Face Off, one of the best reality shows on TV, is doing something I can't remember another reality show doing. The judge's will be competing in a one hour special tonight. It looks amazing.
Part of what makes Face Off work is the panel of judges. You have three professionals who actually do makeup, fabrication, and effects for a living. This season actually added a fourth, Lois Burwell, because Ve Neill was actually doing makeup on set for the next Hunger Games film during the shoot. Glenn Hetrick is in charge of the designs for those films and Neville Page is a professional creature designer.
On tonight's episode, the judges get the advantage the finalists have. Each judge gets to choose two former contestants to assist them in a makeup challenge. I think that's fair. Ve, Glenn, and Neville (I'm pretty sure Lois wasn't even cast when the special was filmed) are are professionals, but they've never competed before.
The current season is the first time the contestants have ever been judged so harshly on a solo look their first challenge. They also got to use storebought prosthetics to make it work. Every other season opens with a team challenge to break the contestants in.
If nothing else, tonight's episode should feature amazing paint jobs. The common thread among the majority of eliminations on Face Off is the paint job. The eliminated contestant usually mismanages their time and really strikes out on finishing details. Let's just say it will be very funny if these judges don't get good colors down on their makeups.
Face Off is airing its seventh season right now on Tuesday nights at 9PM EST. There's also a marathon starting today at 3PM of all the episodes of the season so far. I know what I'm doing today.