Fox may only have one cycle of The Masked Singer planned for the 2025-26 season, but that doesn’t mean the network won’t consider returning to two installments a year someday.
Last week, Deadline broke the news that the music competition guessing game has been renewed for a 14th season. But for the first time since it launched in 2019, the star-studded series won’t show up in the fall. Instead, it’s set to return in January of 2026.
“A lot of people forget that Masked Singer was actually the first show back during Covid,” Entertainment CEO Rob Wade told reporters Sunday. “It was in the middle of season three in the edit and the producers had to completely upend everything and work to finish that show in the edit. And then that summer, [when it was pre-vaccine] and pre a lot of the things that happened later, we were back in the studio overlaying a studio audience and they were producing that show in social distancing conditions.”
“My point is it was incredibly taxing on that crew and that cast and they’ve done a phenomenal job,” continued Wade. “The most recent season 13, we were very proud of and its rating sustained. It just felt like the right time to give the show and the very, very hardworking people involved in it a little bit of breathing space just to regroup creatively, get their breath back and do a season this year in January, which is traditionally our strongest time of year. And then after that we’ll see where it goes. But it’s not intended at the moment just to become a one season a year. But we’ll make a decision on that as it comes up.”
Last week, a Fox spokeswoman told Deadline that “debuting the new season in January is a strategic move to give ample runway for America’s favorite guessing game and allow us to creatively look at enhancing the show with the biggest names at the center of it.”
