The Masked Dancer viewers point out problem with show’s ‘basically impossible’ central premise

‘Congrats Masked Dancer, you’ve made this show ten times harder than Masked Singer,’ one commenter wrote

The Masked Dancer has begun and viewers are already confused by the show’s central premise.

Kicking off on Saturday (29 May), the spin-off of ITV’s popular showThe Masked Singer sees a group of celebrities competing to be named best dancer while hiding their identities in bizarre costumes.

The show’s judges – Mo Gilligan, Jonathan Ross, Davina McCall and Oti Mabuse – must guess along with the audience at home who they think is behind each mask.

However, many viewers said that The Masked Dancer didn’t work as well as The Masked Singer, where viewers could make educated guesses about the contestants’ identities based on their voices.

In comparison, having to guess from dancing style was “basically impossible” and meant viewers were too dependent on the clues.

One tweet read: “Well I have to say, congrats Masked Dancer you’ve made this show ten times harder than Masked Singer!”

“Can somebody please explain this Masked Dancer s*** to me please,” one commenter wrote. “Like I got Masked Singer, cause you can hear their f***ing voices. How the f*** do you guess who they are if they just dance?”

“I’m not sure I’m going to be able to spend any time watching The Masked Dancer without wondering why it isn’t The Masked Singer,” another tweet read. “It’s literally the same production but less interesting.”

“Masked Dancer doesn’t have the same feeling as Masked Singer. It’s basically impossible therefore less interesting,” another commenter wrote.

“Love the Masked Singer but hate the Dancer version,” one Twitter user wrote, while another echoed: “Liked the Masked Singer... But Masked Dancer not for me.”

The first episode ended with Viper being eliminated from the competition and revealed to be Diversity’s Jordan Banjo, with many viewers sharing their frustration that an actual dancer was eliminated first on a show about dancing.