YMMV / The Masked Singer

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Ken really that much of a Clueless Detective? Or is he just playing up the image he's a horrible guesser on purpose? While some of his guesses may point to the former, the fact he nearly won the Golden Ear trophy twice (including nearly tying with Nicole in Season Six, with only a last minute correct guess putting the former ahead) and was able to get some of the harder guesses certainly implies that he is smarter than he lets on.
• Awesome Ego: A few of the contestants, such as the Bee, the Peacock, and the Rabbit, are all very confident and can be a little boastful, but it's in a lighthearted way, and the judges and the audience agree that they're absolutely delightful. (And given just who some of the contestants have been revealed to be, they've certainly earned the right to it.)
• Awesome Music: Has its own page.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • While all of the judges have this to some degree due to their consistantly clueless and bizarre guesses, as well as being rather overpraising, the two who garner the most hate on the US version are Ken Jeong and Jenny McCarthy.
    • Some find Ken's absolutely off-the-wall guesses to be a funny, refreshing change of pace from the other, relatively more serious judges, while others find him to be a loud, obnoxious Attention Whore whose spot on the panel would be better filled by just about anyone else. This also applies to his role as one of the panelists in the UK version, especially with his lack of knowledge of British celebrities. It does not, however, apply to his role as a contestant in the South Korean version, where he is very warmly received and performs impressively.
    • Owing to her controversial beliefs, her ego, and tendency to poke fun of Ken, Jenny McCarthy has become an increasingly divisive judge on the show. Some even go so far as to claim that she is fed correct guesses by producers of the show. Others, however, love her for the exact same reasons and are highly impressed by how good of a guesser she is.
  • On the contestant side of things is White Tiger from season 3, who is either seen as a giant ball of fun and charisma, or an annoyance who can't sing and somehow beat out the likes of Lil Wayne and Chaka Khan. Basically everyone seems to agree he should have lost first of Group A. Fortunately, he was the first of the Super 9 to go.
  • While Downplayed in comparison to White Tiger, T-Rex from the same season got a similar reputation for her rather mediocre singing, and yet still managing to beat out Bella Thorne for the second round. Despite this, she is rather liked for her eccentric dancing and surprising amount of energy in that costume, or not, considering it's Jojo Siwa under there.
  • Of the winning singers, Night Angel tends to be the most divisive. While no one can deny that she’s a good singer who definitely deserved her place in the finale, many personally felt Turtle should have beaten her out. In addition, many people are upset she won as it retroactively denied the much more well-liked Sun (who appeared only one season later) the title of first female winner. However, in recent years, more people have been defending her, claiming that her finale performance was just as good as Turtle's and the fact she was the first female winner in the first place is seen as something worth pointing out, as she clearly did something right for it.
  • The Phoenix (Caitlyn Jenner) has been getting a lot of heat lately for their political beliefs and low caliber performance. However, some people still see their performance as So Bad, It's Good.
  • Chameleon, also from season five, is either thought of as being a really fun rapper whose different rapping styles kept him interesting, or a bland singer who should have been eliminated instead of Seashell/Russian Dolls/Yeti. Building on this are debates of whether or not his finale performance was worth him getting to the finales in the first place, as, while it was agreed to be one of, if not his best performance the whole season, there are fans that claim it doesn't matter how good the performance was, he shouldn't have made it that far to begin with.
  • Raccoon had possibly the worst singing voice in the show's history, being scratchy and ear-wrenching, but when he was unmasked as Danny Trejo, people enjoyed seeing a badass behind the mask, who was clearly having fun even if he wasn't the best singer. It didn’t help that he somehow made it through two episodes, likely due to backstage politics for Snail being a fictional character, namely Kermit the Frog, and therefore requiring a licensing fee to participate that FOX was not willing to pay.
  • The Beach Ball is one of the most poorly received contestants ever to appear on the show, judging by the reactions on social media, but there was disagreement as to why. Some criticized the singing, with many viewers calling it the worst performance in the show's history. Others were dismayed by the reveal that the Ball contained Mama June and Honey Boo Boo, deriding the producers for using "C-list celebrities" whose "fifteen minutes [of fame] expired years ago." That being said, there are also quite a few fans who enjoyed them due to viewing their performance as So Bad, It's Good.
  • Firefly from season 7 may have stolen Night Angel's spot as the most controversial winner. Some people love her for her underdog story throughout the season and the fact she had to fight her way to the top, while others felt that she unfairly robbed Ringmaster, Prince and/or Thingamabob, who, in the minds of several, had far better voices and performances with a sob story. Not helped by the fact her final song was one of Robin's, leading many to claim that she only beat the extremely popular Ringmaster out of bias.
