Celebrity weeps on stage, promptly sent home on The Masked Singer
Week after week, the Masked Singer judges praise the celebrity contestants for baring their hearts and souls out on the stage while performing under giant masks that prevent any of their facial emotions from seeing the light of day. In fact, just last week, judge Jenny McCarthy wept while listening to Piglet (who is most definitely Nick Lachey) perform Lukas Graham’s “7 Years,” a song she claims to have never heard before despite it playing on loop at every radio station, shopping center, and yoga class for the past six years.
[Details discussing the April 14 episode of The Masked Singer discussed below.]
On tonight’s episode of the Fox reality singing competition, season five’s first “Wild Card” contestant, Orca, shared a story about his father before performing Poison’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.” “Last time I had to really pull out all the stops as the first ever Wild Card, it was a lot of pressure,” Orca said during his clue package of singing Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” “But I channeled my hero, my father, and the nerves washed away. I always looked up my dad, and when I told him I was going to be a dad too, it brought him so much joy. Even though his health was deteriorating, he became laser focused on the babies’ baptism. And he hung on just long enough to see the ceremony. Days later he passed. I felt rudderless in an ocean of tears. But I’ll never forget his last words. He said he was proud of me for being a dad above all else. And it brings so much joy to know his spirit will now live on for generations.”
After that annecdote and the “Every Rose” performance, judge Nicole Scherziner was in tears, and fellow panelist Robin Thicke was moved to share his own dad story. “You know, I lost my father a few years ago. He was my hero, my idol. And so I totally connected with your story. And I feel what you’re trying to say with that song. [It was a] really, really heartfelt and a beautiful, beautiful performance,” Thicke said, bringing McCarthy to tears. Not to be left out, Orca began crying (or at least we assume, since we couldn’t see his face): “Yeah, you know, Robin, I just really appreciate your your words…. To choose this song in celebration of my dad…. Now I’m a dad of 10-year-old twins and…. The last thing I ever thought…I’d be crying in a giant orca costume. That was for my Pops, man.”
“I think we all got that tingly feeling inside from that performance,” Nick Cannon, finally back after his COVID-19 diagnosis, told Orca before the judges made guesses of his identity ranging from Fred Durst to Jeremy Renner to Billie Joe Armstrong.
But that “tingly feeling” was apparently not a good one, and the judges and “America”—which we’ve now been told by sources is actually a small group of fans watching the performances via Zoom—voted Orca out over the Russian Dolls; Seashell; Robopine; and the new Wild Card, Yeti. (Or, a conspiracy theorist would ponder that Orca was sent home because he, overcome with emotion, unintentionally gave away that extra clue about having 10-year-old twins.)
Before revealing Orca’s identity, Cannon reminded the judges of their First Impression guesses and asked them for one final guess. Here are those guesses:
Jenny McCarthy: Dave Grohl / Kelly Slater
Nicole Scherzinger: Dave Grohl / Dave Grohl
Robin Thicke: Billie Joe Armstrong / Billie Joe Armstrong
Ken Jeong: Jon Bon Jovi / Billie Joe Armstrong
Ultimately, they were all wrong and Orca was revealed to be Mark McGrath, who was also shocked he was compared to those rock legends.