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The Television Portal

Flat-screen television receivers on display for sale at a consumer electronics store in 2008

Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, entertainment, news, and sports. The medium is capable of more than "radio broadcasting," which refers to an audio signal sent to radio receivers.

Television became available in crude experimental forms in the 1920s, but only after several years of further development was the new technology marketed to consumers. After World War II, an improved form of black-and-white television broadcasting became popular in the United Kingdom and the United States, and television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses, and institutions. During the 1950s, television was the primary medium for influencing public opinion. In the mid-1960s, color broadcasting was introduced in the U.S. and most other developed countries.

In 2013, 79% of the world's households owned a television set. The replacement of earlier cathode-ray tube (CRT) screen displays with compact, energy-efficient, flat-panel alternative technologies such as LCDs (both fluorescent-backlit and LED), OLED displays, and plasma displays was a hardware revolution that began with computer monitors in the late 1990s. Most television sets sold in the 2000s were flat-panel, mainly LEDs. Major manufacturers announced the discontinuation of CRT, Digital Light Processing (DLP), plasma, and even fluorescent-backlit LCDs by the mid-2010s. LEDs are being gradually replaced by OLEDs. Also, major manufacturers have started increasingly producing smart TVs in the mid-2010s. Smart TVs with integrated Internet and Web 2.0 functions became the dominant form of television by the late 2010s. (Full article...)

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"A Rugrats Chanukah" is a special episode of Nickelodeon's animated television series Rugrats. The first episode of the show's fourth season, it tells the story of the Jewish holiday Chanukah through the eyes of the Rugrats, who imagine themselves as the main characters. The idea of a Rugrats Chanukah special was pitched by Nickelodeon executives in 1992, but the concept was revised and became the 1995 special, "A Rugrats Passover". After production of the Passover episode wrapped, the crew returned to the Chanukah idea. Nickelodeon broadcast "A Rugrats Chanukah" on December 4, 1996; the episode received a Nielsen rating of 7.9 and positive reviews from television critics. Along with other Rugrats episodes featuring Grandpa Boris and his wife, the special attracted controversy when the Anti-Defamation League compared the character designs to anti-Semitic drawings from a 1930s Nazi newspaper.

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Phonevision, also known as station KS2XBS, was an experimental television station in Chicago, Illinois, owned and operated by Zenith. It was the world's first pay television station. Zenith originally occupied the VHF Channel 2 frequencies since 1939, using this as an experimental station while they tried to perfect "PhoneVision".

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... that John Wesley Shipp, who played the Flash in the 1990 television series, was cast as his father in the pilot episode of 2014's The Flash?
... that after his movement's victory in the Cuban Revolution, television broadcasts showed Camilo Cienfuegos freeing parrots from birdcages, declaring that the birds had "a right to liberty"?
... that a scene from the television adaptation of the manga It's All About the Looks was filmed at the Tokyo Girls Collection fashion show?
... that although Armond Seidler invented the pugil stick for military training purposes, it later found use in the television show American Gladiators?
... that Ernst Jacobi, known for portraying Gauleiter Löbsack in Volker Schlöndorff's film The Tin Drum, played more than 200 roles as a television actor?
... that reporter Bobbie Wygant got her first television show after filling in while its host was sick with the flu?

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People in the United States still have a 'Tarzan' movie view of Africa. That's because in the movies all you see are jungles and animals ... We [too] watch television and listen to the radio and go to dances and fall in love.

— Miriam Makeba

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...that Richard Hanley's book South Park and Philosophy: Bigger, Longer, and More Penetrating analyzes issues of applied ethics as presented in South Park?

...that the television adaptation of the BBC Radio 2 sitcom Teenage Kicks, originally for BBC Two, has been taken over by ITV?

...that the proposed BBC television special Planet Relief, created to raise awareness of climate change, was cancelled before it was made, for fear that it would be biased against climate sceptics?

