The masked singer has been doing it for a while without Nick Cannon. Shortly before the launch of season five, it was announced that the former had Mr Mariah Carey tested positive for COVID-19 and Niecy Nash would step in to host the Fox reality contest until he could safely return to work.Cannon’s hate speech scandal didn’t keep him from the stage, but public health at least.) Well, Cannon has apparently gotten a clean bill of health and will return as host on next week’s episode. Nash was a welcome change for fans of the very expensive guessing game, but it will be nice not to hear Judge Ken Jeong calling her “mama” every 30 seconds as he moves forward.
[Details of the April 7 episode of The Masked Singer discussed below.]
On tonight’s episode, Bulldog entered the competition as one of the ‘wild card’ entrants to be periodically added to the mix, one of this season’s many ‘groundbreaking twists’. Bulldog’s nasal rendition of New Editon’s “Candy Girl” ended an evening with performances by Black Swan (likely “Leave (Get Out)” vocalist JoJo), Chamelon (likely Wiz Khalifa), and Piglet (most likely Nick Lachey); as well as last week’s wildcard King Crab, who had a mild panic attack after overheating in his suit.
The unfortunate panic attack actually provided an interesting look behind the scenes of the set, as the cameras followed the poor Crab back to their waiting area where they exposed themselves behind a curtain. But that drama aside, the main event was the planned unveiling of “America’s Voice,” which dictated which contestant should be eliminated and unmasked. On pre-COVID seasons, The masked singer asked the live studio audience to vote with the judges. To prove that the vote was all on, they showed footage of spectators and the judges looking at their phones and worrying about which warbler to pack. Because this season the live audience is really just images from old seasons, we’ve been told that a small group of super fans have been given the opportunity to vote from home – but it’s never been explained how these super fans watch these episodes in real time, so how can we trust it? (Just like Dancing with the starsproducers never disclosed how much the judges’ votes are weighted compared to the audience’s votes, so there were probably always shenanigans anyway.)
But this week, Niecy Nash was tired of the puppet show. While the five remaining Group B contestants stood in front of her, waiting for the results of the vote, Nash—channeling Republicans in Georgia– revealed that she was changing the game, throwing out the votes and deciding the loser herself. The judges were shocked (or at least feigned shock) when Nash called Bulldog her choice to expose, but it all made sense when it was revealed that it was none other than Nick Cannon under the golden dog mask.
So now we’ve got Nick Cannon back, everyone. Yes …?
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