Trivia / The Masked Singer

• Author's Saving Throw:
  • The moment that Season 6 revealed the Take It Off Buzzer—which eliminates a contestant from the show if a panelist correctly guesses their identity—fans instantly began to despise it due to it having the potential to eliminate a frontrunner from the competition early. In addition, this gimmick ultimately turned out to be pointless, with both uses of it ending in failure and the singers it was used on ending up getting cut that episode normally anyways. The buzzer was swiftly retired the following season in order to avoid risking any more premature eliminations.
  • Season 8 caught a lot of flak for so many popular singers getting knocked out after only one or two performances thanks to its new format (where only one contestant on each episode would move on to the next episode, while everyone else is unmasked, regardless of quality). While Season 9 kept the new format introduced in Season 8, it also introduced the Ding Dong Keep It On Bell, which allowed the judges to save three singers who would compete for a chance to rejoin the competition, which meant at least a few possible frontrunners could get another chance. This proved to be very helpful, as Season 9's winner was a contestant saved by the bell. In addition, Season 10 reverts back to the old format, allowing contestants to get more performances in.
• Awesome, Dear Boy:
  • When asked why he agreed to be on the show, the Peacock responded with an enthusiastic, "Because it's fun!" In interviews following the finale, he even said being the Peacock was some of the most fun he ever had in his entire career. Bear in mind, it's Donny Osmond saying this!
  • JoJo Siwa took a break in the middle of her world tour so she could be on the show.
  • The Venus Flytrap (George Foreman) stated that his reason for doing TMS was because "It's the greatest show on Earth!"
  • Several contestants have stated that part of their reason for being on the show is how it's not only incredibly fun, but also an awesome way to bring some pure joy to the world. After getting unmasked, Bobby Berk even takes the time to thank the panel for all the joy they bring to the world.
• The Cast Showoff: In the Group B Finals of season 6, Robin and Nicole, who both have prior singing experience, show off their singing chops in duets with Banana Split and Queen of Hearts respectively. Both get a chance to show off multiple times starting in Season 8, where they occasionally kick off an episode with a song sung by them. Later, singer Rita Ora, who would replace Nicole, would kick off her debut season with a performance of her own.
• Colbert Bump: Many viewers have credited the show for introducing them to celebrities, singers and/or songs they had never heard before, such as "Native New Yorker", Lips' sole song.
• Content Leak:
  • Not a "true" leak, but close to one. Sometime prior to Season 5's airing, Caitlyn Jenner was spotted wearing a "Don't Talk To Me" hoodie in public (the outfit that contestants are required to wear when they're being transported to the set, or when they're not in their costumes while on set). From there, the Phoenix's identity was not as well-kept as all the others. Shortly after that, Tyrese Gibson posted a photo of himself wearing one, fueling fan speculation that he was on the show^note Even though said hoodies have been available to the public since the online Masked Singer store opened in 2020, those hoodies don't have a zipper, while theirs did. And sure enough, he was revealed as Robopine.
  • Also in Season 5, the Wildcard costumes were, for the most part, not revealed until their episodes aired. However, a local FOX station used three of the four wildcards in a poll during the lead-up to the season premiere.
  • Nearly a month prior to Season 7's premiere, Deadline revealed the first unmasked contestant to be Rudy Giuliani—someone way too controversial to be kept a secret prior to the premiere—and PEOPLE followed up with details regarding Ken Jeong's stance on the matter. Rudy did turn out to be on the show as Jack In The Box.
  • Shortly before the One Hit Wonders episode in season 10 aired, Deadline casually revealed that Hibiscus was Luann De Lesseps.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer:
  • When previewing Space Bunny's "Jump in the Line" performance, the show claimed the song was sung by Pitbull. While he did cover this song, his cover is very different from what was sung, which is more or less the original version by Harry Belafonte. This was fixed once the episode aired, correctly stating who the original singer was.
  • The article revealing Rudy Giuliani's involvement in Season 7 claimed that he was unmasked during the first episode—something that did not happen (Duff Goldman was unmasked instead). Rudy was unmasked as Jack In The Box six episodes later. It also stated that both Ken and Robin would walk off stage, but only Ken ended up doing so in the final moments of the episode. If Robin did walk off stage, it was not shown on camera.
