While The Masked Singer has rarely been accused of giving unfair or difficult clues, there have been a few over the past few seasons that were a real challenge to figure out. For anyone who may have wondered how the clues presented in the clue packages and on stage have come to be, Season 3's Turtle, Jesse McCartney, has pulled back the curtain on what's happening behind the scenes.
McCartney, who was the runner-up of Season 3 of The Masked Singer, admitted some of the clues about his character even confused him. That's due to the fact he only played a part inn the process, which McCartney explained in depth during an interview with EW:
Well, they interview you every single week. The producers, they do what's called like a mining of sorts where they sort of probe you with tons of questions and you usually are repeating yourself over and over again. Some weeks they have a certain focus, right, so one week I think it was high school education or schooling or something along those lines, and I spoke about how one of the teachers in my life made a big impact on me and was always very supportive of my career, even though some of the teachers weren't. And she was my biology teacher. And so then they actually went to my school in New York and interviewed her, or called her on the phone and did an interview with her. And those are the kind of things that they would do. I would say I was a part of 80% of the clue packaging, but at a certain point, when the show starts heating up, it moves so quickly that sometimes they have to just work on the clues without you, but it's always information that I had given them or quotes that I'd given them. But I generally didn't get to see any of the clues until they do the live broadcast.
The contestants are interviewed week to week during filming and occasionally targeted with questions about very specific parts of their lives. As Jesse McCartney said, the questions or clues constructed weren't always connected to his public career, perhaps as a way of trying to find clues or factoids that wouldn't be as easily searchable on the internet. Producers then take all those answers from questions and interviews with others and work it into what The Masked Singer shows as clue packages.
It's not entirely surprising the contestants aren't masterminding their clues considering they have to prepare to sing and maintain their secret identities. Having to figure out mysterious clues would be a lot, so it's probably for the best that the producers handle the bulk of the process.
With that said, there may have been contestants in The Masked Singer's past who wished they had more power over their clues. Season 2 contestant Laila Ali was pretty vocal about the fact she felt her clues were too easy and may have asked for more challenging clues had she been aware of them at the time. One has to wonder if there will ever be a clue difficult enough for millions of viewers with Google at their disposal, but that's a conversation for another time.
The Masked Singer is done for now but will return for Fox for Season 4. Continue to stay with CinemaBlend for all the latest news on Season 4 and for more happening in the world of television and movies.
