Hidden Singer (South Korean TV series)

In each episode, one singer is the star of the episode, and in each round, he/she sings with impersonators a certain mission song in the hidden stage while the audience attempts to find the impersonators and the original singer. If the real singer is eliminated, they stay in the rounds until the end (albeit with null votes). In the end, if an impersonator wins the episode, he/she would receive 20 million won. If the real singer won the episode, the second-place impersonator would get 100,000 won times the number of votes they got in the final round. Round 1 The singer and five impersonators go in order (from #1-#6, though before, after, or in between individual parts, multiple or all singers can sing at once). At the end of the first half of the song, the 100-member audience votes on who they believe sounds least like the original singer, and the celebrity panel discusses their votes and thoughts on the real singer's position. When the results are revealed, the number of votes are shown for each person in order (there have been case where the votes are shown in reverse order), and the one with the highest number of votes is eliminated. If it is an impersonator, they introduce themself. In round 1, only the doors for the real singer and elimination are opened. As in four episodes so far, if the original singer is not in the hidden stage because six impersonators were chosen instead of five, there would be six impersonators in the next round (The real singer is said to be in "room number 7"). Round 2 The remaining five (or six) sing half of the next song in the hidden stage (with their positions shuffled). After voting and discussion, the next half of the song is sung, but the doors are opened, and the impersonators faces are revealed. The elimination is then announced, and, if an impersonator is eliminated, he/she introduces themself. Round 3 The singer and three (or four) surviving impersonators sing the next song in the hidden stage, but the music does not stop. Instead, the audience votes during the interlude, and the impersonators' and singer's positions are revealed during the second half. During round 3, the surviving impersonators also introduce themselves. Each one has a nickname like (nickname)(singer's name). Nicknames are usually qualities (like "Handsome Man Nam Jin"), places of origin (like "Jinju Kim Kyung-ho"), song titles that are relevant to their backstory as a fan (like "On The Street Kim Kwang-seok"), occupations (like "Welder Im Chang-jung"), or even puns ("Who Shin Ji/누구 신지" is a pun on the phrase "Nugushinji" which translates to "Who is it") though there can be other types. The impersonators can be celebrities, foreigners, and both male and female regardless of the singer's gender. Around this time, a medley of the singer's songs (that are not mission songs) or a special performance are sung by members of the panel and the impersonators. At the end of round 3, the elimination is announced. Round 4 The round 4 performance works the same as round 3. The singer and two (or three) surviving impersonators sing the final song in the hidden stage, but the music does not stop. Instead, the audience votes during the interlude on who they think the real singer is. After the votes are cast, the impersonators' and singer's positions are revealed during the second half. After the song the third place is announced, and then the winner (As a running gag, in most episodes, right before the winner is announced, the host says "Cue commercial!" generally causing an uproar). The last surviving impersonator wins money depending on what place they ranked and how many votes they got. This impersonator also gets to go to the end-of-season King of Kings championship. Sometimes, if there is a tie for two impersonators as runner-ups, both impersonators will receive prize money and participate in the championship. If the singer was eliminated prior to announcing the winner, the singer will announce the winner of the episode in place of the host. In Seasons 4-5, an extra prize of a travel voucher was given, and in Seasons 6-7, due to COVID, this was changed to a Korean meat set. Sometimes at the end, an encore is sung by the impersonators and the singer. Starting in Season 8, if there are 5 rounds in total, then the audience would vote who they believe sounds least like the original singer. At the end of round 4, the eliminated participant is announced. Round 5 Starting in Season 8, a fifth round was implemented. However, not every singer who appeared in Season 8 had five rounds. The production staff felt that selecting four songs would be insufficient for a legendary singer with numerous hit songs, so they decided to add an extra round. Round 5 works the same as Round 4 in previous seasons, while Round 4 functions like Round 3 from earlier seasons, except that all the impersonators have already introduced themselves in Round 3. Covid-19 voting changes In the latter half of Season 6, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the voting system changed temporarily. Only the panel of celebrities would be present, and live viewers could vote online when possible during the livestream. This led to some controversy as people speculated it could be rigged/manipulated. King of Kings Championship The King of Kings Championship is the season finale (usually) where all the winning impersonators compete against each other. For the first four seasons, the champions would be divided into Groups A, B, and C. Each singer would sing half of a song behind the door, and the 300-member audience would vote zero if they thought the singer was good. They would open the door, and the champion would sing the next half of the song. After all singers in a group had sung, the scores would be revealed (generally one or two digits at a time), and whoever had the most votes would move to the finals. If two champions tied for the most votes, they both would advance. In the finals, each singer sings like in the qualifiers, except that from Season 2 onwards, the finals were broadcast live, with hundreds of thousands of voters. The winner would get money and a special prize (like an expensive car) In Seasons 3 and 4, between the qualifiers and the finals, viewers could vote for a "wildcard" who would go to the finals as a fourth member. In Season 5, the format changed, where each singer would perform one by one, and the score out of 300 would be revealed before the next performer. The top three out of the twelve would with money and prizes. In Season 6, the format changed again, where instead of voting zero, each voter out of 200 would rate the singer from 1 to 10 (2000 possible points) after each performance, the panel's votes (out of 300 points) were revealed after each stage, and the total votes for each person were revealed at the end. In Season 7, the format is the same as the previous season except the panel's votes were out of 250 points instead. In Seasons 1 and 7, midway through the performances, a "re-challenge" would happen, where a singer and his five impersonators would go through a normal round-style performance, and the audience's votes were revealed at the end. At or near the end, there is usually a special performance featuring all of the impersonators or a special guest singer. Doppel-Singer Music Festival This event has happened twice in Hidden Singer history. Eight teams, each consisting of one singer and one impersonator who was a participant in the King of Kings Championship. Each team has two performances, the one where half is in a special two-room hidden stage, and the other half after the doors open and their positions are revealed. The audience and the other seven teams are challenged to find, the real singer. The second performance is the team alternating parts of a different song on the stage. After all eight teams have performed, the audience votes for their favorite team, and the winner is declared "Best Couple". Other special episodes Before some seasons, a special episode would air with the host and panel, featuring a collection of the best past performances, or the lineup prediction for the following season. The first and seventh seasons are the only ones to not have such an episode. In the fifth and sixth seasons, these were "Comeback Specials" and they featured highlights of the previous seasons as well as hearing quizzes, where six audio clips of songs would play, and the panel would guess which one was a real singer singing. The other five were impersonators. Hearing quizzes also happened during the Season 4 Doppel-Singer Music Festival and the Season 6 King of Kings Championship. At the end of Season 3, a special "All Three Seasons King of Kings Championship" was broadcast live. It worked similar to a Championship Final, expect there were ten contestants (the finalists from the past three seasons, except Kwak Dong-hyun). A special performance featuring the majority of champions from the three seasons appeared at the end. In the middle of Season 6, a Special Live Broadcast Quiz aired, which included a hearing quiz and a lineup prediction for the second half of Season 6. ==Season 1==