The Masked Dancer 2022: Start date, line-up, hosts and latest news
The show is back this September!
The Masked Dancer has returned for season 2, with the celeb detectives and us at home trying our best to work out who is behind the mask.
The eccentric series made its comeback on Saturday, 3rd September, with the first six dancers in the Masked Dancer season 2 line-up taking to the stage.
One-by-one each character showed off their dance moves as they tried to fool the panel, including Jonathan Ross, Davina McCall, Oti Mabuse and Peter Crouch, with the latter taking over from Mo Gilligan for 2022.
Joel Dommett returned to host the series, which he says is a lot "harder", so much so they've add to add even more clue packages for the second stint.
"It's definitely harder but there's so many more clues. There's so many more games that we play now to help with the guessing, with extra clues up for grabs, which I think is quite fun," he explained.
Regarding new judge Peter Crouch, he added: "He's really taking it seriously. He's a sportsman so he wants to win."
The first episode resulted in the one of The Masked Dancer's true identities being revealed, as one celebrity was unmasked and sent home.
This weekend (Saturday 10th September), six more characters will perform. But, will you be able to guess who is behind the mask?
As the guessing game continues, here's everything you need to know about The Masked Dancer season 2, including how to tune in, who all the contestants in the line-up are and who's already been unmasked.
The Masked Dancer start time
The Masked Dancer will continue on ITV on Saturday 10th September at 6:50pm.
This is slightly later than initially planned, following the news that Queen Elizabeth II has died aged 96.
ITV have now confirmed their Saturday schedule including The Masked Dancer and other shows.
The Masked Dancer 2022 start date
The Masked Dancer season 2 started on Saturday 3rd September at 6:30pm.
It will air live on ITV and ITV Hub. Viewers will also be able to watch on catch up on the hub.
The Masked Dancer 2022 line-up: Full list of costumes
The season two line-up has now been revealed.
Below is a a full list of all of this year's characters:
- Onomatopoeia
- Tomato Sauce
- Sea Slug
- Scissors
- Cactus
- Astronaut - Unmasked as Jesse Metcalfe
- Pillar and Post
- Candlestick
- Pearly King
- Pig
- Prawn Cocktail
- Odd Socks
What is The Masked Dancer?
It is hard to explain what The Masked Dancer is without it sounding like a fever dream, but we will try our best.
Twelve celebrities take to a stage and dance their hearts out to impress the judges and the audience – the audience in this case is all virtual due to COVID restrictions. But adding to the fun is an assortment of costumes that the dancers will wear to hide their identities. They range from a beagle to a llama to an actual carwash – we aren't kidding.
We get clues as to who the mystery celebrity is before and after they perform and the celebrity panel dish out their best guesses, or just guesses in the case of Jonathan Ross, with the aim of identifying the overall winner.
Did The Masked Dancer get cancelled?
There were concerns about the second season of The Masked Dancer. ITV's Head of Entertainment Katie Radcliffe previously revealed that the broadcaster was considering the future of a few entertainment programmes which made their 2021 debuts while appearing at the Edinburgh TV Festival last year.
As well as The Masked Dancer, it was thought that Vernon Kay's Game of Talents and Cooking with the Stars with Emma Willis and Tom Allen could also be scrapped due to underwhelming viewership figures.
"We've tried new stuff and we're going to sit down and take stock of everything we've tried over the last few months and work out what we're going to take forward, what we'll do again and how we'll do it," Radcliffe said via The Mirror.
"I think it's too early to say if they will be back, we are looking at the stuff we did over the summer and before the summer, like Game of Talents, Masked Dancer, we're looking at all of those and having those conversations soon."
Commending the "fantastic shows", she concluded: "So we don't take any of those decisions lightly for those reasons, and we don't like to rush them. We talk internally and we talk to audience research, so we are taking our time with all of that at the moment."
Who won The Masked Dancer season 1?
Louis Smith was crowned as the winner of The Masked Dancer season 1 following a tightly-fought final. He was disguised as Carwash throughout the series.
Bonnie Langford as Squirrel came second and Howard Donald disguised as Zip came third.
Who are The Masked Dancer judges?
Peter Crouch is the latest judge on The Masked Dancer. He will join returning judges Davina McCall, Jonathan Ross and Oti Mabuse.
Later in the season, there will be some celebrity guests. We'll keep you updated as soon as we know more.
Who were the contestants on the first season of The Masked Dancer?
As mentioned, they were 12 celebrities in the debut season of this show, and here is all who they all are – and who they were dressed as.
- Beagle - Christopher Dean
- Squirrel - Bonnie Langford (2nd)
- Carwash - Louis Smith (1st)
- Llama - Zoe Ball
- Viper - Jordan Banjo
- Flamingo - Louise Redknapp
- Rubber Chicken - Eddie the Eagle
- Beetroot - Dita Von Teese
- Frog - Kelly Brook
- Knickerbocker Glory - Craig Revel Horwood
- Zip - Howard Donald (3rd)
- Scarecrow - Tamzin Outhwaite
The Masked Dancer season 2 airs on ITV on Saturdays. Check out more of our Entertainment coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight.
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