Former 'Masked Singer' Contestant Criticizes Show for Booking Its Most Controversial Contestant Ever
This post contains spoilers for the upcoming Season 7 premiere of The Masked Singer. Fox's The Masked Singer Season 7 allegedly has a shocking twist when Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City Mayor who was front and center in former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election based on false claims, is revealed to be the voice behind the Ice Cream Cone. This information was leaked after a taping, which inspired judges Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke to storm off the stage in protest.
This move from FOX is already drawing the Internet's ire, including from former contestant Tom Bergeron, who competed on The Masked Singer in Season 3 as the Taco. Bergeron shared the news on Instagram, writing "Another winner from the Tone Deaf Booking Dept [eye roll emoji]."
Ironically, Bergeron cited this sort of move as something that could derail the wildly popular competition series in a post-performance interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2020. "The only concern I would have for them is the same concern I have for any show that becomes wildly popular and then a network tries to squeeze every last drop out of it like what happened with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire years ago when Regis Philbin was hosting and in the heyday of Dancing With the Stars — I remember there was one season where we were on for three nights in a row," Bergeron recalled. "My folks were alive then and they said, 'Honey, we love you. But that's a lot.' That'd be my only concern, that they don't exhaust the format too quickly."
Fox declined to comment on the leak of Guiliani's involvement. TMZ also confirmed Giuliani was the first celebrity unmasked. The song he performed has not been reported. This is not the first time The Masked Singer has featured a controversial figure in Republican politics, as Sarah Palin participated in Season 3. None of the judges left the stage when Palin's identity was revealed.
Giuliani is also not the first member of the Trump circle to participate in a game show. In 2019, former Press Secretary Sean Spicer competed on Dancing With the Stars, a decision that then-host Bergeron also publicly criticized. In a statement to fans, Bergeron said he hoped DWTS could be a show to provide entertainment outside of being a political lightning-rod, but ABC went in a different direction.
"It is the prerogative of the producers, in partnership with the network, to make whatever decisions they feel are in the best long term interests of the franchise," Bergeron wrote at the time. "We can agree to disagree, as we do now, but ultimately it's their call. I'll leave it to them to answer any further questions about those decisions." The Spicer season turned out to be Bergeron's last, as he was replaced by Tyra Banks for the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
The Masked Singer Season 7 is set to debut on Fox on March 9. Nick Cannon is returning as host. The costumes for six of the contestants were revealed last week. The "good" group includes the Frog Prince, while the "bad" group includes a green cyclops and a centurion. The "cuddly" group includes a lemur and an astronaut rabbit.