The Masked Singer is, on almost any given night, one of the more surreal shows airing on television, but Fox’s hit reality series took it to an even more absurd and polarizing level with its latest reveal, one that is angering viewers.
Two months ago, Deadline reported that Masked Singer panelists Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke walked off the set in protest after a contestant revealed himself to be none other than Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s former cybersecurity advisor as well as his one-time personal lawyer. Critics at the time slammed The Masked Singer for playing a part in trying to rehabilitate the public image of a man who played a highly visible role in attempting to overthrow the 2020 presidential election in Trump’s favor. And for a while, the story was something that rested in the back of people’s minds as they tuned into the show and Giuliani didn’t immediately show up.
Giuliani’s episode finally aired on Wednesday night. At the end of the episode, the audience voted out Jack in the Box, who performed “Bad to the Bone.” A dramatic build-up to the unmasking revealed Giuliani’s face as it cuts to the audience, some of whom are clapping; others only have their jaws hanging open. (According to a comprehensive 2020 Good Housekeeping set visit, The Masked Singer tapes audience reactions to an unmasking prior to it happening—and then makes them leave so that they don’t even learn who was under the mask on top of the NDAs they sign before the taping begins.)
The panelists, meanwhile, are stunned; their guesses of who Jack in the Box could be were Joe Pesci, Robert Duvall, Elon Musk, and Al Roker. A smiling Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg said that she had no idea that Giuliani was Jack in the Box while Thicke said that “this is definitely something I never would have guessed.” Jeong, after telling fellow panelist Nicole Scherzinger that it was not, in fact, Robert Duvall, is seen glaring toward the stage with his arms crossed as host Nick Cannon led a softball Q&A where Giuliani explained that he did the show because he wanted his new granddaughter that she should try everything.
During the Q&A, graphics explained the context behind some of the clues presented to judges. One graphic, explaining why a card listing the four seasons of the year, read, “This clue was a nod to Four Seasons Total Landscaping, which Rudy mistakingly booked for a press conference in 2020.” No context for Giuliani’s press conference was provided: It was part of Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Pennsylvania, which went to Joe Biden and pushed Biden over the threshold to win the presidency.
The only reference to any of the legal troubles Giuliani is facing is Cannon stating, “Well, Mr. Giuliani, with all of the controversy that’s surrounding you right now, I think it surprises us all that you’re here on The Masked Singer,” to which Giuliani responded with, “Me too, me too!”
The camera notably doesn’t show Jeong’s reaction during the Q&A portion of the post-reveal until Cannon introduces Giuliani’s second performance of “Bad to the Bone.” McCarthy Wahlberg cheers as Giuliani starts singing, but Jeong, speaking to someone off-camera, says “I’m done” and walks off the set; he’s not seen returning.
According to multiple interviews about The Masked Singer in the past few years, producers take great pains to ensure that Cannon and the judges cannot discover which celebrities are behind the show’s elaborate costumes.
The internet is no stranger to reality TV being the prime location for disgraced Republicans attempting to rehabilitate their image—just look at Sean Spicer’s stint on Dancing With the Stars and his sketch at the Emmys—but Giuliani’s role in attempting to overthrow the 2020 election and his subsequent role in the January 6th insurrection made a stunt that would’ve already left a bad taste in viewers’ mouths even worse.
People also praised Jeong for walking off the set while the other judges did not. (Thicke, who is shown during the Q&A segment, is not seen departing the stage in protest, but as Deadline reported in February, both panelists eventually returned to the stage.)
The reaction to Giuliani’s elimination won’t have any effect on the show at hand. But if it’s getting The Masked Singer the most attention since the night that Sarah Palin was unmasked—one of the many surreal events that marked the start of the pandemic in the U.S.—who’s to say that it (or any other show) won’t consider booking another controversial figure looking for a bit of image reworking and hope for the same kind of response?
