Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.

In a completely unscientific poll a year ago just before the pandemic began, Fox’s “The Masked Singer” was the TV show children wanted to talk about most during a career day at my sons’ elementary school.

Season-to-date for 2020-21 “The Masked Singer” (8 p.m. Wednesday, WPGH-TV) is a Top 10 show in the advertiser-coveted age 18-49 demographic, according to Nielsen.

The Fox competition series, which features a panel of celebrities (Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger and Robin Thicke) trying to guess the identities of a roster of heavily costumed singers, returns for its spring season Wednesday with guest host Niecy Nash (“Claws,” “Reno 911!”) subbing for usual host Nick Cannon, who was sidelined with covid-19 for the first half of the show’s new season.

“Nick rejoins towards the second half of the season,” said executive producer James Breen earlier this month during an online press conference in Fox’s portion of the virtual Television Critics Association winter press tour. “I won’t be too specific about how many shows, but Niecy … just stepped in — it was pretty last minute — and immediately had her own chemistry with the panel.”

Nash, who’d previously been a guest panelist on “The Masked Singer,” said it was a completely different experience hosting.

“I wanted my own guesses. I wanted to look to my left or right and say, ‘Now, which one do you think it sounds like?’ but you can’t because you are up there trying to lead the charge, lead the circus,” she said. “However, every time I had a free moment, I was somewhere trying to figure out the clues and take in the clue package. So, I loved it because I still felt like a viewer at home even though I was hosting.”

In addition to a guest judge, the new season features wildcard rounds and introduces a new costumed character, Cluedle-doo, a secret celebrity guest who doles out clues costumed in a chicken head.

“It’s always about how can we make it fresh?” said executive producer Craig Plestis. “How can we do something a little bit different but still not go off the format? And I think what we did is just a natural evolution of the format. And, honestly, it was fun filming it.”

The fifth season’s masked contestants have a combined 26 Grammy nominations, nine multi-platinum singles, four Academy Award nominations and three Super Bowl appearances.

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