Y2K boy band star known as S'More gets roasted on 'The Masked Singer'

The Masked Singer’s Disco Night opened Wednesday with disco combo the Trammps burning up the stage with their classic “Disco Inferno,” but by the end of the evening’s Group A semifinals, the S’More got roasted. Despite giving a performance of KC and the Sunshine Band’s “That’s the Way (I Like It)” that the judges seem to like very much — Nicole Scherzinger had even told him that he “brought his A-game at the right time” and was “heating up this competition” — the marshmallow man was eliminated, his dreams of making the Season 10 finals thus going up in flames.

Everyone on the panel was sure that this crooner with the gooey vocals and heart-melting stage presence was a boy band veteran, guessing New Kids on the Block’s Jordan Knight or the Backstreet Boys’ Kevin Richardson or AJ McLean. But only boy band expert Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg, wife of NKOTB’s Donnie Wahlberg, figured out that this sweet singer was O-Town’s Ashley Parker Angel. Even Robin Thicke guessed wrong (he believed it was Jordan), despite one of the clues being that the S’More had partied at Robin’s home! I guess Robin has thrown quite a few ragers in his day.

"The Masked Singer is unlike any show on Earth! Such an incredible experience as a performer, seriously," Ashley said, once he was freed from his "toasty" costume.

And so, the "All or Nothing" singer walked away from the show with nothing but some fond memories, leaving Group A's Cow and Gazelle to face off, so to speak, in a Battle Royale on Gloria Gaynor’s disco anthem “I Will Survive.” Only one of these contestants was supposed to survive, but after Robin called this “two of strongest vocals we’ve ever had” and Ken declared this performance the toughest Battle Royale in Masked Singer history, Ken went rogue and decided to ring the “unanimous” Ding Dong Keep It On Bell to save the Gazelle and advance her to the next round. I didn’t disagree with Ken’s seemingly spontaneous stunt, nor his Ken's fellow judges — Gazelle was on fire this week herself — but I believe he made his emotional decision based on his unwavering (and of course totally incorrect) belief that Gazelle is his bestie, Constance Wu. It's not.

So… who are the Gazelle and Cow, really? To quote Ken, I know exactly who they are. Read on.

Cow, “Ring My Bell”

Before the Ding Dong Keep It On Bell tolled, Cow covered Anita Ward’s one-hit disco wonder with bell-clear vocals that host Nick Cannon called “next-level” and Robin described as “buttery,” “smooth,” and “dairy, dairy good.” Nicole said she’d never heard “Ring My Bell” sung quite like this before.

The clues: Growing up, he had an absentee father and his mom held down “seven jobs” to make ends meet. He’s also “spent time with Jenny’s hubby,” and other clues have included a red traffic light, judge’s gavel, mention of a role in a “moosical,” dance shoes, Grammy Awards, “hit after hit after hit,” a Las Vegas sign, and a movie ticket. But the most specific clue was a funny story about how Cow and his friends once packed up a van and headed to Hollywood, where they vainly performed in Capitol Records parking lot every day to attract A&R executives’ attention. That strategy failed, but now the Cow's picture hangs in the Capitol Records hallway and he “sees the bigwigs all the time.”

Judges’ guesses: Nelly, Ne-Yo, Usher.

My guess: This is definitely three-time Grammy-winner Ne-Yo — Robin’s guess, despite Nick’s surprising skepticism — based on the Capitol Records anecdote alone. According to Ne-Yo’s Behind the Music episode, he once drove from Vegas (where he was raised by a single mom) to L.A. with his late-‘90s/early-2000s boy band, Envy, and blasted Envy’s demo tape outside the iconic Capitol Records building hoping to a land a deal, only to be shooed away by security guards. Ne-Yo has also released an album titled R.E.D., been a judge on World of Dance, appeared in the movie musical Save the Last Dance 2, and recorded a collab with NKTOB. And real Masked Singer nerds might even recognize Cow’s voice from when Ne-Yo was runner-up the Badger on The Masked Singer U.K.!

Gazelle, “On the Radio”

Singing a Donna Summer ballad is no easy task, but this beautiful creature pulled it off with gazelle-like grace and a radio-ready voice. Jenny got “chills,” and Ken called Gazelle a “peak performer” who’d delivered her “greatest performance yet.”

The clues: She was a “hammy” kid and the black sheep of her family, but her parents were supportive and “uprooted their entire life” for her dreams. We also know that she “loved and lost” someone just a few weeks before she got married, and that she “crashed and burned” on a national talent show as a teenager. We’ve also seen a magnifying glass, a mouse (an apparent Disney reference), dog-tags, a surfboard, a Hawaiian shirt, a sign that said “Threat Level 3” (indicating she's a triple-threat entertainer), cheerleader pom-poms, a movie soundtrack, and the words “island vibes” and “villain.”

Judges’ guesses: Auliʻi Cravalho, Vanessa Hudgens, Maggie Q, Shay Mitchell, and, yes, Constance Wu.

My guess: I am certain this is Hawaiian actress/singer/Disney star Janel Parrish. Janel has won four surfboard-shaped trophies at the Teen Choice Awards for Best Villain and was rejected on Star Search at age 14 — right around the time that her family moved from Hawaii to Los Angeles so she could pursue a showbiz career — but the biggest tip-off is Janel’s father-in-law was killed by a drunk driver two weeks before her 2018 wedding to Chris Long. “When Chris started talking about his dad, the sky opened up and it just started pouring rain on us. … It was such a beautiful moment,” she told ET in 2019. The Gazelle is Janel.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

• Ken Jeong on his biggest 'Masked Singer' guessing fail: 'I'm not only shocked, but embarrassed'

• Nick Cannon on quitting 'America’s Got Talent': 'One of the best decisions I ever made in my career'

• Tennis queen Billie Jean King performs the song Elton John wrote for her — on 'The Masked Singer' Elton John Night

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