...that Gordon Murray, the creator of classic British children's television shows Trumpton, Camberwick Green and Chigley, burnt all but one of his puppets on a bonfire in the 1980s?

...that like the characters in his television series The Practice and Boston Legal, David E. Kelley worked as a lawyer in a Boston law firm?

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Rose Catherine Pinkney (born 1964) is an American television development executive. She was hired as the VP Development and Original Programming for TV Land in 2012. Pinkney has previously served as Director of Programming at Twentieth Century Fox Television, senior vice president of comedy development at Paramount Pictures Television and executive vice president of programming and production at TV One. She most recently served as the head of the television arm of Laurence Fishburne's production company, Cinema Gypsy. Among Pinkney's accolades are Network Journal's 25 Most Influential Black Women in Business, Cable World's Top 50 Women in Cable and Black Enterprise's Top 50 Entertainment Executives. (Full article...)

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James T. Aubrey Kroger Babb Rudolph Cartier Sydney Newman Eric Bana Kylie Minogue Peter Jennings KaDee Strickland Austin Nichols Aaron Sorkin Jake Gyllenhaal Dan Rather Brad Pitt Walter Cronkite Tom Brokaw John Le Mesurier George Formby Dan Castellaneta Perry Como Red Skelton

General images

The following are images from various television-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The first mass-produced Czechoslovak TV-set Tesla 4001A (1953–57) (from History of television)
Image 2Hovannes Adamian c. 1900s (from Color television)
Image 3First television test broadcast transmitted by the NHK Broadcasting Technology Research Institute in May 1939 (from History of television)
Image 4RCA 630-TS, the first mass-produced television set, which sold in 1946–1947 (from History of television)
Image 5Manfred von Ardenne in 1933 (from History of television)
Image 6RCA CT-100 at the SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention playing Superman. The RCA CT-100 was the first mass-produced color TV set. (from Color television)
Image 7LG Smart TV using the Web browser (from Smart TV)
Image 8Family watching TV, 1958 (from History of television)
Image 9Comparison of image quality between ISDB-T (1080i broadcast, top) and NTSC (480i transmission, bottom) (from Digital television)
Image 10An early Smart TV from 2012 running the discontinued Orsay platform (from History of television)
Image 11Ferdinand Braun (from History of television)
Image 12Ad for the beginning of experimental television broadcasting in New York City by RCA in 1939 (from History of television)
Image 13A map depicting digital terrestrial television standards (from Digital television)
Image 14LG Electronics smart TV from 2011 (from Smart TV)
Image 15The Philco Predicta, 1958. In the collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis (from History of television)
Image 16Smart TVs on display (from Smart TV)
Image 17Philo Farnsworth in 1924 (from History of television)
Image 18Color bars used in a test pattern, sometimes used when no program material is available (from History of television)
Image 19This live image of actress Paddy Naismith was used to demonstrate Telechrome, John Logie Baird's first all-electronic color television system, which used two projection CRTs. The two-color image would be similar to the basic Telechrome system. (from Color television)
Image 20An RCA Victor Color TV ad featuring milliner Lilly Daché in 1959. (from Color television)
Image 21The Nipkow disk. This schematic shows the circular paths traced by the holes, which may also be square for greater precision. The area of the disk outlined in black shows the region scanned. (from History of television)
Image 22Baird in 1925 with his televisor equipment and dummies "James" and "Stooky Bill" (right) (from History of television)
Image 23Samsung's discontinued Orsay platform (from Smart TV)
Image 24DBS satellite dishes (from History of television)

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Featured lists have been determined by the Wikipedia community to be the best lists on English Wikipedia.

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The Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series was an award presented annually by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). It was given annually from 1985 to 2019 to honor a young actress below the age of 25, who had delivered an outstanding performance in a role while working within the daytime drama industry.