  • Medusa would ultimately become another base breaking winner, even though she began her run as a fan favorite. Some people were fine with her victory, declaring that she earned her way back into the game and deserved to win because of it. Others claimed it was unfair that someone who had already been eliminated managed to claim the Golden Mask, especially over a singer who made it the finals fairly (in this case Macaw), leading to claims that the show rigged it to give her a victory to that they could have an underdog story. A third group thought that she shouldn't have even made it that far to begin with and claimed that she did more screaming than singing.
• Broken Base: The fact that dancing and other external factors seem to now be considered for who gets eliminated each week; some believe it makes sense that other factors should add/subtract from a performer, especially as the eliminations gets harder and harder to decide, while others think it takes away from what makes the show fun in the first place. This is especially prominent among critics of the Fox and White Tiger; the latter because he barely even sang during his performances in exchange for dancing, and the former (while still considered a great singer) is seen by a small fraction of the fandom as only having beaten Rottweiler thanks to his stunning choreography.
• Captain Obvious Reveal:
  • The reveal of White Tiger as NFL star Rob "The Gronk" Gronkowski was, to put it mildly, not surprising in the slightest (unless, of course, you don't know anything about American football).
  • With how dominant they were throughout their respective seasons, very few people were shocked when Sun and Harp were crowned the winners of their respective seasons.
• Crack Ship: The National Tour contains the pairing of Alien and Taco. No, not the singers inside (although that would also count as one of these), the actual costumes.
• Critical Dissonance: Downplayed. While critics were generally not fond of the series, audiences were somewhat more receptive (but still erring towards critical); at any rate, its ratings have been described as "the highest rated unscripted debut on any network in seven years, excluding post-NFL".
• Crosses the Line Twice: Ken Jeong's guess for White Tiger in episode 3 is Fabio, bringing up the case of that bird-in-the-face accident as a hint. Rather than a more flattering picture of Fabio, which can't be that hard to find, they show Fabio's bloodied face after said accident.
• Discredited Meme: The first episode of the fifth season introduces a jar, to which the panelists have to donate money if they continue to make their overused guesses of Jamie Foxx, Björk, Johnny Knoxville, or Lindsay Lohan. By the time of the Spicy Six episode, the jar is almost full.
• Elimination Houdini:
  • The White Tiger spent his performances doing more dancing than singing, yet still got through to the merge. Fortunately, that was as far as he got.
  • Season 10's Sea Queen has been shown to be a mediocre performer at best in her times singing, especially when compared to Group B's more colorful and lively singers like Hawk or Tiki, yet managed to get past both of them, along with Husky, to go to the finale. Predictably, upon reaching the finals and being up against three far stronger singers, she was the first one unmasked.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • While Peacock and Lion were already being touted as the strongest contenders for the first season, the Rabbit slowly gained attention for not only shifting song genres every time, but pulling them off and generally knowing how to work the crowd.
  • On the opposite side of the spectrum, the Deer was a relatively early boot from the first season who gained himself a sizable fanbase despite not having the best voice.
  • Despite their short runs in the second season, both Ice Cream and Skeleton quickly found themselves becoming the standout favorites of series due to their exaggerated personalities and how well they worked their crowds. Certainly helps that both acted like a Graceful Loser after their losses.
  • All of the early eliminations of Group A in season 3 (Robot, Llama, and Miss Monster) received shockingly positive receptions among fans for their fun personalities, the fact all of them had surprisingly good voices for early eliminations, and their unique costumes. Many argue that they likely could have lasted longer if the odds weren't stacked against them with the likes of the Turtle and Kangaroo.
  • In spite of being the first elimination, the Snail is hugely popular, mainly due to the fact that their real identity is Kermit the Frog.
  • Pufferfish, in spite of an early elimination, has been rather well received by the fandom for being a pretty good singer in her short runtime and only really being eliminated because she had the misfortune to be stuck with two new wildcards and powerhouses Bull and Skunk.
  • Several of the one off singers from season 8 were very well received by the fandom due to being very talented singers who no doubt would have lasted longer had it been a normal season. Examples include Hummingbird, Panther, Mermaid, Mazie, Walrus, Milkshake, Sir Bug a Boo and Scarecrow.
  • Much like season 8, season 9 also had quite a few one off singers that the fandom loved and wished they lasted longer. Examples include Mustang, Night Owl, Jackalope and Lamp.
  • Some of the guest judges have gotten this response, to the point many hope they'll join the show full-time.
