It is the most watched novelty of 2021. And yet, on paper, the concept of Masked singers many raised eyebrows. Watch mascots doing lip sync ? Truly ?
With an average of 1,679,700 viewers, Masked singers finished at 2e rank of the most watched shows in Quebec this fall, just behind District 31.
Despite a controversy surrounding the vaccination status of Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge, the ratings of the Sunday meeting of TVA have never stopped climbing.
Landed in front of 1,554,000 curious on September 19, its first season ended in front of 1,978,000 converts on November 28, according to confirmed data from Numéris.
Surprising for some, this triumph was expected for others.
In August, even before the show went on the air, host Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge predicted a huge audience success. Accustomed to varieties that are a hit, the director Luc Sirois (Fury, Live from the universe) held the same speech.
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Director Luc Sirois
Confidence also reigned at Cossette, an agency specializing in media placement. In a document released last summer, the company placed Masked singers in third position of the fall provisional ranking, behind District 31 and Revolution.
Joined by phone, the vice-president of activations of the company, Marie-Christine Simard, had justified this prediction by speaking of a “quality entertainment” and an advantageous time slot.
“It’s family and unifying, she told us. The humor, the flamboyant costumes, the songs… People are curious to discover the identity of the star competitors… It brings together all the ingredients. ”
Great adaptation work
Three months later, we explain the success of Masked singers in different ways. According to Pierre Barrette, director of the Media School of the University of Quebec in Montreal, the key lies in the originality of the format of South Korean origin.
“It’s a traditional talent show to which we add a layer of madness. ”
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Host Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge
The team of Masked singers believes that Quebecers would not have adhered to the show so much if it had not been the subject of such a great deal of adaptation.
Content producer at Déferlantes, which produces Masked singers in collaboration with Quebecor Content, Martin Proulx recounts having “degreased” the American version, entitled The Masked Singer, who has served as a stallion around the world since joining FOX in January 2019.
A few years ago, when we had looked at her in the office, I had found her too cold, too dizzying, not authentic enough. It was necessary that we pass the scratch on it and that we remove the superfluous elements.
Martin Proulx, content producer at Déferlantes
“We had to go back to the essence of a variety show: good staging [signées par Geneviève Dorion-Coupal], beautiful voices, good songs [arrangées par Fred St-Gelais]… ”
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The Pussy Goddess (Sophie Thibault)
The costumes also needed to be reviewed and corrected. “We didn’t want to have strawberries, ketchup and other amusement park mascots for children,” points out Martin Proulx. We wanted costumes that generate emotion, like the one for the Wedding Harfang. ”
While in Joe Biden’s kingdom, the number of investigative judges is limited to four, in Quebec, Déferlantes has decided to raise it to five by recruiting Véronic DiCaire, Stéphane Rousseau, Anouk Meunier, Marc Dupré and Sam Breton.
Carefully chosen puzzles
As for the puzzles given each week to help – or not – the panelists to guess who sings behind which mask, they were carefully re-examined before each recording.
“Writing riddles is very important,” says the vice-president, original content, at Quebecor Content, Denis Dubois. What do we reveal? Are we revealing too much? Are we misleading people too much? We had to find the right balance. Because nobody wants to watch a movie until the end if everything is revealed too quickly. ”
When we saw that an investigator was going too far on the right track, we swung to the left to confuse the issue.
Martin Proulx
Keeping the identity of competitors a secret has not been easy, either. If a name had had to be leaked on the internet, the show’s popularity would have suffered.
“Nothing was left to chance,” says executive producer Nancy Charest. All the departments worked together. ”
“I was even taken off the set once because I was not allowed to be there,” reveals Denis Dubois. I was just warned about Sophie Thibault [la Déesse chatte] because she had to miss the news too often. ”
Towards a second season?
TVA has not yet confirmed the return of Masked singers. We are told that we are waiting for January to make an announcement.
If the show is back, which is very likely, at Déferlantes, we want the enthusiasm generated last fall to facilitate the recruitment of a new batch of star candidates.
“It hasn’t been very, very complex this year, but some people took their time to agree. Others, like Lise Watier [la Reine de l’espace] and Sophie Thibault, answered yes straight away, because they wanted to experience a trip anonymously, without pressure. It’s not every day that you can sing Mylène Farmer with guys in the chest! ”