At the 12th Daytime Emmy Awards held in 1985, Tracey E. Bregman was the first winner of this award, for her role of Lauren Fenmore on The Young and the Restless. The awards ceremony had not been aired on television for the prior two years, having been criticized for voting integrity. The award was originally called Outstanding Ingenue in a Drama Series, the criteria of the new category were deemed confusing, performers of differing ages were nominated, and critics argued some were of supporting or lead actress standards. Adding to the confusion, the first winner, Bregman, and the Outstanding Supporting Actress winner that year, Beth Maitland, played characters near to the same age. The category was renamed Outstanding Juvenile Female in a Drama Series in 1989, and began using its current title in 1991. The criteria were later altered, requiring that the actress be aged 25 or below. (Full article...)
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Moonlight is an American paranormal romance television drama created by Ron Koslow and Trevor Munson, who was also executive producer for all episodes with Joel Silver, Gerard Bocaccio, Gabrielle Stanton and Harry Werksman. The series follows private investigator Mick St. John (Alex O'Loughlin), who was turned into a vampire by his bride Coraline (Shannyn Sossamon) on the couple's wedding night fifty-five years earlier. In the present day, he struggles with his attraction to a mortal woman, Beth Turner (Sophia Myles), his friendship with his mentor and fellow vampire Josef Kostan (Jason Dohring), and his dealings with other vampires in Los Angeles.

The series was commissioned by Warner Bros. Television in 2007 as a presentation lasting 14–20 minutes. Alex O'Loughlin, Shannon Lucio, Rade Šerbedžija and Amber Valletta were cast in the lead roles, and Rod Holcomb was hired as director. David Greenwalt joined the staff in May 2007 as showrunner and executive producer with Joel Silver; however, health reasons forced Greenwalt to leave the series. All of the original actors, apart from the male lead role, were recast in June 2007 with Sophia Myles, Jason Dohring and Shannyn Sossamon. A retooled, full-length pilot for television audiences was then shot. (Full article...)
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The second season of Veronica Mars, an American drama television series created by Rob Thomas, premiered on UPN in the United States on September 28, 2005. The series was produced by Warner Bros. Television, Silver Pictures Television and Rob Thomas Productions, and Joel Silver and Thomas served as the executive producers.

The season begins with the introduction of two new cases: when a school bus full of Neptune High students plunges off a cliff, killing almost everyone on board, Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) makes it her mission to discover why the bus crashed. Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring) is accused of killing a Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) biker gang member after a drunken fight with Eli "Weevil" Navarro (Francis Capra) and the PCHers. (Full article...)
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The first season of the television series Lost commenced airing in the United States and Canada on September 22, 2004, concluded on May 25, 2005, and contained 25 episodes. It introduces the 48 survivors of a plane that broke apart in mid-air, scattering them on a remote island somewhere in the South Pacific. Forced to work together to survive, they come to realize it is no ordinary island.

The first season aired Wednesdays at 8:00 pm in the United States. In addition to the 25 regular episodes, a special, "Lost: The Journey", was aired on April 27, 2005, between the 20th and 21st episodes of the season. The season was released on DVD as a seven-disc boxed set under the title of Lost: The Complete First Season on September 6, 2005, by Buena Vista Home Entertainment. (Full article...)
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Big Brother, the American version of the worldwide television show, features contestants (called houseguests) that compete against each other to be the last Big Brother house resident and win $500,000, later $750,000. The series first aired in 2000, and 25 seasons have been completed as of 2023. Big Brother contestants are chosen by the show's producers through an application process that includes a videotape submission, semi-final interviews at select cities, and a final interview in Los Angeles. Contestants are also recruited through various means but then follow the same subsequent interview process to appear on the show.