  • A description for one of Season 7's episodes claimed that Leslie Jordan would be a guest panelist in that episode. Jordan did not appear at all in the episode, nor were there any guest panelists as well.
  • Several news outlets reported that Scarecrow was the first person to willingly withdraw from the show, with Jenny and even Nick making this mistake. The first withdrawal was actually Gremlin all the way back in season four. This was especially egregious as they brought Gremlin up a few episodes prior.
• Creator Backlash: A report from the Season 7 taping revealed that Ken Jeong walked off stage when they learned one of the contestants was Rudy Giuliani—Donald Trump's personal attorney and former mayor of New York, as Jeong (a doctor) wasn't happy that the show brought on a member of the previous presidential administration, who was criticized for mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic. This ended up being downplayed, as he walked off in the closing moments of the show.
• Creator's Favorite: Skunk/Faith Evans has stated that her favorite performance was "Square Biz".
• Enforced Method Acting: Every effort is made to obscure who the singers are to make sure the judges react genuinely during each reveal. The singers are kept isolated from everyone else, curtains and canopies are used to shield the singers from view, and the singers are required to wear baggy hoodies with hoods and masks that read "Don't Talk To Me" when they're not in costume.
• Follow the Leader:
  • White Tiger hamming it up and owning the stage to compensate for his mediocre vocals ended up setting a precedent, with Bear and T-Rex following in his footsteps and churning out memorable moments for the series.
  • As far as the show itself goes, Nickelodeon's Unfiltered has a very similar premise wherein celebrities' faces and voices are hidden behind photo filters and various Nickelodeon actors/actresses try to guess who the celeb is based on the clues given. Rather than revolving around a team of masked celebs who are present for the entire season, there are simply two different celebs each episode. As an added bonus, multiple celebrities who appeared on The Masked Singer (be they contestants or guest panelists) appeared on Unfiltered as well.
• Fountain of Expies: Monster, Monster, Monster. Ever since his victory in the first season of the show, there's been at least one Monster-type mask in a vast majority of the following seasons. Australia and Britain would have their own Monsters in their inaugural seasons, and that's not to mention all the international, non-English versions with their own takes on the Monster.
• He Also Did: Some of the contestants, while better known for other things, did pursue music careers in their past. Tommy Chong had been the guitarist for the Motown band Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers, while Terry Bradshaw, when he was still playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers, released three Country Music albums and had a Top 20 Country hit with a version of "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". Same applies to Barry Zito, who wrote a few songs himself, explains why he got so far.
• In Memoriam:
  • Hall Of Fame Night in Season 8 was dedicated to Lesile Jordan, who had made a guest appearance in the episode but had passed shortly before it aired.
  • British Invasion Night in Season 9 was dedicated to the Beetle aka Jerry Springer.
• Kids' Meal Toy: A set of plush toys were released for McDonald's in 2023.
• Milestone Celebration: Season 8's sixth episode was celebrated as the 100th episode of the series.
• On-Set Injury: In spite of the lack of danger based around the show, a few singers have reported accidents on the show. Note that this has never stopped any of them from performing.
  • In season two, shortly after her first song, Black Widow/Raven-Symoné broke her arm, as shown by the sling she wears in her next two performances.
  • From the same season as the above, Butterfly/Michelle Williams was electrocuted by an exploding carbon dioxide canister.
• Playing Against Type: A lot of musicians appear on the show because it allows them to anonymously try out different genres that they normally wouldn't get to do in public because of audience expectations and record labels.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Thanks to Nicole Scherzinger and Thingamajig's Ship Tease evolving into all-out flirting, Nick Cannon comes up with "Scherzingamajig".
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Borderline case in season 2 when Flower is revealed to be Patti Labelle, godmother to Nick Cannon's children.
  • Full case in season 5, when Cluedle-doo turns out to be Jenny McCarthy's husband Donnie Wahlberg.
