Wendell Sailor revealed to be Masked Singer as show smashes the ratings
An Aussie sporting legend has stunned fans of The Masked Singer with his big reveal as Australian viewers give their verdict on the hit reality show. VOTE, HAVE YOUR SAY
Reality
Don't miss out on the headlines from Reality. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Aussie sporting legend Wendell Sailor has stunned fans of The Masked Singer with his big reveal after he was unmasked as the rhino on the hit reality show.
Rugby star Wendell Sailor had fans guessing with his performance of Low by rapper Flo Rida.
The Masked Singer has proven to be a ratings juggernaut again for Ten this week with official ratings confirming it beat its rivals The Real Dirty Dancing and The Block.
On Monday night, Aussie pop princess Nikki Webster was revealed as the third Masked Singer on the Ten’s hit new reality show.
Webster, who shot to fame as a child with her starring role in the Sydney Olympics opening ceremony in 2000, pulled off her alien costume mask for her big reveal.
The Strawberry Kisses singer had the celebrity judges and audience cheering with her rendition of the 5 Seconds of Summer song Youngblood.
Official OzTam ratings show it had 1.063 million viewers in five capital cities, compared to the The Block which had 806,000 viewers.
It also beat Seven’s new dancing show which had 580,000 viewers.
The new guessing-game reality show has been a smash hit for Channel 10 and has Australian viewers on the edge of their seats.
To add to the drama, it’s also been covered in a cloak of secrecy and high security.
So, what really goes on behind the scenes of The Masked Singer Australia?
WHO DESIGNED THE COSTUMES?
The elaborate costumes on The Masked Singer have dazzled viewers with their intricacy and wow factor. So it’s no surprise that the insanely talented designer behind them is an Aussie film legend.
Tim Chappel, who won an Oscar, a BAFTA and an AFI award for his breathtaking creations in the classic Aussie film Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, is the master at work.
The 12 stunning costumes – the Lion, the Dragon, the Wolf, the Unicorn, the Spider, the Alien, the Parrot, the Rhino, the Robot, the Prawn, the Monster and the Octopus — were designed before the show was cast.
DID THE CELEBRITY SINGERS GET TO CHOOSE THEIR OUTFITS?
Celebrities who “got in early” had a wider pick of outfits to choose from, Chappel said.
“It was really interesting because the ones [the celebrities] who got in early had a wider pick but weirdly enough, everybody ended up with exactly the right costume,” Chappel told Now to Love.
“Because it either worked for their personality, or worked totally against who they are.”
The costumes have given the mystery performers “free reign” to make their performances their own, he said.
“It was so fun to watch them put their costumes on because most of them, once they got into costume, were like: ‘Oh My God, I’m not me anymore. I can do what I want.’
“They were totally free because no one knew who they were and they’d really personify the characters.”
HOW DO THE SINGERS PERFORM IN THEIR COSTUMES?
The costumes have been designed to allow the singers to perform without issue.
“Our costume designer Tim Chappel is incredible,” host Osher Gunsberg told Ten Daily.
“He’s won a Tony and an Oscar for The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. He designed the masks in such a way that they can fit a microphone inside the mask which picks up the vocals, and I believe the audio guys do a mix of that one with the handheld mic.”
The costumes themselves are weighty, designer Chappel has said.
“The Lion I think is one of the most beautiful but the headdress ended up weighing like five kilos, which is a lot to carry on your head,” he said.
Jackie O revealed to her listeners she snuck in to try on Gretel Killeen’s mask and she was “surprised” by “how little” you can see outside of the mask when it’s on your head.
Jackie snuck into a dressing room and tried on the Octopus mask pic.twitter.com/lwFNY70gcH
— Kyle and Jackie O (@kyleandjackieo) September 29, 2019
“For some people it’s physcially difficult,” Killeen said, as she said some people grappled with claustrophobia while wearing their outfits.
“Overcoming sheer fear, cos it’s black anyway...it can be very hot, some people have fans in their head (wear).”
MORE NEWS
The verdict: How viewers reacted to The Masked Singer
Big change you missed in Meghan and Harry
Nadia Bartel to keep her name as cancer scare revealed
ARE THEY SINGING LIVE?