As of season 26, a total of 349 participants have competed in Big Brother, Big Brother: Over the Top, and Big Brother Reindeer Games and 45 of them have competed in multiple seasons. A total of 34 participants have competed in Celebrity Big Brother, which increases the total number of Big Brother participants to 367. Big Brother 7 was an All-Star edition, which featured 14 returning HouseGuests chosen either through viewer vote or by producers from an initial group of 20 candidates. For Big Brother 11, four past HouseGuests were given the chance to return based on the results of the season's first competition, after which one of them entered the house. Season 13 featured three "Dynamic Duos" from previous seasons, season 14 brought in four Big Brother veterans to coach the 12 new HouseGuests and season 18 saw the return of four returnees playing the game with 12 new houseguests. In Big Brother: Over the Top, former HouseGuests Jason Roy and Jozea Flores were given the chance to return through a public vote. Roy won the public vote and became the 13th houseguest. The 19th season brought along the return of a past houseguest as the 17th houseguest, but that houseguest was actually there to take the spot of one of the 16 new houseguests, as a consequence for one of the newbies taking a temptation. Season 22 was another All-Star edition, featuring 16 returning HouseGuests, all chosen by production. Big Brother Reindeer Games was a special holiday themed "Legends" edition, with 9 returning houseguests, as well as 3 other former houseguests participating solely as hosts. (Full article...)
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The fourth season of the American television comedy The Office premiered in the United States on NBC on September 27, 2007, and concluded on May 15, 2008. The season consisted of 9 half-hour episodes, and 5 hour-long episodes to comprise the 19 total episodes of material created. The Office is an American adaptation of the British TV series of the same name, and is presented in a mockumentary format, portraying the daily lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictitious Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. The season was originally set to include 30 episodes, but due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, production was called to a halt, in result, the season was shortened to 19 episodes. It stars Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, and B. J. Novak, with supporting performances from Melora Hardin, Ed Helms, Leslie David Baker, Brian Baumgartner, Creed Bratton, Kate Flannery, Mindy Kaling, Angela Kinsey, Paul Lieberstein, Oscar Nunez, Craig Robinson, and Phyllis Smith.

This season marked the departure of Karen Filippelli (Rashida Jones) as a regular character, although she appeared for a few seconds in the first episode, "Fun Run" and in the tenth episode, "Branch Wars", as the regional manager of the Utica branch. Relationships again emerged as the main theme of the season, with Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and Pam Beesly's (Jenna Fischer) rising, and Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and Jan Levinson's (Melora Hardin), as well as Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) and Angela Martin's (Angela Kinsey) declining. Technology was another prevalent theme as the office staff struggled with initiatives introduced by Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak) to modernize the company. (Full article...)
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The tenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons was originally broadcast on the Fox network in the United States between August 23, 1998, and May 16, 1999. It contains twenty-three episodes, starting with "Lard of the Dance". The Simpsons is a satire of a middle-class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie. Set in the fictional city of Springfield, the show lampoons American culture, society, television, and many aspects of the human condition.

The showrunner for the tenth season was Mike Scully. Before production began, a salary dispute between the main cast members of The Simpsons and Fox arose. However, it was soon settled and the actors' salaries were raised to $125,000 per episode. In addition to the large Simpsons cast, many guest stars appeared in season ten, including Phil Hartman in his last appearance due to his death months earlier in May 1998. (Full article...)
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Cooper at the Spain premiere of Silver Linings Playbook in 2013

Bradley Cooper is an American actor and filmmaker. He began his career by appearing in an episode of the sitcom Sex and the City (1999) and as the host of the tourism show Globe Trekker the following year. He made his screen debut in Wet Hot American Summer (2001) as a gay counselor—a role he later reprised in the web television series Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (2015). In the action television series Alias (2001–2006), Cooper achieved some success for the supporting role of Will Tippin, although he only played a major role in the series for the first few seasons.