• Epileptic Trees: Par for the course for a series whose primary mystery is dragged out for several weeks. A popular one for the first season involved Donny Osmond being hospitalised for a shoulder injury being a cover story to keep him under the radar for an extended period of time - because he's the Peacock. They were right.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • One of the season 2 teasers involves the Rottweiler ending with saying "roses are blue, violets are red." Dogs are colorblind.^note At least to an extent. They see fewer colors than humans do, but their vision isn't completely grayscale, as opposed to what most people seem to think.
  • Nick comments to the Crocodile that this singing competition is "different from the rivers and the lakes that you're used to." It's not just Waxing Lyrical; crocodiles happen to be freshwater creatures.
  • One reason the athletes do surprisingly well is because regular cardiovascular training helps to boost their vocal delivery, which also explains how the retired athletes like Terry Bradshaw and Caitlyn Jenner tend to be outed rather early.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Guest judge Jamie Foxx read Miss Monster's body language and deduced that she was a diva-level singer, going into a campy impression of a diva saying "don't have me in this too long". Miss Monster was eliminated just two weeks later.
  • At the beginning of Group C's Round 2 performances, Nick states that the competition is "the real March Madness." This comes right after the 2020 NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments had been cancelled as a result of the Coronavirus.
  • The episode with Banana's performance of "Lean on Me" by Bill Withers aired just a few weeks before Withers's passing. Could also be an example of Heartwarming in Hindsight due to Banana singing it as a tribute.
  • During the April Fools episode of the third season, Nick Cannon announced that it was going to be his last episode, only to reveal that it was a joke and that "you can't get rid of me". Then, prior to the fourth season, he made some racist statements on his podcast that caused him to be fired from some of his other shows, complete with a fan push to remove him from Masked Singer as well. Fortunately for his joke, FOX has chosen to not get rid of him at this time. This was further tested when Nick tested positive for COVID at the time when the fifth season was to be taped, forcing the show to bring in guest host Niecy Nash as a temporary replacement.
  • After the Hydra's second performance in season 7, the show played a clip of Gilbert Gottfried giving his support to the performers. The Hydra was eliminated and unmasked that episode, but far more tragically, Gottfried passed away less than a week after the episode aired.
  • To some, it can be difficult to watch Bull's journey in season 6 where he was one of the most positive and popular contestants knowing that Todrick Hall would follow up his appearance here with a stint on Celebrity Big Brother, where he'd end up becoming one of the most hated contestants in recent memory, being constantly mean-spirited and degrading to others, with sexual assault allegations not helping his case.
  • An instant example: the seventh episode of Season 8 begins with Nicole singing "Fame", with the prominent follow-up line "I'm gonna live forever". The second thing that happens? Introducing the guest panelist Leslie Jordan, who had unfortunately already died between the episode's taping and airing.
    • To make matters even worse, Irene Cara, the original singer of "Fame", died just sixteen days after the episode aired.
  • The Jester aka John Lyndon mentions in his second clue package that he and his wife have been married for 45 years. One and a half years later, his wife Nora Forster died at the age of 80.
    • Same goes for Cupcake. After Ruth Pointer is unmasked, she revealed she was supposed to compete alongside her sister Anita Pointer. Anita would never get the chance to compete, as she died one year later.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • Chris Daughtry was famously a victim of Shocking Elimination back in the day, making his second placing in this show's season two very long in coming.
  • One of Panda's clues was a letter to her Papa Bear. Turns out her dad had not only died, he was Muhammad Ali.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • One of the group performances consisted of Monster, Peacock, Bee and Raven. The first three are the final three of the season.
  • Also from the group performances, Rabbit, Lion, Alien and Unicorn come out in that order which is the reverse of their elimination order.
  • Tori Spelling being a unicorn, after having been involved in promotions for a wedding-themed My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic season finale.
  • Thanks to the semifinal episode, we got to watch Joey Fatone challenge a singing Bee.
  • One review of the show off the bat compared it to, basically, "what if the new Philadelphia Flyers mascot sang 'Stay With Me', and was revealed to be Joey Fatone?'" While "Stay With Me" was already spoilered in the earliest trailers, predicting Joey Fatone as one of the last few singers revealed is just uncanny.
  • Jenny's guess for the Rabbit was her husband, Donnie Walhberg. He would later turn out to be Cluedle-Doo... and Jenny didn't guess him this time.
  • Nick Cannon made a slightly mean joke about Billy Ray Cyrus being a has-been - a few months later, Billy would have his revenge by being part of the critically and memetically popular "Old Town Road" (a country/hip-hop track that blew up bigger than Nick's pure hip-hop pieces).
  • In the first season, the first guess ever made was when the Peacock first came out on stage and Nicole immediately wondered if it was figure skater Johnny Weir. Johnny would be the first performer unmasked... in the second season.
