‘The Masked Dancer’: Is Ryan Seacrest the Hammerhead?

On Wednesday night’s episode of The Masked Dancer, the remaining contestants in Group A — Cricket, Hammerhead, Tulip, and Exotic Bird — performed. All four of the mystery celebrities performed new dance routines during the episode, and Hammerhead’s moves, in particular, caught the judges’ attention. In fact, Ken Jeong, who serves as a judge on both The Masked Dancer and The Masked Singer, was adamant in his guess that the Hammerhead is Ryan Seacrest.

In the episode, Jeong shared that he previously thought that the Hammerhead was comedian Carrot Top, but he has since changed his tune. He said that in the clue package that Hammerhead provided, there was an eye chart with the letter “E” prominently featured. Seeing as though he is the “king of E! Television,” Jeong said that he believes Hammerhead is Seacrest. Of course, it should be noted that this is simply a guess on Jeong’s part, as Hammerhead’s identity has not yet been revealed. The other judges on the panel — Ashley Tisdale, Paula Abdul, Brian Austin Green, and guest judge Rob Lowe — also shared their guesses behind the mystery dancer’s identity. Their guesses ranged from Jersey Shore star Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino to podcast host Joe Rogan.

The judges could not see whether their Hammerhead guesses were accurate on Wednesday’s episode, as Cricket was the one to get the boot. They later removed their mask and revealed that they were singer-songwriter Brian McKnight, whom Abdul accurately guessed. Jeong said during the episode that they tried to get McKnight to come on The Masked Singer, given his experience in the music industry. But, in an interview with TV Insider, the “Back at One” singer clarified that he never actually received a call about going on the Fox series.

“I find it interesting he said that since I never get a call from anybody about being on The Masked Singer. It seemed to me that would have been the case,” McKnight admitted. “I’m sure there are a bunch of celebrities going, “How come I haven’t been called for this show?” This is the first call I got, and once I did, I said, “People know my voice. They’ve been hearing me sing for 30 years. It’s going to be tough for me to disguise this. But if I come out here dancing — which I don’t do and nobody would think I would ever do — it seems like the perfect place to be anonymous in this way.”