Cooper's supporting part in the commercially successful comedy Wedding Crashers (2005) improved his career prospects, but also led to him being typecast as the best friend to the main character in such comedies as Failure to Launch (2006), The Rocker (2008), and He's Just Not That Into You (2009). During this period, Cooper also continued starring in television shows, such as the 2005 sitcom Kitchen Confidential, and played a dual role in a 2006 onstage production of Three Days of Rain. However, the former was cancelled after four episodes due to low ratings. His breakthrough came with the role of a reckless teacher in Todd Phillips' comedy The Hangover (2009), which became one of the highest grossing R-rated films of all time. Cooper continued to take on parts in several box office hits, including The A-Team (2010), Limitless, and The Hangover Part II (both in 2011). (Full article...)
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Survivor is an American reality television show, based on the Swedish program Expedition Robinson. Contestants are referred to as "castaways", and they compete against one another to become the "Sole Survivor" and win one million U.S. dollars. First airing in 2000, there currently have been a total of 47 seasons aired; the program itself has been filmed on five continents.

Contestants usually apply to be on the show, but the series has been known to recruit contestants for various seasons. For Survivor: Fiji, the producers had hoped to have a more racially diverse cast, and hoped that a more diverse group would apply after the success of the racially segregated Survivor: Cook Islands. When this did not happen, the producers turned to recruiting and in the end, only one contestant had actually submitted an application to be on the show. For the most part, contestants are virtually unknown prior to their Survivor appearance, but occasionally some well-known people are cast. (Full article...)
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What Would You Do? (commonly abbreviated as WWYD, and formerly known as Primetime: What Would You Do? through the program's fifth season) is an American situational hidden camera television series that has been broadcast on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) since February 26, 2008. Created by Chris Whipple, the show with a social experiment format follows the reactions of passing strangers as they encounter conflict or illegal activity in a public setting, unaware that it is all staged and being recorded with hidden cameras. Throughout all of its seventeen seasons, the show has been hosted by news correspondent John Quiñones.

Appearing periodically on ABC's Primetime from 2005 to 2007, What Would You Do? became an instant success for the ABC network. Following the 2007 writers' strike, ABC ordered the first season of the show. The series was annually renewed for a second, third, fourth, and fifth season. Starting with the sixth season, the show began to feature guest appearances, which included Barbara Corcoran, Howie Mandel, and Meredith Vieira. Following the seventh season, What Would You Do? aired its first Christmas special in its eighth season. This was followed by guest appearances by Daymond John and Pnina Tornai in the show's ninth season, Winnie Harlow in the show's tenth season, and an era without guests in the show's eleventh and twelfth seasons. A 10-year anniversary special was aired in 2017 as the season finale of the thirteenth season, titled "What Would You Do?: Then and Now", featuring scenarios originally aired on Primetime and in season one being remade with the same actors in the same locations. Following the fourteenth and fifteenth seasons of the show, ABC announced that they would air episodes filmed before the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the show's sixteenth season, as well as a special hosted by Gio Benitez as part of the sixteenth season's season finale. In May 2023, ABC renewed the series for a seventeenth season after a three-year hiatus. In May 2024, ABC renewed the series for a eighteenth season. (Full article...)
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Swift at the premiere of Hannah Montana: The Movie in 2009

The American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift has appeared in 61 music videos, 13 of which she self-directed. She has released five documentaries, acted in a number of films and television shows, and directed a concert documentary and short film.

Swift's first music video was for her debut single "Tim McGraw", from her 2006 self-titled debut studio album. It was directed by Trey Fanjoy, who worked on award-winning music videos for Swift's singles from 2006 to 2009. The music video for "Our Song" won Video of the Year at the 2008 CMT Music Awards. Swift's second studio album, Fearless (2008), was supported by the music videos for "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me". In 2009, the former won Video of the Year at both the CMT Music Awards and the Country Music Association Awards, and the latter won Best Female Video at the MTV Video Music Awards. Swift's first self-directed music video was for her 2010 album Speak Nows lead single, "Mine", which she directed with Roman White. ('Full article...)
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D.Gray-man is an anime series adapted from the manga of the same title by Katsura Hoshino. Produced by TMS Entertainment and directed by Osamu Nabeshima, the series follows the adventures of Allen Walker, an exorcist that wields the power of "Innocence" in order to fight against the Millennium Earl, an ancient sorcerer seeking to destroy the world with monsters called akuma.

