‘The Masked Dancer’ Eliminates Exotic Bird, and They’re an ‘American Idol’ Winner

Heading into Wednesday night’s episode of The Masked Dancer, there were only five contestants left in the competition — Sloth, Cotton Candy, Exotic Bird, Zebra, and Tulip. By the end of the night, only four remained. Host Craig Robinson announced that the Exotic Bird was eliminated, and they revealed that they were American Idol winner Jordin Sparks. Given that she was on American Idol, it shouldn’t come as too much of a shock to hear that judge Paula Abdul, who was previously a judge on the singing competition, correctly guessed Sparks’ identity.

The Masked Dancer, a spin-off of Fox’s popular The Masked Singer, premiered at the end of 2020. Since the show’s premiere, they have said goodbye to numerous masked celebrities, including the Cricket (Brian McKnight), Ice Cube (Bill Nye the Science Guy), and the Moth (activist Elizabeth Smart). Exotic Bird’s elimination comes one week after the show revealed who the mysterious, dancing Hammerhead was. After getting the boot, they removed their mask, and it was revealed that they were Jersey Shore star Vinny Guadagnino.

Following his elimination, the reality star spoke to Variety about his time on the show. While he noted that he isn’t a professionally trained dancer (despite what those Jersey Shore fist pumping moves would suggest), he thought that The Masked Dancer was the perfect fit for him. He explained, “I’m not a singer or a dancer, but this is probably a little bit more in my wheelhouse. So I was like, I’m a little scared but I think I can make this work let’s try it. I didn’t really even know I was gonna make it past like week one, so I ended up falling in love with it and really getting competitive with it. It was great experience.”

Guadagnino continued to tell the publication that the extent of his dance experience was breakdancing at parties as a kid. Still, he was able to showcase all of his best dance moves on The Masked Dancer, and he seemed to have a blast doing it. “So I had a little bit of that but learning choreography is a completely different sport in itself,” he said. “To jump right into that is definitely something hard to do, but it’s in my wheelhouse, I love a challenge and I love learning something and stimulating my brain to learn and like I become obsessed. I was rehearsing in my room every night like this until I got it down because I didn’t want to just half-ass it.” Now that Exotic Bird a.k.a. Sparks has been eliminated, the remaining four contestants — Sloth, Zebra, Cotton Candy, and Tulip — will compete on the Feb. 10 episode to see who will make it through to the next round of the competition.