• Real Song Theme Tune: The Who's "Who Are You", appropriately enough.
• Role Reprise: For his appearance on the show, Optimus Prime was played by his usual voice actor, Peter Cullen.
• Schedule Slip:
  • The fourth episode of Season 8 was preempted and pushed back to the following week due to a rain-delayed MLB playoffs game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Atlanta Braves. It did air in Canada on time, however, which led to the outcome of the episode being leaked online, much to the dismay of fans. The episode would also be delayed by 43 minutes by another game in the same series the following week.
  • The seventh episode of Season 10 would get preempted and pushed back to the next week due to an MLB playoffs game running over time.
• So My Kids Can Watch: Lil Wayne, who was the Robot in the third season, gave this as a reason for his participation.
  • Also inverted with Lonzo Ball, who was Whatchamacallit in the fourth season. After being unmasked, he mentioned that he wanted to surprise his mother since she watches the show.
  • Dwight Howard joined the show as Octopus for the exact same reason as Whatchamacallit—his mother loves the show.
  • This is also why Rudy Giuliani took part as Jack in the Box, for his newborn granddaughter.
  • A partial reason why Jerry Springer went on the show was for his grandson.
  • Lou Diamond Phillps credits his daughter as being the reason he competed.
• What Could Have Been:
  • In interviews following their unmaskings, many of the celebrities revealed some of the songs they would have sung had they stayed longer in the competition:
    • Lion / Rumer Willis has mentioned planning to sing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler for the season 1 finals. Tree would later sing it in season 2.
    • Eagle / Dr. Drew mentioned planning to sing Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me" as his next performance.
    • Butterfly / Michelle Williams planned on singing Beyoncé's "Love On Top".
    • Tree / Ana Gasteyer mentioned planning to perform Céline Dion's "All By Myself" for the Christmas special semifinals, including a skit involving being the last tree chosen on a Christmas Tree lot.
    • Thingamajig / Victor Oladipo planned to save performing Sam Smith's "Stay With Me" for the finale^note Which was already sung by Monster in Season 1.
    • Played with for Rottweiler / Chris Daughtry, who has mentioned that, had he been sent to the Smackdown, he would have performed "Bye Bye Bye" by N Sync. Interestingly enough, the same song would be performed for a real Smackdown in season 3 by Astronaut.
    • Swan / Bella Thorne has revealed that she wanted to sing Miley Cyrus's "The Climb" and "Changes" by XXXTentacion. The former song would later be sung by Ringmaster in Season 7.
    • Lips / Wendy Williams had planned to sing Eddie Murphy's "Party All the Time" for her next performance.
    • Seahorse/ Tori Kelly had planned to sing Disclosure and Sam Smith's "Latch" had she gotten to the finals.
    • Snail/Kermit the Frog had intended to sing The Monkees' "I'm A Believer" in the second round. This would later be sung by the remaining contestants in that season's Recap Episode.
    • Baby/Larry the Cable Guy had planned to sing "Vehicle" by The Ides of March had he gotten to the quarter finals. He would later be able to sing this in the post-season recap episode via rehearsal footage.
    • Hamster/Rob Schneider had planned to sing "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Amish Paradise" had he gotten to the semi finals.
    • McTerrier/Duff Goldman intended to sing "All Star" by Smash Mouth for his second performance. The song would later be used for the Battle Royale between Gopher and Bride the next season.
    • Hydra/Penn and Teller intended to sing "Karma Chameleon" by Culture Club had they gotten to the Group B Finals.
    • Prince/Cheyenne Jackson intended to sing "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen in the final round. The song would later be sung by Robo Girl in the following season.
    • Future songs that Axolotl/Alexa Bliss planned to sing included "Check Yes, Juliet" by We The Kings and "This Is Me" from The Greatest Showman.
    • Doll/Dee Snider intended to sing "The Final Countdown" by Europe in his season's space-themed episode.
    • Sir Lion/Billy Bush had planned to sing the Zac Brown Band's "Chicken Fried" for his next episode.
  • Before joining Season 4 as the Lips, Wendy Williams was offered to join Season 2 as the Tree.
