‘The Masked Singer’ Winner Revealed
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Spoiler Warning: Do not continue reading if you haven’t watched “The Masked Singer” season finale “Road to the Finals,” airing on Dec. 18.
After eliminating 13 contestants over the course of “The Masked Singer,” the show revealed its Season 2 winner on the finale episode.
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The Fox was presented with the Golden Mask on Wednesday night, with Grammy award-nominated and Emmy winner Wayne Brady revealed as the celeb behind the mask.
“This has been the coolest, most amazing, most touching, most challenging, weirdest, and this is the weirdest — and I host ‘Let’s Make a Deal.’ But, God, I mean, really I’m gonna take this with me forever,” Brady said following the unmasking. “This show is amazing because of the mask you lead talent-first. So there’s no one to say, ‘Wayne Brady doing our– Shut up, that’s the funny guy.'”
“Somebody who could pull all that off, sing all those different styles. There only a few people in the business like that, and Wayne is one of them for sure,” panelist Robin Thicke, who correctly guessed Brady, said.
The final contestants were narrowed down to the Rottweiler, the Flamingo, and the Fox. The performer with the most votes from audience members earned the Golden Mask, with the Flamingo taking third place and revealed to be Cheetah Girl Adrienne Bailon.
The panelists submitted their final guesses for the performer behind the pink mask, with Thicke, Jenny McCarthy and Nicole Scherzinger going with Bailon. In the end, Ken Jeong admitted he didn’t know who the Flamingo was, eventually choosing Jessica Simpson.
After the Fox was announced as the winner, panelists had to give their final guesses for the Rottweiler. Scherzinger and Thicke went with Darren Criss, while McCarthy guessed Jason Mraz. Jeong bizarrely decided to go with Dave Franco.
No one on the panel proved to be right though, with Chris Daughtry revealed to be the Rottweiler, blowing both the panelists and the audience’s minds.
“When T-Pain won, I was just like, ‘I just want to do this. That looks like so much fun,'” Daughtry said, before reprising his stunning performance of Sia’s “Alive” from earlier in the episode. “I had no idea how challenging it was gonna be. I’m so happy I did it. And my kids have no idea I’m doing this, so I’m so pumped for them to see this.”
At last, the panelists had to submit final selections for who the Fox was. Jeong and McCarthy stuck with their longtime suspicions of Jamie Foxx as the Fox, but Thicke and Scherzinger correctly went with Brady.
The first hour of the finale episode reflected on each of the finalists’ road to the top, highlighting their best performances and touching on some initial guesses from the judges as to who they may be. It also went over the contestants who had been unmasked so far, as well as the clues that could have led viewers to guess the performers.
In the Fox’s final clues of the season, he explained that he was paying particular attention to his dance moves, before soulfully performing Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness.” Partway through, he broke into an original rap and stunned the panelists with a sharp dance routine. He then gave a short, emotional speech that brought panelist Nicole Scherzinger to tears.
“I swear to you, I didn’t know until right now exactly how much winning this would mean. This is…,” the Fox’s voice broke. “This is all I’ve done my whole life. And I’ve been able to be blessed enough to make a lot of people happy. But I haven’t always been happy myself. It’s taken me all this time to find my joy again.”
The Flamingo took the stage to perform Tina Turner’s “Proud Mary.” “I was told I’d never amount to anything, and even though I’ve doubted myself, I’m determined and I’m hard-working,” she said after the rendition. “I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Panelist Jenny McCarthy and Scherzinger leaned on the Flamingo’s cheetah luggage clue, as well as an emphasis on the word “Israel,” to mean the Flamingo is Cheetah Girl Adrienne Bailon. Jeong disagreed, however, putting forth one of his typically nutty suggestions with Fergie.
The Rottweiler took the stage to blow the panelists away with a rendition of “Alive,” prompting the Scherzinger and Thicke to double down on their guess of Darren Criss.
In the season premiere, the Egg was revealed to be Olympic figure skater Jonny Weir, while Ice Cream was unmasked as professional gamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins. The second episode saw the revelation of the Eagle as Dr. Drew Pinsky; none of the panelists guessed his identity, including McCarthy, who worked with him on MTV. Retired heavyweight boxer and daughter of Muhammad Ali, Laila Ali, was also unmasked as the Panda.
Paul Shaffer turned out to be the Skeleton, though Jeong was sure it was Martin Short. Actress, comedian, and former co-host of “The View” Sherri Shepherd was the Penguin, and Raven-Symone was the Black Widow — though guest judge Anthony Anderson couldn’t figure out her identity despite her guest role on his series, “Black-ish.” “The Talk” host Kelly Osbourne was revealed as the Ladybug, while the Flower’s recognizable vocals turned out to be Godmother of Soul Patti LaBelle.
The Butterfly was revealed as Michelle Williams and the Tree turned out to be Ana Gasteyer while during last week’s semi-finals, the Thingamajig was unmasked as Victor Oladipo and the Leopard as Seal.
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