#tms us

And based on the order of the revealed masks, it looks like they are divided into three groups in the following way (these are my guesses based on the order in which each mask was revealed, but there could be mistakes in my guesses): 

Edited: to correct the names/masks of the 6 contestants in group A, because it’s not the first 6 costumes revealed. Same with Groups B & C. The order of costume reveal is not the order they’re divided into groups of six. 

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GROUP A (1) 

(Pink) Miss Monster Mask (looks female & she is short!) 

Robot Mask (looks male, but he is short-ish; costume: vintage robot)

Llama mask (looks male; costume: tourist w. a camera style)

Turtle Mask (ETA: sounds male, & he is short-ish, could be a team-sports baller - athlete, but sounds like he can sing; costume: punk style leather)

White Tiger Mask (looks male & he is very tall - looks to be around/almost 2m) 

Kangaroo Mask (ETA: looks & sounds female...actually...)

GROUP B (2) 

Banana Mask (cannot tell if M or F, but possibly a female artist) 

Mouse Mask (looks female) 

Frog Mask (looks female to me, but could be male, is possible an athlete; costume: purple “Mask” suit)

Kitty (Cat) Mask (looks female, costume: LV burlesque show style)

Elephant Mask (looks male, & he is tal-ish; costume: design gives me MCU quantum realm/time travel space suit vibes)

Taco Mask (cannot tell if M or F) 

GROUP C (3) 

Astronaut Mask (cannot tell if M or F, most likely male, they are short-ish) 

(White) Swan Mask (looks female)

Rhino Mask (looks male, costume: safari & pilot jacket)

Bear Mask (looks female, costume: purple & pink teddybear) 

Night Angel Mask (looks female) 

T-Rex Mask (looks male; costume: Reneissance/Shakespeare style look)  PS. it seemed to be something resembling a 2-headed dragon or so.. so  2 people in one costume or like llama, who has two sets of legs... but instead...it’s a “dinosaur”) 

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This year the US show has record number of masks/celebs (18), so they are divided into 3 groups (last year it was 16 and 2 groups). And this year the show is filmed and airs differently. First the first group filmed all their episodes, then the second group, and lastly the third group (filming currently). Then only after that all remaining contestants from each group are “united” and compete against each other in the “quarter finals”. 

And they also air the episodes this way: First three episodes are group A. And since each week one mask is voted out, then in the end that leaves 3 masks standing in Group A “finale”. Then next three episodes (eps 4-6) is group B. And then next three eps (eps 7 - 9) is Group C. That means that during the first 9 episodes each group competes separately. 

Then all remaining 9 contestants (3 + 3 + 3 from each group) get together, and form one group...and the show continues as known from previous seasons. And still each week one (or in some weeks 2) masks are voted out. Til only 3 remain by the Finale episode. This means that S3 has most likely 15 episodes or so (depending on how many weeks have double-eliminations between episode 10 and The Finale)

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Each costume looks kinda male or female. But you cannot judge the gender of the celeb under it by the look of the costume. If the costume is pink and/or has a dress, it’s not definitely a female celeb wearing it, though they do prefer to use pink for girls & blue for boys...so far. And if the costume is dressed in a suit, it’s not definitely a male celeb wearing it. 

Some costumes, which show the persons physique more, make it a lot easier to guess who is wearing it (their gender, their size - height & bodytype), but even then there could be curveballs thrown in there. 

I have added guesses on who I think is wearing the costume (male or female celeb) based on how much of the person can be seen under the costume. And based on whats shown in the video clips, and promo pics...the little clues about the celebs that we’ve gotten. Some of these estimates might be off. 

We know based on the little info that has come out that there is (at least) one very tall celeb in the costume (Taco, Tiger?). And we know that at least two contestants are not very tall (a bit or quite a bit shorter than the shows host, Nick C., who is 6 feet..or so = about 180cm tall). 