  • Nick Carter and Ron Killings were approached to participate in the third season as the Turtle and the White Tiger respectively. Carter turned down the offer due to touring commitments with the Backstreet Boys, while Killings turned it down due to not being as familiar with the show unlike the other contestants that were offered. Funnily enough, Carter was a common guess for the Turtle's identity. Carter would eventually participate in the fourth season as the Crocodile. Killings did express interest in participating if he gets another call now being familiar with the show.
  • Night Angel admitted she was supposed to be in Group A but had to wait until Group C to perform due to the birth of her daughter.
  • When Tom Bergeron was cast for Season 3, he was offered a choice between a Taco costume and a Jellyfish costume before choosing the Taco. The Jellyfish would eventually be used in Season 4.
    • Similarly, En Vogue said that they were offered costumes based off the Three Musketeers.
  • As revealed on the show's podcast, Bow Wow was originally going to be the Astronaut on Season 3 before his friends convinced him the choose the Frog costume.
  • Brian Austin Green was offered the choice of either being the Giraffe or the Serpent in Season 4 before choosing the former, as the Serpent was too "character-specific" for him.
  • Before becoming the Sun, LeAnn Rimes was offered a Moon costume to wear.
  • As the clue packages for Season 4 were animated, unused ones were made for performers. For instance, here’s one for the Dragon.
  • As revealed in some concept art, some of the costumes originally had different names. Squiggly Monster was Squiggly Eyes, the Orca was the Whale, the Raccoon was the Junkyard Sheriff, the Mallard was the Duck, the Mummies were Mummy and Daddy, and the Pi-Rat was the Pirate.
  • The Cupcake was originally supposed to be a duo costume, similar to fellow Season 6 costume Banana Split, consisting of Ruth and Anita Pointer of the Pointer Sisters (if you’re curious, the third sister, Bonnie, died in 2020). However, Anita had to back out of the show due to health issues, which would wind up causing her own death, and Cupcake was retooled into a solo contestant with Ruth joining the season alone.
  • Mother Nature was originally going to debut in Season 4 as a member of what would become Group B, but it was decided to save the costume for another season, so it debuted in Season 6. The Serpent, which was originally a member of what became Group C, took her spot.
  • Similarly, Hydra was planned to be a Season 3 contestant but was pushed back until Season 7.
  • Meanwhile, the Mummies were originally slated for Season 7 (presumably on Team Bad), but were moved to the following season. The original concept for the Mummies were a duo—one male and one female—and their name (as mentioned above) would have been Mummy and Daddy.
  • The Pepper wasn't originally Natasha Bedingfield—the costume was initially given to another celebrity. However, said celebrity dropped out of the competition at the last minute, prompting the team to give the Pepper costume to Natasha just 24 hours before the costume's debut.
  • The National Tour originally had fifty stops, culminating in a visit to Las Vegas, but a COVID outbreak within the cast caused it to be cancelled after the show in San Antonio.
  • Initially, Dick Van Dyke's encore performance was going to be "Chim Chim Cher-ee", his character Bert's Signature Song from Mary Poppins. However, Dick pushed for "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" instead, due to the song's more peppy tone compared to "Chim Chim Cher-ee".
  • Anne Heche was planned to be one of the celebrities appearing in Season 8. However, the plans were iced when she died just before filming began for the season.
  • One of the costumes slated to appear in Season 9 was the French Hen, a red hen wearing a beret. The costume was mentioned in the season's first press release, and was later shown off as part of the season's poster. However, the French Hen did not appear in the season at all, leading many to believe that the costume was cut from the show at the last second. The costume is believed to have been reworked into Season 10’s Royal Hen costume.
  • The Mustang was initially slated to first appear in the second episode of her season. However, after a last-minute dropout by another contestant when they tested positive for COVID-19 (believed to be the aforementioned French Hen costume), she took their place in the first episode instead and Debbie Gibson took the Mustang's place in ABBA Night as the Night Owl.
  • Before he appeared as a contestant on Season 9, Dee Snider was asked to participate on the show's very first season. He declined, believing that the show would fail.

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