‘The Masked Singer’: The Monster Crowned as Winner

The Masked Singer wrapped up a season of surprises and music and crowned its first celebrity champion.

The FOX singing competition series, which captured audiences’ interests based on the mystery celebrity factor in which another contestant is unmasked week-after-week, revealed the Monster (T-Pain) as the winner for Season 1.

The announcement came at the end of the show’s two-hour season finale, which also saw the unmasking of the Bee (Gladys Knight) and the Peacock (Donny Osmond) following some breathtaking performances.

After the victory, Monster took some time to thank fans for watching the series and explained to judges Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Ken Jeong, Nicole Scherzinger and guest judge Kenan Thompson why he decided to go on the show in the first place.

Unlike many reality shows, the winner of The Masked Singer only walks away with bragging rights and the Golden Mask trophy, as opposed to a cash prize of some kind. This is understandable given that the big names behind the masks likely negotiated big salaries to appear on the show in the first place.

The Masked Singer kept viewers guessing throughout its successful first season, with executive producers Izzie Pick Ibarra and Craig Plestis previously sharing how they manage to keep the secret for so long.

“We have a lot of production processes in place for that type of secrecy that can still remain in place, if that makes sense. So few people knew who any of the singers were on our production—and it was very, very, very few people,” Ibarra told press. “We can carry on that to another season and I feel confident that we can keep [that going].”

“That’s the big part of the show right now: keeping the secret,” Plestis added. “We want America to guess. We want our panel to guess. We really tried to keep every secret from them because that’s a magic that we got from the show. If we can keep that again, keep all this a secret from everybody, from the crew and from the rest of America, it’s going to be a great season.”

Aside from today’s celebrity reveals The Masked Singer previously unmasked Joey Fatone (Rabbit), Rumer Willis (Lion), Margot Cho (Poodle), Ricki Lake (Raven), La Toya Jackson (Alien), Tori Spelling (Unicorn), Terry Bradshaw (Deer), Tommy Chong (Pineapple) and Antonio brown (Hippo).

The show has already been renewed for a second season, expected to air in the 2019-2020 season.

“The response to The Masked Singer has been fantastic and we are thrilled to bring it back for another season,” Rob Wade, President, Alternative Entertainment and Specials, FOX Broadcasting Company said in a statement. “I am so happy to see a singing Peacock burst into pop culture! The Masked Singer is unique, bold, original and embraces the DNA of all the best Fox unscripted shows. We look forward to Season Two being even more fun, weird and wonderful than the first.”