‘The Masked Singer’ Is the First Reality Show to Win First Four Weeks of the Broadcast TV Season

“The Masked Singer” has topped its fourth consecutive week of the broadcast television season, making it the first reality show to ever rank as the top-rated entertainment broadcast of the week, four weeks in a row. The celebrity singing competition finished the week of Oct. 14 with a 2.9 rating among adults 18-49 and 9.5 million total viewers, according to Nielsen’s live-plus-three numbers. In second, NBC’s weepy “This Is Us,” which came in with a 2.6 rating in the demo, though the scripted drama did outperform in total audience size, with 10.2 million viewers. Among the other regular performers “The Masked Singer” regularly beats are ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” NBC’s “Chicago” franchise and Fox’s own “The Simpsons” and “9-1-1.” “The Masked Singer,” a South Korean import, is a reality singing competition in which celebrities are disguised in elaborate costumes and asked to perform a song of their choosing. A panel of judges — Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger, Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke — then attempt to guess the identity of the person in the costume. Each week the worst performer is eliminated and their identity is revealed in a dramatic unmasking. The show was a surprise hit for Fox when it debuted last season, coming at a time when the network’s future was uncertain in the aftermath of its split from the 20th Century Fox Television studio. Fox has since doubled down on the show, picking it up for one season this fall, with another to follow immediately after in the spring. Contestants who have been unmasked thus far on Season 2 include — spoiler alert — Paul Shaffer as the Skeleton, Dr. Drew Pinsky as the Eagle, boxer Laila Ali as the Panda, professional gamer Ninja as Ice Cream and figure skater Johnny Weir as Egg.