The Masked Singer 2026 is to have “more unmaskings than ever before”, panellist Jonathan Ross has teased.<\/p>\n
Hosted by comedian Joel Dommett, the ITV singing competition, which sees celebrities perform while wearing elaborate costumes, is returning for a new series in January.<\/p>\n
In a first for the TV series, the first two shows will see a band take to the stage – Goldfish and the No Trout band on Saturday 3 January, and Emperor Penguin and the Antarctic Funkeys during the show on Sunday 4 January.<\/p>\n
This means there will be four unmaskings across the Masked Singer double weekend.<\/p>\n
Host Dommett, 40, said: “At the start of the first two episodes we have a live band. We\u2019ve never done it before and it just gives it so much energy in the room.<\/p>\n
“Also the lead singer of the band is someone we have to guess.<\/p>\n
“They\u2019ve mixed the whole first two episodes and it has this energy which is really great. Also those first two unmasking are pretty substantial.”<\/p>\n
Speaking about the series, panellist Davina McCall said: “It\u2019s amazing. It\u2019s got a really good pace to it. It\u2019s got a good energy, it feels fresh and it feels new.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019ve got some new ideas and additions that keep us on our toes!”<\/p>\n
Ross, 65, added: “What\u2019s fun is, if you like unmaskings it has more unmaskings than ever before.<\/p>\n
“There is so much more happening. We can barely keep up. Every week, we\u2019ve barely got time to guess one and the mask\u2019s off! You\u2019re going to have a lot more fun playing at home.”<\/p>\n
The 2025 series was won by musical theatre star and Les Miserables actress Samantha Barks who was dressed as a pufferfish.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s characters include Moth, Can Of Worms, Red Panda, Conkers, Arctic Fox, Toastie, Teabag and Gargoyle.<\/p>\n
Source: Press Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Masked Singer 2026 is to have “more unmaskings than ever before”, panellist Jonathan Ross has teased. Hosted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-215599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}