‘Masked Singer’ Team On Keeping Secrets & Boosting The Bonkers

The Masked Singer’s latest season featured Sarah Palin as a bear, Rob Gronkowski as a white tiger and Lil Wayne as a robot. So, it’s somewhat surprising to hear executive producer Craig Plestis say that he wants to ratchet up the weirdness of the Fox mystery signing competition.

“I want to increase the bonkers level and keep the production values up,” he said during the Fox Entertainment panel at Deadline’s Contenders Television virtual event.

Plestis was the man who turned the Korean format into one of the biggest non-scripted series hits in years, after discovering the original while eating at a Thai restaurant in Studio City. “I knew it was special but I didn’t know it would be this big,” he said. “It’s a high bar now — how do we make it even bigger and better? Some of the changes that we made, a lot of it was improving on the costumes and getting the vocal quality… making sure each celebrity can sing exceptionally well. That’s one of the most important things,” he added. “It’s hard but I enjoy doing it.”

The show is hosted by Nick Cannon and features Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger and Robin Thicke as panelists.

Costume designer Marina Toybina, on the panel with Plestis, revealed that Gronkowski’s white tiger costume was the trickiest this past season. “Each one has its challenges because they are so different,” she added.

Keeping those costumed celebrities secret was one of the biggest challenges, Plestis added. “Every season it’s hard, a lot of people are trying to spy and get in with cameras on set. I always say the best job to have on The Masked Singer is to be part of the security detail, there’s more security than producers on the show. Without the secrets, the show is blown right open. We have some of the biggest names on television.”

The Masked Singer wrapped its third season May 20 and has already been renewed for a fourth, as revealed by Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch on a recent investor call. Plestis said they were in the beginning stages of planning and that he wants to push the bar.

“There are things that you’re going to see in [Season 4] that you haven’t seen anywhere else, not only here but anywhere in the globe,” he said.

Check out the panel video above.