The Masked Singer to take on Eurovision in worldwide battle of the bizarre Exclusive: Eurovision to face competition as TV’s wackiest singing contest with international Masked Singer show

Which international singing competition is the wackiest? The Masked Singer, the bizarre game show which makes celebrities perform dressed in outrageous costumes, is to spawn a worldwide “Eurovision”-style contest.

Millions of viewers watched the opening episodes of the ITV series, in which former Home Secretary Alan Johnson was unmasked as the giant Pharoah singing Walk Like An Egyptian.

ITV’s most-watched entertainment launch for seven years, The Masked Singer split opinion with one viewer calling it the “worst TV I have ever seen.”

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Global sing-off

Now the reality TV entrepreneur behind the format, already a hit in Germany, Asia, the US and Australia, says there are plans to expand the series into a global event.

“We’re talking with Fox about doing our version of Eurovision,” Craig Plestis, CEO of Smart Dog Media tells i.

“Every country would deliver a personality and one of their costumes. It would be a huge spectacle held over a week. The world could vote and it would be something unifying.”

Stars of the calibre of Ryan Reynolds and Gladys Knight have been willing to trade their dignity for the chance to sing dressed as a unicorn.

But how would viewers in China be able to identify a huge star in Germany, for example, even after they have been released from a straight-jacket-wearing rabbit costume?

Format discovered ‘in Thai restaurant’

Plestis, who developed US hits including The Apprentice, is not deterred. “It’s about the spectacle even if you don’t know who somebody is. Kids don’t know but they are enamoured by the crazy costumes and the songs.”

Plestis said he discovered the format by accident in a restaurant, which had a TV tuned to a South Korean channel.

“I went out to a Thai restaurant with my family. There was a TV on behind me and my daughter was watching what was on. She said: ‘Dad, you have to turn round, you’ve got to see this!’”

“No-one was eating, the whole restaurant was transfixed by what was on the screen. I saw a blue kangaroo singing on stage.”

“I thought ‘This is genius!’. I Googled the show, called my agent and within a few days I had the rights.”

The biggest challenge the producers face is keeping the names of the contestants secret. “We are constantly upgrading the security,” said Plestis.

“We confiscate phones, crew members aren’t allowed to talk to the celebrities when they’re masked and the reveal takes place on a closed set.”