After news broke that seven dancers on The Masked Singer tested positive for COVID-19, host Osher Günsberg has gone on The Sunday Project to explain exactly what the fuck is going on.
“I’m in awe of these dancers,” he said.
“We were literally two hours away from hitting record on our grand finale, the pyrotechnics were loaded, everyone was in costume, we are ready to go.
“This person was so brave – so brave – this young person but their hand up and said, ‘Hang on guys, I’m not feeling so great, I should probably let you know this’.”
Like all other businesses in Victoria (and elsewhere in Australia, for the most part), everything was shut down as soon as the test came back positive.
“[The producers] were brave enough to pull the emergency brake on this freight train, and then we hit stop, and everything shut down because nothing is as important as everyone’s safety,” Günsberg said.
He added that the first dancer in the Masked Singer cast who said they felt unwell should be seen as an example of exactly what to do if you’re in that situation.
Now Günsberg, like the rest of the cast and crew, is waiting for his own test results to come back. Until then, he’s stuck in self-isolation.
He also gave us some insight into how seriously he took hygiene even before the show started filming.
“I’m really really militant about this stuff,” he said.
“My outside clothes stay outside, I have a Gattaca shower when I get into my inside clothes, I wash all my groceries down. I’ve been like this since it started.
“I would not have been a production that doesn’t take it seriously. I’ve never been on a stricter set, on a more segregated set.”
Despite all this drama, the show quite literally must go on. Producers are now figuring out how to stage an even more socially-distanced grand finale episode.
However that’s still three weeks away. In the meantime, every other episode has already been filmed, so programming will continue as scheduled.
And no, the irony of the Masked Singer crew dealing with a coronavirus outbreak during a time of mandatory face masks is not lost on Günsberg, or anyone, really.
“If there is no Logie in 2021 for the best use of irony in a TV show, I’ll be most disappointed.”