  • A popular guess for the Lion throughout her time on season one before she was revealed to be Rumer Willis was Michelle Williams. Michelle turned out to be the Butterfly in season two.
  • The judges suspect Butterfly is putting on a fake Southern accent to hide the fact that she's British. They hit the nail on the head, but with the wrong competitor. Even funnier, Kelly Osbourne came up with the accent on the fly and it just stuck.
  • One of the main guesses the judges made for the identity of Ladybug was Lindsay Lohan. Turns out that she was Kelly Osbourne instead, but the funny part is that around the same time Lindsay appeared as a judge on the Australian version of The Masked Singer. For extra funny points, Kelly was a recurring guess by judges on the Australian version.
  • An instant example (and probably even more so for the actual contestants) was when the Flamingo performed "Lady Marmalade" on episode 9 of the second season. At the end of the episode, the Flower was unmasked to be Patti LaBelle, the singer most famous for that very song.
    • In general, any time a singer performs a song and that song’s singer appears on the show in a later season. Examples include Hippo singing "My Prerogative" and Bobby Brown being Crab, Rabbit singing "Wake Me Up," and Aloe Blacc being Mushroom.
  • On the Australian version, the Robot ended up winning first place. Conversely, in the season 3 premiere of the American version, the Robot was the first mask to be eliminated.
    • Meanwhile, the Australian version of the Monster (female) ended up in third place. Conversely, in season three, the American version of Miss Monster was the third to be eliminated.
  • One of the most popular guesses in the first 2 seasons for several singers was Jamie Foxx - in season 3, Jamie is the first guest judge brought on, as if to snuff any rumors that he's competing this time. And that's before Jamie goes into a rant about how this sort of attention has affected him personally. He becomes another guess in season 4, and one of the guesses for Cluedle-Doo in season 5.
  • One of the clues in Ice Cream's video was an easily missed obscure dance, which won't be that obscure now that it's been turned into a Fortnite emote. Conversely, season 3 has another Anthropomorphic Food singer, the Banana, just like the popular Peely skin in Fortnite.
  • A popular choice for the Monster prior to his reveal was Cee Lo Green. Come the UK version of Masked Singer, and the Monster there wound up being Cee Lo Green!
    • Even better, during a "Two lies and a truth" game, the UK version's Monster said, "I am Cee Lo Green!'" Come his unmasking, that statement was revealed to be the truth.
  • Ken Jeong had the habit of guessing Björk for more than one singer - now season 3 has one singer dressed as a giant swan, reminiscent of Bjork's memetic swan dress, as if daring Ken to make the same guess again. And just to rub more salt in the wound, it's someone Ken knows personally, Bella Thorne.
  • Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk was guessed a number of times throughout season 2. He appears in season 3 as the Elephant.
  • Another short-range one when Robin guessed that the Bear was Tina Fey, but was actually Tina's best known impression, Sarah Palin!
  • Speaking of short-range, season 4 introduces a new gimmick where the panelists' guesses are immediately recorded and archived until the characters are eliminated, and Nick is goaded into writing down his own guess for the Dragon. It's All for Nothing when the Dragon is eliminated that same night.
  • Yet another short-range one when Nicole brings up the lone Oscar nominee mentioned in the teasers, assuming that it's Seahorse (whom she thought was Hailee Steinfeld) It was actually a different singer in that same episode, Gremlin.
  • The second Group A episode starts off with a performance by "the Robin", who turns out to be Joel McHale wearing a Robin Thicke mask and performing "Blurred Lines". Despite this wordplay, the panel is still caught by surprise at the end of the same episode by the reveal that the robin in the Giraffe's clue package was also a direct reference to Robin Thicke.
    • Then the UK second season had The Robin as a real mask (designed after the bird, not Robin Thicke).
  • For his first impression of Baby Alien, Robin guessed Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, which was met with mockery from the other panelists. With the Snail in Season 5 being none other than Kermit the Frog, the idea of a puppet being a contestant isn't so crazy now.
  • The Snail from the season 5 premiere. After his performance, panelist Jenny McCarthy remarked, "I feel like he's pushing out a Kermit the Frog sound." So, imagine her and everyone else's shock when the Snail was unmasked and revealed to be none other than Kermit himself!
  • Due to catching COVID-19, Nick Cannon was forced to stop hosting duties for the first few episodes of Season 5, but it didn't stop Nicole from guessing him as the identity of the Chameleon at one point. A couple of episodes later, the idea of Nick competing isn't so far-fetched as he'd end up being unmasked as the Bulldog the same night he competed! Complete with him returning to hosting duties after his unmasking. And in the last episode, they revealed that Nick was actually Nicole's first impression guess for Chameleon, making it literally on record.
