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Jackie O and Osher 'not required' to quarantine on return to NSW

The 2020 season of The Masked Singer has been plagued with setbacks right from the get-go, with international judge Lindsay Lohan scrapped due to travel restrictions, various celeb spoilers and an on-set COVID-19 outbreak that saw production grind to a halt.

There was some good news, however, for judge Jackie ‘O’ Henderson and host Osher Gunsberg who were able to avoid the mandatory 14-day quarantine period upon returning home to NSW from virus stricken Melbourne.

Jackie 'O' Henderson wearing a plastic face shield and a colourful dress backstage on The Masked Singer
Jackie 'O' Henderson reveals she was 'not required' to quarantine on return to NSW. Photo: Instagram/jackieo_official.

Speaking on her radio show on Wednesday, Jackie O revealed that she was informed by an NSW Health official that she was ‘not required’ to go into self-isolation after jetting into Sydney earlier this week.

Why? Because the mum-of-one had already completed a stint of hotel quarantine in Melbourne after at least 16 crew members on the Channel 10 singing competition tested positive for coronavirus in late August.

“I was a close contact so I had to quarantine as did pretty much everyone for 14 days,” Jackie O said.

She went on to explain that she and Osher returned home to shoot the season finale in a Sydney studio in order to avoid breaking their quarantine ‘bubble’.

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Osher Gunsberg wearing a mask on set of The Masked Singer
Osher sported a mask on set after the COVID-19 outbreak. Photo: Channel 10.

“Now because we’ve quarantined for that 14 days, if we had of at the end of that gone back into our Melbourne studios to film that finale, we would not have been able to return to Sydney without having to do another two weeks’ hotel quarantine because we’ve broken the bubble.”

Jackie O’s fellow judges Dannii Minogue and Dave Hughes remained in Melbourne where they currently live while New Zealander Urzila Carlson flew home only to face less good fortune when it came to self-isolating.

“Osher and I go back to Sydney, Dannii and Dave stay in Melbourne and Urzila goes back to New Zealand, unfortunately in New Zealand they have different laws and she has to do more quarantining,” she said.

“She did two weeks of quarantine before we started, then she did two weeks of quarantine because she was a close contact and now she’s doing a further two weeks so she’s six weeks quarantine.”

The Masked Singer cast Dannii Minogue, Osher Gunsberg, Jackie O Henderson, Urzila Carlson and Dave Hughes
The Masked Singer cast all returned to their respective homes to film the show's finale. Photo: Channel 10.

Masked Singer finale scrapped

Filming for The Masked Singer finale was called off in the eleventh hour due to the virus cluster which kicked off when a dancer revealed they weren’t feeling well. Seven dancers returned positive COVID tests while a further nine crew later tested positive as well.

“We were literally two hours away from hitting record on our grand finale,” Osher said at the time on The Project.

The coronavirus drama is yet to be over for the dad-of-two, who is set to be missing from several key episodes of the other show he hosts, The Bachelorette Australia, when the newest season kicks off later this year.

Channel 10 confirmed that due to the outbreak on The Masked Singer Osher “will not appear in some of the later episodes due to quarantine restrictions”.

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