Regarding height: When Turtle, Miss Monster, Kangaroo & White Tiger stand next to each other, then they are in order of height with Tiger the tallest & Turtle & Miss Moster the shortest. Miss Monster is quite a bit shorter than host Nick. Robot is also shorter than host Nick. Other short or short-ish contestants include: astrounaut...

IF we assume that (like in most of the time on this format) there are equal number of male & female contestants, then... that makes the guessing based on just the costumes easier...on which one each is. 

EDITED OUT AFTER EP 1 HAD AIRED.  

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STATS: 

The 18 celebs in the costumes, combined have: 

in total: 69 Grammy nominations (so at least a one or few big(ger) names from music world) EDITED on Feb 3rd: - 25 (the number of noms that the Robot, the 1st mask voted out, has) = 44 left for the remaining 17 contestants 

in total: 88 gold record (so at least one or a few big(ger) names from music world) EDITED on Feb 3rd:  - 12 or more...depending on which ones count here (as far as I know all or almost all of the Robot’s albums have gone Gold and/or Platinum, and he’s released over 10 albums + mixtapes etc) = 76-ish left for the remaining 17 contestants 

in total: 11 super bowl appearances (this doesn’t mean that they’ve played during SB, it also includes all apperances during SB games...like performing during half-time, ...any celeb appearance during the game/broadcast...)

in total: 3 stars in the (Hollywoood) “walk of fame” (so at least 3 big names, who have been given a star there) 

in total: 160 tattoos (this means at least a few celebs, who have a lot of tattoos, because 160 divided by 18 gives us 8-9 per person, but I’m guessing some have none/max 1, and some have more than 10)  EDITED on Feb 3rd: - 86 (the number of tattoos that Robot, the 1st mask voted out, has - his tattoos made up about half of all the tattoos) = 74 left for the ramaining 17 contestants 

in total: 1 title in the “Guinness Book of World Records”** - this one could be easy to figure out if someone took the time to check the list of record holders in those books...

** There are quite many celebs, who have been in Quinness World Record Book. It doesn’t have to really be a “real record” - it can be something like “reached 1 million followers on IG the fastest” or “took the most selfies in a limited timeframe”. Some of the famous people, who have/had in 2019 (when they were cast) or have had titles of Guinness Records include: Eminem, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Shakira, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Justin Bieber, Dolly Parton, Ozzy Obbourne, The Rock, RDJ (kinda, thanks to his fans), Ellen DeGeneres, Jennifer Lawrence, Cristiano Ronaldo (athlete), Alex Rodriguez (athlete)

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And that is basically all theyve revealed so far. Which I personally consider a plus. And I hope that theyve really upped their game, and dont make guessing so easy. For profesisonal singers among the contestants their voice alone will give them away most times (examples: Leopard, Rottweiler last season... who have such unique, well known voices). So it’s a bit more challenging for people guessing for the clues not to be so easy. Which is why I hope they really made the clues harder...like they have promised in the previews. 

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SPOILERS: We have knows for a little while who would be eliminated first. Because weve seen the four costumes that make it to the last epsiode of Group A (ep 3x03) - Kangaroo, Monster, Tiger, Turtle. Since the Robot was unmasked first, that means Llama will be unmasked next (on Web, Feb 5th). We know this because they always miss that they’ve included soem revealing bits in their promos (or include the pictures/clips on purpose). They accidentally included an image of the last four masks for griup A. And you can also determine who stays for how longif you pay attention to the clips - you can tell how many different performances each mask has - cause for some they include just one, for some several, and the more different songs/performances the further they make. 

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How many different perdormances from each mask/contestant have they included in their promos/promo clips (this means: they persorm AT LEAST this many different songs): 

Astronaut

Banana = 1

Bear

Elephant

Frog = 1

Kangaroo = 1 + 1 

Kitty (Cat) 1

Llama 1 

Miss Monster 1 + 1 

Mouse 1 

Night Angel

Rhino

Robot 1 

Swan

Turtle 1 + 1 

Taco 1 

T-Rex 

White Tiger 1 + 1