  • The Bear, Sarah Palin is probably best known for being a non-singer and politician who gets booted after one night. The Phoenix would go the exact opposite route, as Caitlyn Jenner announced her decision to run for government of California some time after their one night as the Phoenix.
  • The third wild card performance in the fifth season was the Bulldog performing "Candy Girl" by New Edition. One week later, the fourth wild card performance was the Yeti performing "If It Isn't Love", also by New Edition, and Nick commented on the coincidence. That was before it was revealed that the wild card contestant that performed immediately before both of them, the Crab, was himself a member of New Edition, Bobby Brown.
  • If you watched the Thai version of the show, you'd know that LeAnn Rimes wasn't the first Sun to win their respective season. For bonus points, it was on their fifth season which aired sometime before our fourth!
  • The Dalmatian in season 6 had the Edvard Munch painting "The Scream" in his clue package, which made Jenny think that it was someone from the Scream movies, which she'd also appeared in. She was half right - he's actually from the Scream TV series made long after her involvement.
  • In an early season 6 episode, Robin claimed that Bull easily had the most finale potential. He turned out to be right...only it came at the cost of beating Skunk, who Robin now favored.
  • Another short-range one in season 7 episode 4, where Ken's reputation of bad guesses leads to the first case of the audience actually chanting "No Ken" in response. They're very quick to eat their words when Ken gets the only correct guess that night.
  • Jenny's guess for Grandpa Monster was The Miz but it turned out to be Logan Paul. Come WrestleMania 38 a year later, and Logan and Miz would be teaming up for a tag-team match before subsequently feuding with each other!
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Season 9 caught heavy flak for reusing the extremely disliked elimination format of Season 8.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Many people watch solely for the mystery of who the contestants are.
• Like You Would Really Do It: People who guess that high-profile names are behind the mask, such as when many viewers thought Rottweiler was Taron Egerton (who was busy with awards season!), usually receive the counter-argument that the program would not be successful at getting actually famous people to compete. But this kind of mindset has also been proven wrong several times, like when fans of the UK version argued that Kelis was too good to even entertain the idea of appearing on The Masked Singer (she was a popular guess for The Daisy), but The Daisy turned out to indeed be Kelis. She later explained that she joined so her kids can watch.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Who did it better?" ^ExplanationIn the comments section of Masked Singer performances on YouTube, it's common to see people comparing different performances of the same song between international versions, or of singers from the same versions performing songs by the same artist.
  • On TikTok, the Lips' rendition of "Native New Yorker" has gone viral by many proclaiming that the performance was the new national anthem.
• Narm Charm: The costumes are totally ridiculous, but that's part of the whole appeal of the show; the outfits and the mystery of who the singers are certainly give it an edge over other singing competition shows. Also, be prepared to endure a lot of puns and voice modulators.
• Never Live It Down:
  • Episode 10 of Season Three had Robin guessing that Banana was really Billy Ray Cyrus - and then made sure to bring up the VMA performance he did with Billy's daughter Miley Cyrus before anyone else had a chance.
  • Invoked in the premiere episode of Season Five, following the reveal; Kermit the Frog says that "I will never hear the end of this from Miss Piggy."
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The Night Angel's mask from season Three, The Dragon's mask from the season 4 premiere, and The Jester from Season 6 are well-crafted but scary looking and unnerving.
  • The costumes in general can have a touch of this for claustrophobes. The fact that the Gremlin, the Crab and the Firefly have had breathing issues onstage while in their costumes doesn't help, while Pufferfish, though she showed no issues or fears, once unmasked was revealed to also be wearing a face mask as extra protection due to her immunocompromised health making her more vulnerable to infections like COVID-19, essentially being double masked. The Russian Dolls of Season 5 had a clue package which included a camera POV from inside their costume which showed how dark the interior can be and how little of the outside they can see. (Doubly so for the Dolls when they're sharing one costume, such as during the elimination ceremonies.)
  • The Yeti's introduction in season 5 features a close-up of his illuminated glowing eyes, loud growling noises and scary music. Granted, he's not a bad guy, but they could have shown this in another way, given how calmer the hints of the other three Wildcards were.
  • Anytime Cluedle-Doo appears onscreen or onstage. He frequently and unexpectedly hijacks the screen during a taped performance, just to taunt the judges and masked singer about a secret he knows about them, exposing said secret, or taking away a clue meant to be shown. The deep low-pitched voice and dark lighting don't help either.
  • Some fans have also expressed that Robopine looks somewhat creepy as well, and the same applies to Baby, Jester, and Caterpillar.