The show, has left some viewers confused around one major detail - whether or not the masked singers are actually singing “live”.
There is speculation that the singers’ voices have been modulated in order to disguise their identity.
The official stance from Channel 10 is that the artists behind the costumes are singing live and this was backed up former cricketer Brett Lee, who was revealed to be the parrot.
Lee told radio station Hit 90.9 that the singers are “100 per cent” singing live.
The competitors, he said, have two microphones. “You’ve got ‘the Madonna mic’ which all the singers use, it’s just on the cheek, you’ve got your inner ears, so you’d get the perfect surround sound and then you’ve got your secondary mic, which is at the front.”
Celebrity judge Jackie O told News Corp Australia there was no doubt the singers were performing live.
“I’ve seen a set malfunction happen and something fell on one of the singers and the singing stopped straight away,” Jackie O told The Sunday Mail. “They are singing live – 100 per cent fact.”
WHO ARE THE MYSTERY SINGERS?
The A-list celebrities have been shrouded in secrecy, with even host Osher Gunsberg not knowing who they are until the big reveal.
Speculation has been rife as to who will be behind the spectacular costumes.
We know there is a Logie winner, a World Cup winner, an ARIA Award winner, an MTV Award winner and someone with an Order of Australia.
Other names being bandied around include singers Sia, Kate Ceberano, Deni Hines, Prinnie Stevens, reality star Rob Mills, former AFL star Barry Hall and Baywatch’s David Hasselhoff. James Corden, who hosts The Late Late Show, has also been tipped as the surprise international contestant.
WHAT ABOUT THE LEVEL OF SECRECY?
Gunsberg has described the level of secrecy as “extraordinary”.
“We used the same guys that help us out on some other shows. They’re like ex-ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) or something like that,” he told Kyle and Jackie O.
“They’re like, ‘We’ve got to clear the studio because we’re going to sweep it for devices.’ And they’re not joking, they’re literally going to sweep the studio for devices.”
The security team even used decoys when they were escorting the celebrities in and out of the studio.
“They’ve got like a hood over them and a little sign that says, ‘Don’t talk to me,’” Jackie O revealed. “But there’s replicas of those people and decoys going off in every direction. There were photographers following them to try and do a spoiler.
Brett Lee told Hit 90.9 that no one besides his wife knew he competing. The former cricketer joked how his three-year-old daughter was watching the episode and was “mortified” when he ripped the head off his costume for the big reveal.
“She thinks I killed the parrot,” he said.
Gretel Killeen told Kyle and Jackie O “you get picked up from a secret place” before you have to “cover yourself up” — and no one else, not even the other celebrities can see you.
@gretelkileen tells us all about @maskedsinger_au security pic.twitter.com/qHsENcCpuN
— Kyle and Jackie O (@kyleandjackieo) September 29, 2019
WHEN WAS IT FILMED?
The series was filmed a couple of months ago at Fox Studios in Sydney and the production company hired some of Australia’s top security experts to help keep the masked singers a secret.
Dave Hughes, who flew from Melbourne to Sydney for filming, describes the secrecy on set of The Masked Singer as “unbelievable”.
“They went to great lengths to separate everyone from the singers,” the comedian told TV WEEK. “I’ve said, ‘I want to stay at this hotel in Sydney,’ and they’re like, ‘You can’t because some of the singers are at that hotel.’”
Decoys were brought in to confuse the panel behind the scenes.
“People are walking around with bags over their heads, and then I found out there were body doubles walking around, so you couldn’t even read a body shape if someone had a bag over their head,” he said.
“We found out later that (one person) with a bag over their head was someone who wasn’t even on the show, so we’ve got people walking around with bags on their head all around – it was quite bizarre!”
WHERE DID THE SHOW ORIGINATE?
The show began in South Korea as King of Mask Singer and was adapted for US audiences to become The Masked Singer, which is the version airing on Australian TV.
Craig Plestis, the executive producer of the US version, said that he first discovered the format during a visit to a Thai restaurant where the other patrons “were all just staring at this TV watching this crazy kangaroo in like a pleather outfit singing, and we didn’t even finish dinner.”