Warning! The following contains spoilers for the series premiere of We Are Family. Read at your own risk!
Anthony Anderson just kicked off a new series on Fox with his beloved Mama Doris, and as a fan of The Masked Singer, I really enjoy We Are Family. For those who are missing their usual Wednesday night obsession, the new series centered on relatives of famous celebrities is a solid spiritual spinoff, and there are some key similarities viewers will appreciate.
Before we get much further, viewers needn't fear about the status of The Masked Singer. The Fox series is already slated to return with Season 11 in the 2024 TV schedule, so everyone can tune into We Are Family while waiting for their other beloved celeb-singing series to return. In fact, they may want to after how the series premiere went down!
Anthony Anderson's Mama Doris Is Just Like Ken Jeong
Outside of his unexpected hot streak in The Masked Singer Season 10, Ken Jeong is typically awful at guessing contestants' identities. Fortunately, he's able to make up for that by being entertaining, which is exactly what Anthony Anderson's Mama Doris has decided to do on We Are Family. I can't imagine she actually thought Johnny Depp or Joe Biden were inside the sphere in either of her guesses, but I love the way she tied both together with the clues in an amusing way. Much like Jeong, she's found that being extremely wrong is funny and it adds to the appeal of the show.
The Singing Is Pretty Good So Far
It's taken some time, but The Masked Singer has reached a stage where it nets consistently good singers, even if a talent like John Oates was ready to leave when his time was up. We Are Family set the bar pretty high with its singing talent in the premiere and rolled out former Destiny's Child singer Michelle Williams, much to the delight of guests. Of course, much of this show leans on the talent of celebrities' relatives. Maybe talent running in families is why nepo babies are so successful?
Contestants Are Trying To Win Money, So The Guesses Are Solid
While The Masked Singer's Ginuwine thought calling him Brian McKnight was a crazy guess in Season 10, that guess was within reason compared to earlier seasons. The judges frequently used to throw out guesses like Lady Gaga, Tom Cruise, and other A-listers that, with all due respect, would not do a guest appearance on a Fox reality series. The Masked Singer has had shocking reveals, but nothing quite as shocking as that.
We Are Family features a studio audience that is all competing for a share of $100,000. They all get chances, and unlike the celebrity panelists of The Masked Singer, have a real incentive to put forward the best guess they can muster. There were a few outliers, but I felt that many gave some really good ideas. I certainly appreciated it, because I didn't come anywhere close to getting any celebrity right in the premiere, so hopefully, the good guesses keep on coming in future episodes.
Is We Are Family the next hit singing show like The Masked Singer? Only time will tell if it has staying power, but for now, I can say that I enjoyed the premiere and the fun of seeing people compete to guess the identity of celebrities Michelle Williams, Joel McHale, or Nikki Glaser. Maybe next episode, I'll try to give it a better go with deciphering the clues, and pretend that I'm also playing like there's money on the line.
We Are Family is some good television, so be sure to tune into new episodes on Fox on Wednesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET. Those without access can also watch the premiere with a Hulu subscription and check out the wide variety of shows making a splash as 2024 gets underway.