  • Firefly's choking fit during her first performance, especially since it comes out of nowhere. She's fine one second, with the editing of the show making it seem like this will simply be a standard performance, when she suddenly begins coughing on stage. Even the panelists were visibly frightened for her, with Ken outright running to her aid.
• Older Than They Think: Several fans of the original Korean version and reviews have criticized the over-the-top costumes and staging compared to the original version, which used much simpler disguises. However, the Thai version of the show already featured the more over-the-top elements for years before the debut of the American version. In fact, it was seeing an episode of the Thai version of the show that inspired a TV executive to reach out and license the format for the US.
• One-Scene Wonder: There are some contestants who only last one episode before being unmasked, but they're remembered for their So Bad, It's Good performances and/or shocking reveals. These include Pineapple, Bear, Gremlin, Lips, Snail, Phoenix, Bulldog, Beach Ball, McTerrier, and Jack In The Box.
• Popular with Furries: Perhaps unsurprisingly, the animal-themed costumes have led to the show picking up a following of furries.
• Quirky Work: It's often described as surreal, what with the fanciful costumes and all. What other show would have Sarah Palin in a bear costume rapping to "Baby Got Back" or Larry the Cable Guy in a baby costume singing The Flintstones theme song with a British accent? As Nick put it best, this show is the only show where you can go from Andrew Lloyd Webber to a "big-ass piece of corn".
• Scrappy Mechanic: The Take It Off Buzzer, due to the fact that it could potentially eliminate a good contestant over less deserving ones simply because a panelist managed to clue into who they were correctly, has received flak from many, many fans. The amount the show overhyped it also led to many fans who were on the fence getting sick of it. Fortunately, the Buzzer failed to eliminate anyone in Season 6, and although Nicole successfully figured out who Bull was, she decided not to hit the Buzzer at any time. Then it, along with the First Impression gimmick, was retired for Season 7, much to the joy of fans.
• Signature Scene:
  • Peacock's rendition of "The Greatest Show" and Monster's performance of "Stay With Me" are the stand-out songs in the first season. The alone-with-the-mic setup for "Stay With Me" in particular would be replicated several times in later seasons - and taken up to eleven with the Sun's "When The Party's Over," which even leaves out the band!
  • Season 2 ramps it up with even more, like "Rainbow" by Thingamajig that went memetic immediately, "Hey Big Spender" by Leopard, "Lady Marmalade" by Flamingo and "Someone You Loved" by Rottweiler.
• Shocking Elimination:
  • The Lion was seen as someone to beat along with Peacock and Bee for almost all of season 1, yet missed out on the finale by one episode.
  • The Black Widow being outed as Raven-Symoné in Week 7 of Season 2 prompted conspiracies among fans that she'd asked the panel to vote against her so she could recuperate from her injury, as she was generally seen as one of the strongest singers who'd received rave reviews from the judges beforehand.
  • Also from season 2, when Butterfly and Thingamajig faced of in a Smackdown, many fans thought that the former won by a landslide with her take on "Believer", which is still considered to be one of the best songs ever sung in a Smackdown, yet the judges cut her in favor of Thingmajig.
  • Despite a few bumps earlier in the season, the Leopard's performance of "Big Spender" in the Season 2 semi-finals was so spectacular, many people were shocked that he was sent home — including the panelists!
  • Season 3 delivered a one-two Gut Punch - in episode 3 we lose Miss Monster, Living Legend-class singer Chaka Khan, and just two weeks later, it's the Mouse, an even bigger legend, Dionne Warwick!
    • Perhaps a more downplayed version in the Season 3 quarter-finals, as everyone brought their A-game at that point, but it’s Kitty, one of the vocally strongest singers that season, who gets eliminated that night. And it’s Jackie Evancho, which explains her vocal power.
  • Perhaps most shocking yet, in the Season 4 Group B qualifiers, the Gremlin decides to eliminate himself (he claims his costume was too uncomfortable, but it’s very likely he would have been eliminated anyway).
  • Seahorse was seen as a top contender, and was expected to make the finals, if not win the whole shebang, due to be the only singer remaining who anyone believed had the power to challenge the powerhouse Sun. She would fall just one episode short of the finale.
  • Season 5 continues the trend with the Russian Dolls, who, despite being very good at their songs, get taken out in the quarterfinals.
  • The elimination of Pufferfish in the second episode of Season 6 became this once she was revealed to be Toni Braxton. The other singers also seemed to feel this way, going off how shocked they were when Pufferfish was announced to be going home.
  • Pepper had been a strong performer ever since she debuted as a wild card, being a clear front runner of Group A along with Bull. Many had assumed that she was an easy lock for the Group A finale, only for her to be taken out in the semifinals.
  • The week after that, it's Skunk, one of the strongest and most consistent performers all season, who falls short just one step away from the finals.
