by Thinus Ferreira
After two seasons on SABC3 and a just-concluded third season on SABC2 and Netflix, the producers behind The Masked Singer South Africa confirm that the local format adaptation of the hit TV musical celebrity guessing game will be back for a fourth season on South African television in 2027.
"There's one really famous South African soccer player who said no to me for season one of The Masked Singer SA. This year he came back to me and said 'Okay, I'm ready now. Season 4 it's me and you," co-executive producer Anele Mgudlwa of Rose & Oaks Media told TVwithThinus.
Rose & Oaks Media, together with Primedia Studios, produce the shiny floor format show from Fremantle for the South African public broadcaster's SABC2 TV channel.
Episodes of the just-concluded third season are also sold to Netflix.
While The Masked Singer SA doesn't contain any live elements, Rose & Oaks Media are researching the feasibility of making the show and episodes more interactive.
"We have been looking into different systems that would allow us to incorporate live voting for viewers at home. Hopefully, in the next fourth season, we will have a longer production timeline, which will allow us to bring in people who are couch detectives - maybe on-screen even, says Frankie du Toit, co-executive producer and creative director of the show.
"There are a lot of fun things. The question is how does The Masked Singer SA get bigger and better? Easy."
"So season 4: Bigger ideas. I don't think we can get bigger celebrities, but I think we can get more interesting ones and keep the game going. But in terms of the format and the show of The Masked Singer SA, we've only started."
Anele Mgudlwa says "the leap between seasons of The Masked Singer SA is big. If you think of the leap between season 1 and season 2, and then between season 2 and now. The leaps are big."
"Imagine the leap from now to season 4. Even this year, the set was bigger. The costumes were bigger. Frankie got the biggest camera in there. We are viewers ourselves before we are producers. So we are aware that the viewer experience has to grow over time."
"We introduced the duets. We're going to double down on that even more - people really enjoyed it."
