Stars: 3/5

The new Fox singing competition show “The Masked Singer” seems ridiculous and far-fetched at first glance, but as you watch you get sucked in and soon find yourself intrigued.

The concept behind “The Masked Singer” is something that hasn’t been done on television. It’s based on the question of whether or not the audience and the judges can identify famous celebrities just by their voices. The celebrity contestants are completely disguised and they face off against each other in a sing-off. At the end of the episode, the loser of the night is made to take their mask off and reveal themselves to the audience and the world.

Before every performance, the celebrity stars in a video that introduces themselves and gives the judges clues to what their identities might be. After they perform, the judges take guesses on who might be under the mask based on the clues given in the introduction video, their stage presence and their voice.

What makes the show entertaining is how good the performances are, even when you can tell the celebrity under the mask isn’t a trained singer or musician. Each celebrity is also dressed up in an intricate costume, not just a cheap mask from Party City. The costumes are pretty outlandish, including a peacock, a hippo and a high-tech alien.

The panel of judges is full of well-known celebrities, including singer Robin Thicke, actress Jenny McCarthy, comedian Ken Jeong and singer Nicole Scherzinger. Actor and comedian Nick Cannon rounds out the group as the host. Even Cannon himself doesn’t know who is under the mask.

Every judge brings something unique to the table. Thicke is a Grammy-nominated musician, so he uses his musical expertise to determine whether or not the celebrity under the mask is a professional musician. Jeong, Scherzinger and McCarthy bring humor to the judge’s panel. Sometimes the judges bring ridiculous guesses to the table. At one point, Jeong guesses the celebrity dressed up as a beach bum pineapple is Barack Obama simply because Obama is from Hawaii.

The most entertaining part of the show isn’t just the top-notch performances, but also trying to watch the judges figure out who is under the mask. The performances are interesting to watch as well though. The celebrity dressed up as the unicorn brings the house down with a rendition of “Fight Song” by Rachel Platten.

At the end of the first episode, the first celebrity revealed was the Hippo who tried his best with a rendition of “My Prerogative” by Britney Spears. It was an entertaining moment and even a little suspense-filled waiting for him to take of his mask and reveal himself. In the end, he was revealed to be a very handsome and pretty famous NFL player.

“The Masked Singer” is an entertaining watch and brings a different flavor to the reality TV singing competition brand.