  • The week after that, it's Banana Split who falls after a season of strong and unique performances, with many having pegged them as finale bound for almost the whole season.
  • Robo Girl from season 8 seemed to be riding high, considering that she managed to advance past none other than Gloria Gaynor in her debut episode, only for her to suddenly be knocked out in the very next episode.
  • The Ding Dong Keep It On Bell, introduced in season 9, is designed to avert this by saving one contestant per group who otherwise would have been eliminated. It served its purpose well as early as its first usage, when fan-favorite Medusa lost her bid for the semifinal to California Roll... but then Nicole swooped in and rang the bell during the unmasking. Its second use also averted one of these, with Jenny using it to save heartthrob Gargoyle from being unmasked.
  • Even with the Bell, Sesame Street night still ended in Jackalope's elimination, even with two extremely strong performances, including a very convincing Shakira impression during her first one.
  • The second to last episode of Season 9 saw California Roll, who was agreed to be a front runner and whom many had pegged as the winner of the season, be eliminated.
  • In season 10, Tiki had been pegged by many as a finalist as soon as his run began and that seemed likely when his group's finale was a rock themed episode, but, upon failing to beat Sea Queen at the Battle Royale, was sent home in an episode that should have granted him an easy road to the finals.
  • Another Season 10 example was Candelabra, who many expected to make it to the finals, if not win the whole competition. Then she got eliminated by Donut just one episode short of the finale.
• Shocking Moments: Several, especially with the first-round eliminations.
  • The reveal that the Bear is Sarah Palin.
  • Season 4 upped the ante with Gremlin unmasking himself, revealing Mickey Rourke.
  • The season 5 premiere. It appears to be another run-of-the-mill unmasking… only for them to find out that no one seems to be in the Snail costume. But then Niecy notes that there is something in there… and then two small green hands emerge from the costume…!
    • The Group B finals that same season. At the end of the episode, Niecy summons the newly-revealed wildcard Bulldog to be immediately unmasked... and it turns out to be Nick Cannon!
    • The Reveal that Cluedle-doo, who has been teasing the audience all season and eventually also teasing Nick and the panelists, is none other than Donnie Wahlberg, Jenny's husband!
  • Season 7 started off with two; First, at the end of McTerrier's performance, he lost balance and accidentally knocked his mask off (though, luckily, no one saw who he was at that moment). Second, Firefly's performance starts off fine... only for her to start choking on something, forcing her to be removed from the stage and looked at by medical professionals, delaying her performance until after the next singer.
• So Bad, It's Good: A staple of the show. At least one singer each season is not a good singer by any stretch of the word, but they're clearly having so much fun that it's hard to dislike them. These types of singers usually outlast singers that are just straight up bad, but usually don't make it that far into the show.
• Tainted by the Preview:
  • As soon as the function of the Take It Off Buzzer was revealed, many fans quickly grew worried it would become a Scrappy Mechanic as the way the buzzer works is, if a judge thinks they know who a singer is, they can hit the buzzer and announce who they think it is. And if they are right, then that singer is forced to unmask on the spot. While there is a penalty in place if the judge guesses wrong, many fans were worried that this will take popular or front runner contestants out before they could truly get a chance to shine.
  • Weeks before season 7 actually premiered, news outlets were abuzz with the scoop that Rudy Giuliani was a contestant. He was revealed to be Jack in the Box.
  • Also from season 7 was the reveal that each Group would perform until there was one singer rather than switching between the groups every other episode left many fans enraged since it meant that Group C would not sing until seven episodes in.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The often inconsistent format from season to season hasn't been well received. To elaborate:
  • Season 2 featured 16 competitors which were evenly divided into four groups, allowing for even division and extra performances.
  • Season 3 featured 18 competitors divided into 3 groups, but viewers were stuck not seeing competitors for up to 3 episodes at a time. This also resulted in the first gender imbalance between men and women.
  • Though Season 4 returned to 16 competitors, they were again divided into 3 groups, with the third group not being seen until 5 episodes in, and there was less competition between all three groups. However, it has to be acknowledged that the COVID-19 Pandemic was a large part of the reason for this.
  • While Season 5 introduced the well-received wild card mechanic and the extra mystery of Cluedle-Doo, the omission of animated clue packages was lamented by many. It also featured the worst case of gender imbalance to date, with only three female competitors (Phoenix, Seashell, and Black Swan).
  • Season 6 kept the wild cards and also introduced the very well-liked celeb duets, but had no group merge and also introduced the Take It Off Buzzer. The switch to a final two where the singers sing twice rather than a final three where everyone sings once was also controversial as many argued that it locked Banana Split/Skunk out of the finale.
