DC ExtraTime: The Keto Guido Gets Unmasked

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

Masked Dancer Pics Courtesy FOX

If Thursday is your favorite night of television, in the past few years it is as if we have stepped back in time to more simpler but also livelier times than it is right now. The return after a six year's hiatus of the cast of Jersey Shore has brought buzz back to MTV, coming a decade after it all began for the most beloved family this channel has ever given us. The tenth overall season of the Jersey series - the fourth of the Family Vacation relaunch - is approaching its conclusion after it has spent most of this cuffing season in the bubble of a resort hotel in Lake Las Vegas, far from the lights and the glitz of the Strip.

This winter in Jersey'ville -- the first without Snooki as part of the group -- began with the girls divided after the drama of Angelina's big wedding night and the speech at her reception that changed everything. But the RSVP boys had an idea of bringing them together for another trip... there was also the night where the only dad of this bunch, Ronnie, was the bachelor in waiting in his dating show. But it was when the Hamster made her way to Vegas that things have now begun to get wild once again, along with Pauly's girlfriend Nikki and, as of this past week, JWOWW... and there may be more to come when the man who helps out with the last act of every Teen Mom season, Dr. Drew, will be called in to help.

The last time we saw Pauly & Nikki together in Southern Nevada, it was at the end of that epic summer of Season 2 of A Double Shot at Love, where they rekindled things after the stunning end to Season 1 a year earlier. Last week on this DCBLOG site, we featured the first cameo of any member of Team MTV on a TV show or music video of 2021 when fellow DSAL suitor and Are You The One? alum Maria Elizondo got cuddly with Miley's brother Trace Cyrus in the video for "Typical Suspect." And as a prelude to last Jerzday's drama, Maria's perfect match Vinny found himself on the stage of the cousin of the biggest new phenomenon in American television.

To those of us immersed in the world of MTV Reality - and if you're lucky to still have cable or paid a fraction for a streaming service that has MTV in its lineup, then Wednesday nights have meant for us a weekly appointment to enjoy The Challenge. But over in the world of the free-to-air network television, the middle of the week has also meant something to those who are now playing the nation's new favorite guessing game -- and it's something that was given to us by our friends across the Pacific.

   South Korea is the nation that has given everyone the biggest boy band and girl group in the world right now in BTS and BLACKPINK. They also are responsible for arguably the biggest import in the non-scripted space in recent years: in 2015, the nation's second-oldest TV network, MBC, debuted a totally new show in its long-running Sunday Night program strand. There, it took the concept of one of the biggest subgenres there is in reality television, the singing competitions, and brought in the element of that one night of the whole year where we all get to dress up in outrageous costumes.

   The result became the show that's known in to its Korean audience by its translated name of King of Mask Singer, but which when it was made available to the global marketplace the name was changed to The Masked Singer. The original format sees the singers compete in several elimination rounds performing up to three original songs or covers in each episode, all while wearing elaborate masks from head to toe to conceal their identity... and it's only if they are eliminated as the least popular performer in a given episode do they get to take off that mask and reveal who is under it.

A big name to those in the reality community, executive producer Craig Plestis, first took note of TMS when he watched Thailand version's of it while on a dinner night out, and after doing some researched he secured format rights from its Korean producers. The U.S. version alters a bit from the original where, the judges not only judge each performance, but also with the help of video and print dossiers - take guesses as to who is underneath that head... where here, it's the celebrities who are the singers.

   With nothing to lose, a struggling FOX network jumped at the chance to serve as its host network - and The Masked Singer has become a powerhouse ever since in being, outside of football season, TV's highest-rated primetime show. Wild 'N Out's Nick Cannon serves as master of ceremonies in the company of judges Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger and Robin Thicke... and the show will soon debut its fifth season come next month. And the series has been franchised out to forty other countries outside of the U.S. and Korea, including to ITV in Britain, MTV sibling Network 10 in Australia, Televisa in Mexico and TF1 in France.

   And after the enormous success of the Singer show, FOX has debuted two spinoffs: I Can See Your Voice - also a South Korean import where singers are identified by just name only; and this winter by the direct descendent of TMS as the focus shifts from the vocal side of things to that of the dancing variety, fittingly titled The Masked Dancer - based on a similar segment on Ellen Degeneres' talk show. And there, Ken, Paula Abdul, Brian Austin Green and Ashley Tisdale, along with The Office's Craig Robinson as host, try to figure out who is putting on the moves underneath those costumes.

   So far in its maiden voyage, The Masked Dancer has asked many questions of who is underneath the faces dancing as a disco ball, a cricket, and even a piece of cotton candy... we will leave it up to you to see who might be - or who has - been revealed as of yet. But last Wednesday night, an answer was provided to who was underneath the costume of the animal who was the unsung hero of Katy Perry's Super Bowl XLIX halftime show of six years ago: a shark... and in this case, it's a hammerhead.

If you've been watching Jersey Shore, the four Family Vacation trips and/or Double Shot at Love, then you know that Vinny Guadagnino loves to have a good time on the dance floor... and the art of the fist pump was brought to MTV by way of the Keto King during that first summer in Seaside Heights. And of course, he got to serve a few tours of duty serving as host of the gig that shed any ruminants of that boy next door image: the showcase of stripping in Vegas known as the Chippendales.

   So, it was perhaps no surprise that the production team of The Masked Dancer had Vinny on their minds when it came to asking him to be on the show. But, of course, the hard part for those who celebs who get asked to be on the show is to keep this a total secret: unlike its Korean counterpart where it's broadcast live like American Idol and The Voice, the prerecorded nature of TMS in America sees production do extra work to make sure what happens on stage stays there until we see it in our living rooms. And dancing to the Backstreet Boys and The Weeknd in his first two appearances in making it safely to a third one that saw him perform weakly, this was the punishment:

Upon having to take off that mask, Vinny tweeted afterwards, "Had such an amazing time being the #HammerHead on @MaskedDancerFOX! Not a professional dancer but I loved this fun challenge! Thanks for all that tuned in and supported me! Hammerhead out!"

   And during the midst of this big week for the Keto Guido, Vinny had the chance to FaceTime the rest of his Jersey Shore castmates, and posted this video on TikTok. And one of them who also lives not far away from him responded, "I was like wtf why is he calling me Lmfaooo @VinnyGuadagnino your sooooo annoying." Maybe you can guess who that person is...

Got emmm 🤣 #ImBusyRightNow pic.twitter.com/iQtVZiggaf

— Vinny Guadagnino (@VINNYGUADAGNINO) February 1, 2021

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