The episodes began airing on October 3, 2006, in Japan on TV Tokyo. The first season of the anime, known as the "1st stage", aired for 51 episodes, finishing its run on September 25, 2007. The second season, known as the "2nd stage", began airing on October 2, 2007, and finished its run on September 30, 2008, lasting 52 episodes. In 2008, Funimation acquired the series for an English-language release in North America and reformatted the series into four separate seasons. In June 2016, Funimation acquired the rights to the second half of the anime. A sequel titled D.Gray-man Hallow premiered in Japan in July 2016. (Full article...)
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The first season of Private Practice, an American television series created by Shonda Rhimes, consisted of nine episodes that ran from September 26 to December 5, 2007. A spin-off of Grey's Anatomy, the series tells the story of Addison Montgomery, a world-class neonatal surgeon, as she adjusts to her move from Seattle to Los Angeles and a new job at Oceanside Wellness Group, a private medical practice. The episodes also focus on the interpersonal relationships among Addison's co-workers, Naomi Bennett, Sam Bennett, Cooper Freedman, Dell Parker, Violet Turner and Pete Wilder, as well as St. Ambrose Hospital chief of staff Charlotte King.

Private Practice's first season aired in the United States on Wednesdays at 9:00 pm ET on ABC, a terrestrial television network. The season garnered an average of 10.76 million viewers per episode during the 2008–09 American television season. In the United Kingdom, the season premiered on Living on July 15, 2008, and was subsequently shown on Tuesdays at 10:00 pm. It aired in Canada on CTV Television Network and in Australia on the Seven Network. It received generally negative reviews from television critics on its debut, but was nominated for three NAACP Image Awards and one People's Choice Award, and earned one BMI Film & TV Award. (Full article...)
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Bernard Lee (1908–1981) was an English actor who performed in many light entertainment media, including film, television and theatre. His career spanned from 1934 to 1981, although he made his first appearance on the stage at the age of six. He is perhaps best known for playing M in the first eleven Eon-produced James Bond films.

Lee trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, before making his professional stage debut in 1924. He appeared on film for the first time in 1934 in the Leslie Howard Gordon-directed comedy The Double Event, where he played the part of Dennison. Although he was in wartime service with the Royal Sussex Regiment between 1940 and 1946, he had already been in several films, which were released between 1939 and 1943. He returned to acting after the war and was offered a role in the play Stage Door while awaiting his demob. (Full article...)
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The Masked Singer is an American reality singing competition television series based on the South Korean television program King of Mask Singer. The show, which involves celebrities singing anonymously in elaborate full-body costumes, was developed by Craig Plestis and is hosted by Nick Cannon. During most episodes, three to six celebrities each perform covers of famous songs in costume in front of a studio audience and panelists Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg, Nicole Scherzinger, and Robin Thicke. After the audience and panelists vote for their favorite performance, the celebrity with the fewest votes is eliminated from the competition and takes off their mask, revealing their identity.

The series has been broadcast on Fox since January 2, 2019, and has aired eleven seasons thus far. Plestis and Izzie Pick Ibarra have served as executive producers since the first season; Rosie Seitchik and Cannon have also done so since the second and third, respectively. As the highest-rated entertainment series in the adults 18–49 key demographic both television seasons it has aired, the program's ratings have remained consistently high. Owing to its success, an aftershow, The Masked Singer: After the Mask, was formed as a spin-off. The series's costume designer has won a Costume Designers Guild Award in the Excellence in Variety, Reality-Competition, Live Television category, and has received two Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes for a Variety, Nonfiction, or Reality Programming nominations. Aside from double-length episodes, most run for about 43 minutes. (Full article...)

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