  • Season 7 removed all of the extras from the previous seasons - no Take It Off Buzzer, no wild cards, no first impression guesses or Golden Ear trophy, but in exchange, brought back the fan favorite Smackdowns, here renamed as Duels. In addition, while the team format was well liked, what wasn't was cutting each group down to one singer before switching to the next group rather than alternating between the three.
  • Season 8 boasted the most singers in series history with a total of 22. Additionally, many of the rounds had themes to them, which fans found to be an interesting concept that lead to some creative clues being used. However, in exchange, the format of the season was one akin to the original South Korean version, with only one singer advancing each week. Fans quickly grew irate by the change due to several extremely promising singers getting knocked out after only one or two performances. In addition, many also found the season extremely boring as, ironically enough, there was even less suspense to who was going home when only one person advanced (as it was almost always the obvious front runners) and ended with an extremely obvious (although still very well received) winner.
  • While season 10 got off to a good start via ditching the reviled elimination format of seasons 8 and 9 while still keeping the themed rounds and the four person finale was fairly well liked, the way the teams were cut down was seen as strange, as the groups were cut down to their final three, but the finales for each group didn't happen until after three teams had been cut down. Not to mention, this, again, meant that Group C wasn't seen until over half way through the season. It also continued the long hated trend of one group randomly having an extra singer.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Despite being hyped up as a wildcard, Bulldog turned out to be little more than a way for Nick Cannon to resume hosting duties rather than an actual contestant.
  • Considering how complicated the costume was, having the Beach Ball eliminated on the very night of their introduction could be regarded as this.
  • In contrast to the usual three or four per season, Season 8 boasted a grand total of seventeen costumes that were eliminated after only one episode.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Many fans were disappointed that when Jesse McCartney returned to the show as Bull's Celebrity Duet partner, he didn't/wasn't allowed to wear the Turtle costume. This is especially grating when seasons 3 and 4 of the UK version had not one, but three former competitors return to duet with the finalists, complete with their respective costumes.
  • While many fans liked the teams in season 7, many felt that they were very underused, as the singers were simply mixed into the standard groups of the show, which lead to an only Team Good finale. Quite a few fans suggested that a better way to run the season would have been to have the teams compete with their other members, then let the final members of each team compete in the finals as not only would it have ensured that there would have someone from each team in the finals, but it would also have made things a lot more interesting, with the most popular guess as to what that would have looked like being Ringmaster, Queen Cobras, and either Thingamabob or Miss Teddy.
  • While it's more along the lines of wasting a perfectly good reference, many fans felt that "I Like To Move It" should have been Lemur's entrance theme, rather than Armadillo's due to how commonly associated the song is with lemurs thanks to Madagascar.
  • One of Season 9's themed nights was Movie Night, in which the singers each had to sing a song from a movie. Yet only one of them actually took advantage of this via singing a song that was actually written for a film. The other two singers just use songs that were used in films.
• Unexpected Character:
  • In a show where TV actors, athletes, and professional singers make up most of the contestants, nobody expected Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, a popular YouTuber and streamer, to show up in Season 2.
  • After the first two seasons had primarily consisted of B- and C-list stars who were long past their prime, who could've possibly predicted we'd see Lil Wayne in season 3?
  • In Season 3, after people had mostly gotten used to entertainment personalities, seeing a career politician like Sarah Palin, rapping about butts no less, was shocking enough to immediately become hilarious.
    • Guest judges are usually other musicians, known comedians, past Masked contestants, or other celebs somewhat familiar with the four panelists, which made it even more surprising when they got Gordon Ramsay in episode 13.
  • Season 5's first eliminated contestant may just blow all of the above out of the water, as when the Snail's hat came off, there was an intentional pause before the emergence of none other than the leader of The Muppets himself, Kermit the Frog.
    • The only one to even come close to this was on the night of the semifinals, when Cluedle-doo finally unmasked. Absolutely no one on the panel even momentarily guessed that he would turn out to be Donnie Wahlberg - not even Jenny McCarthy, his own wife!
  • The advertisements for the National Tour have five singers pictured: Monster and Fox, who were both winners, Kitty and Butterfly, who didn't win, but were still popular singers, and... Robot, who was a first elimination.
  • On the subject of the National Tour, several of the chosen celebrities to appear in each city are local TV station affiliate presenters.
• The Woobie: Firefly from Season 7 can't seem to catch a break. To start with, she has a choking scare on stage during her first performance and needs to be rushed backstage. While she manages to advance to the next round, she ends up in the Duel and is so overwhelmed that she needs to go backstage to calm herself down. Thankfully, she manages to pull through and goes on to win the season.

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