and Paula Abdul got into the rhythm of the show and knew what it was they were looking for, the series really opened up and they had fun with it. “You have to pay a lot of attention to the clues because we don't have a voice to base it on,” Abdul, who guessed one of the contestants just based on the way they walked this season, revealed. “And the clues came everywhere from within the costume, lots of clues in the package, even in the stage setting and choreography. It was incredible.”

The possibilities on this show feel endless

When you participate on a series like The Masked Singer, there’s an assumption that you can at least kind of sing going into it. And if you can’t, you know you’re not going to make it very far (or in the case of the Gremlin, you just straight up quit after week one). With Dancer though, you don’t have to be a professional dancer to succeed. Or participate.

“What is so cool about the dancing is that it really opens itself up,” Tisdale explained. “I can see how, if celebrities who haven't sung could be really kind of nervous to go out and sing, where dancing, I feel like everyone loves to dance. And so, I think it opens it up to even more people. It could be anybody.”

“There are even some known singers that probably wouldn't be on The Masked Singer because their voice is so identifiable,” Abdul added. “[Here’s] another chance, for them to come on The Masked Dancer.”

By the way, when the panelists say "anybody," they really mean anybody. At one point during the conference one person asked the producers what kind of rules are in place in terms of Singer-Dancer crossovers. Could someone who participated on the first show reappear as a contestant on this spinoff, for example? They sure could.

“There's no set rules that we have,” confirmed producer Craig Plestis. “So, anyone can appear underneath the mask. We do really try to keep it fresh each time. They have a fresh face to guess. Anything can happen in the Masked universe. So be prepared for that.” So yes, for those who were wondering, maybe keep hope alive that Masked Singer panelist Robin Thicke will come compete and give the world something else to twerk about.

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There are other changes in store

So what else can viewers expect, other than dancing instead of singing? Well, host Craig Robinson for one. He’s helming this new iteration, while Nick Cannon continues the original. But there are smaller changes to watch for too. Such as the fact that the costumes are easier to move around in on this show, which makes sense given the whole point is for the likes of Zebra, Sloth, Ice Cube and Disco Ball to bust a move. 

And then there are the clues themselves. As Green pointed out, the clue packages will be more comprehensive and telling, but there’s also a twist on Dancer called “Word Up.” When the panelists use it, the contestant has to give them one word in their real voice. As it turned out, sometimes that wound up being a pretty big clue.

One thing that won’t change is Jeong’s penchant for running with his guesses, even when he’s (to borrow guest Singer panelist Niecy Nash’s words) stretching them farther than a piece of old gum on a shoe. “I am the most long‑winded judge on two shows, so touché,” he replied to Robinson on the panel after Robinson joked that Ken didn’t understand the meaning of silence.

Fans wouldn’t have it any other way, Ken. They truly wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Masked Dancer premieres Sunday, December 27 on CTV before moving to its regular timeslot, Wednesdays at 8 pET on January 6.

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