Fox's The Masked Dancer sounds like a great way to snap a C-list celebrity's ankle
America’s obsession with Ken Jeung solving musical mysteries continues apace tonight, as Fox announced its latest attempt to translate this whole “masked” thing that’s gone, uh, viral of late into yet another TV series. That’s right, it’s The Masked Dancer, a formal follow-up to The Masked Singer that also sounds like an damn good way to make a lot of C- and D-tier celebrities snap an ankle or two.
Because, see, the premise of the series is exactly what you think it is: The same tier of people who might reliably be expected to show up on The Masked Singer, wearing the same bulky, elaborate, probably-very-hard-to-see-in costumes, except now they’re trying to execute a whole bunch of tricky or impressive dance moves while wearing them. If we find out, years from now, that this whole phenomenon was an attempt to assassinate Lorenzo Lamas by getting him to can-can off an elevated stage while dressed like a social media ocelot, we’ll only be marginally surprised.
Per Deadline, the series is set to premiere this December, and will be hosted by Craig Robinson, returning to the network after the failure of his paranormal sitcom Ghosted. (We bring this up less because it’s germane to the story, but because, as The A.V. Club’s regular Ghosted reviewer, your humble Newswire writer desperately needs someone else to remember that that show actually existed.) Panelists on the series include Paula Abdul—thus negating our instant and kneejerk guess of “Paula Abdul” for every high-tech pangolin that waltzes across the stage—as well as Brian Austin Green, Ashley Tisdale, and the inescapable Ken Jeong, music detective to the stars.