Masked Singer UK Tickets: What It’s Really Like in the Audience (and How to Make Sure You Get In)

If your family shouts guesses at the telly every Saturday night, getting Masked Singer tickets and sitting in the studio audience feels like the dream day out. We’ve just been to the recording of the Christmas special, and it was brilliant, but it very nearly didn’t happen. We had tickets, we turned up an hour and a half before the doors opened, and we still ended up on the standby list.

So this is the honest version: what the day is actually like, how the ticketing really works, and what I’d do differently next time. It’s spoiler-free, because everyone in the audience signs a confidentiality agreement, so you won’t find any costumes, clues or names here.

One caveat before we start: everything here is what was true for us, on our day. Timings, queues and rules can change from one recording to the next, so please treat this as a guideline, not gospel, and go by the email you get with your tickets.

How to get Masked Singer tickets

Tickets are free, and we got ours through The Masked Singer page on Lost in TV. A day or so before the recording you get an email with everything you need to know, including a link to the confidentiality agreement that every adult has to complete. Do it online before you leave home. You can fill it in when you arrive, but it slows down your check-in, and as you’re about to find out, every minute counts.

Ours was the Christmas special, so the email also encouraged everyone to dress festively: Christmas jumpers, sparkly outfits, Santa hats and so on. It’s worth reading yours for anything like that.

The important bit is buried at the bottom of that email: a ticket is not a guarantee of entry. Because so many free tickets go unused, the show is deliberately overbooked. The studio holds around 400 people, and once it’s full, it’s full.

Getting to Bovingdon Studios without a car

The Masked Singer is filmed at Bovingdon Airfield Studios in Hertfordshire. The official advice is to drive, and there is plenty of free parking. I don’t drive, so we got the train from London Euston, which was speedy. It got into Hemel Hempstead station at about 12.30pm, and the cab from there to the studios took 10 minutes.

Getting home is the bit to plan. Uber does not serve the studios on the way back. You can get an Uber there, but you won’t be able to get one home again at the end of the night. We hadn’t pre-booked a taxi and tried Uber on the off-chance, and it didn’t work.

In the end I rang Bovingdon Cars, a local firm, and they arrived within 10 minutes. We walked up to the front entrance of the lot to meet them, and I’d say that’s the place to wait: at the top, by the entrance to the studios, where taxis can come up for drop-off. To be on the safe side, I’d pre-book a local cab for the end of the recording.

Our journey back to south London was easy enough. It is a long day though, even though you’re sitting down in the studio.

Once you’re on site, it’s a walk of around 300 to 400 metres from the car park to the audience queue, and there is an accessible drop-off for anyone who can’t manage that distance.

The Masked Singer audience queue, and why our tickets weren’t enough

Studio doors were due to open at 2.20pm. We arrived at 12.50pm, feeling quite pleased with ourselves, and joined the queue.

It wasn’t early enough. By the time we reached the front, the general admission places had all gone, and we were sent to a standby queue along with around 50 other people. The only consolation was that we were numbers one and two on it.

We were there an hour and a half before doors. I would recommend getting there two hours before.

How Masked Singer PLUS tickets work

This is the part nobody tells you. Some people in the queue have what’s called a PLUS ticket, which more or less guarantees entry.

You’re given one if you’ve been to a recording before and couldn’t get in, so that you’re not turned away twice. You can also get one if you’re travelling a long way. We met a family from Stoke who had come down that day and were staying overnight, and they had PLUS tickets so they wouldn’t have a wasted journey. That seems fair enough to me.

If you have a PLUS ticket, you’re guaranteed to get in as long as you’re there by a certain time. It does mean that the number of ordinary places is smaller than you’d think, which is why arriving well ahead of the doors time matters so much.

Getting in from the standby list

Standby means waiting until every other audience member has gone through to the studio, and then seeing how many seats are left. On our day they let in 12 people from the standby list. Being first and second in that queue, we made it. Most of the people behind us didn’t.

