Overview
- ITV confirmed on Friday that comedian Alan Carr will join The Masked Singer as a permanent judge and will captain a new rival panel called the Wild Cards.
- The existing judging line-up of Davina McCall, Mo Gilligan, Maya Jama and Jonathan Ross will remain on the show and will be rebranded by ITV as the Legends to face Carr’s team.
- Joel Dommett is reported to return as host and ITV has scheduled the eighth series to air in 2027 on ITV1 and streaming on ITVX.
- Carr announced the role on This Morning and social media, saying he will bring "intelligence" and his own detectives; his casting follows a rise in profile after winning BBC’s Celebrity Traitors and previous guest appearances on the show.
- ITV and producers Bandicoot Scotland present the change as a deliberate twist to refresh the long-running format that has drawn millions of viewers and recently crowned Keisha Buchanan as the seventh-series winner.