Timings on our day went like this. They started giving out wristbands before 2pm to get people moving. We got into the waiting room at 2.45pm, and then waited until around 3.45pm to be let into the main studio. Recording started at 4pm, so there is a fair bit of waiting around. If you’re on standby, they call you by number, so it doesn’t really matter where you’re standing.

What it’s like in the Masked Singer audience

After all that, we got lucky. Our seats were right by the side of the stage, at the back, which turned out to be a great spot. Joel Dommett kept walking right past us, high-fiving the kids in the row in front every time. Very sweet, and they were thrilled.

It’s a lot of fun watching it all come together: the props on stage, the surprises, seeing the panel. As it’s pre-recorded, there were a few retakes and changes to the script, but it all flowed nicely.

You can’t use your phone in the studio. It gets put into a little pouch, which you keep on you but can’t open, so don’t plan on any photos or on checking the time. I did wonder whether there would be a scrum to get them unlocked at the end, but it was swift and easy.

How long is the recording, and do you see the unmasking?

First, it is a long recording session. Recording started at 4pm and we walked out at 8pm on the dot, so that’s four hours in the studio on top of all the queueing and waiting. We arrived at 12.50pm, which made it more than seven hours on site. That’s worth thinking about if you’re bringing children. The minimum age is 8.

Second, and this is the big one: you don’t get to see who gets unmasked. At the end, only the crew and friends of the production and the panel were allowed to stay for the reveal. It’s a shame, but it’s understandable when the whole show depends on keeping the secret. We still got to shout “Take it off! Take it off!” and enjoy the whole experience. Just make sure the children know in advance, so nobody is disappointed at the end.

Breaks and toilets

You’re told there will be a break. There wasn’t one when we were there, so that was four hours straight in the studio.

You can go to the toilet if you need to, you just have to pick your moment. Wait until the warm-up man is on stage, or until they’re resetting and sweeping up after a performance, and then head out. The toilets are outside the studio, they’re clean and there are lots of them, although there was, obviously, a longer queue for the women’s than the men’s.

Can you take food into The Masked Singer?

So you have two options while you wait: eat your own picnic inside the waiting area, or buy from the burger van, which does coffee, fries and so on and is just outside the waiting room in the main studio. It takes card and cash, but it closes soon after the show starts.

Being able to bring your own food in is great. Some people had brought pre-packed sandwiches, and even dips and hummus.

The studio itself is stricter. No hot food and no coffee in there, but water and snacks are fine. With no break, I’d recommend packing something quick and easy to snack on, and keeping it out of sight during filming.

One for allergy families: Bovingdon is a nut-free site, and you’re asked not to bring anything containing nuts. That only covers nuts, so if you’re managing other allergens, I’d pack your own food and not rely on the van.

My tips for a Masked Singer recording

• Arrive two hours before doors. An hour and a half wasn’t enough for us.
• Complete the confidentiality agreement at home. Every adult needs one, and children’s names go on an adult’s form.
• Queue together. You can’t hold places for people who haven’t arrived, and wristbands are only given to those actually in the queue.
• Ask about a PLUS ticket if you’re turned away, or if you’re travelling a long distance, and check what time you need to be there by.
• Pre-book your cab home. Uber won’t collect from the studios, so arrange a local firm in advance and wait at the top by the studio entrance.
• Pack water and easy snacks, and eat properly before the van closes.
• Don’t count on a break. Use the toilets before you go in, and nip out during the warm-up or a stage reset if you need to.
• Dress for waiting around. The waiting area can get warm, and there are chairs for those who need them.
• Prepare the kids. It’s a long day, the phones go away, and the audience leaves before the unmasking.

Is being in the Masked Singer audience worth it?

Yes. I would go again. It was a lot of fun, and even without the unmasking we came away feeling we’d had the whole experience.

Just go in with your eyes open: get there two hours before doors, pack a picnic, and be ready for a long day.

Have you been to a TV recording with your family? I’d love to hear how it went, so let me know in the comments or over on Instagram at @thefamilybeehive.