A beloved TV personality baffles the ‘The Masked Singer’ panelists

It’s official: the audience has voted and Frog, Kitty and Banana have leapt, purred and slipped their way through to the Super Nine, which means Taco’s time was up on the latest “friendship” episode of The Masked Singer (Wednesdays, 8 pET, CTV). But were any of the panelists even close to guessing the performer’s real identity? That would be a big, fat nope. In fact, they were so far off that when the masked dinner staple was revealed, Jenny McCarthy said, “I quit.”

The end of Taco Wednesdays

Was Taco a bigger legend than last week’s reveal, Dionne Warwick? Well, no. But he held his own in the competition with that hot sauce mic of his, leading Nicole Scherzinger to guess Barry Manilow and guest panelist T-Pain to go with Kelsey Grammer. Meanwhile, Taco’s performance of “I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)” by the Four Tops had Robin Thicke and his “mortal enemy” Ken Jeong thinking the celeb was Canadian Martin Short (at this point he’s bound to show up eventually, given how many times the panelists have guessed him now), and Jenny thinking it was Jerry Springer.[video_embed id='1501883']RELATED: Ken Jeong showed us his infamous dance moves and it was the best [/video_embed]So who was the crunchy celeb under that mask? The panelists really should have known it was none other than Tom Bergeron, former America’s Funniest Home Videos host and current Dancing with the Stars co-host. After all, Nicole did win season 10 of Stars, and Robin has performed on the series many, many times. Apparently The Masked Singer and DWTS share a producer (they’re both filmed on the same sound stage at CBS Television City), and she recruited Bergeron to participate this season after hearing him sing a while back.

Don’t burrito round the bush.... TAKE IT OFF!!!! #TheMaskedSinger https://t.co/TLMYxEyzpK

— Robin Thicke (@robinthicke) March 5, 2020

Oh, and the guy who stuck his head into a giant seafood tower to give the panelists clues as to Taco’s identity? That would be none other than Bob Saget, aka the guy Bergeron took over AFHV hosting duties from (Alfonso Ribeiro, whom the judges have guessed could be Frog, is the current host).

And then there were three

Now if only the show could reveal who the other guest clue-givers were, because it will be a few weeks before fans see Banana, Frog and Kitty again. The trio certainly made sure their final sashays across that stage were memorable, though. Frog has everyone, including T-Pain, stumped. His performance of "You Dropped A Bomb On Me" was basically the best of the night, proving that whoever is under that mask is definitely a performer. Given last week’s CSI clue, Bow Wow still seems like a decent guess, but at this point who knows?Then there’s Kitty, whom fans learned this week is also into horror movies and has a dark mind. T-Pain is convinced that she’s Christina Ricci, but Jackie Evancho fans are banging the drum on social media, convinced that this is her showing everyone that she’s retrained that classic operatic voice. Jenny’s guess of Haylie Duff seems equally plausible, given those horror clues.

#BananaMask has blessed us with this performance. ? #TheMaskedSinger pic.twitter.com/sKBCr67cj4

— The Masked Singer (@MaskedSingerFOX) March 5, 2020

And as for Banana? His performance of “Lean On Me” was definitely an improvement from last week, but the race track clues and hints about his recently deceased father have the panelists all over the place guess-wise. According to them he could be anyone from Michael Andretti and Brad Paisley to Larry the Cable Guy and Johnny Knoxville.

Ken is shafted again

Speaking of the panelists, given that this latest installment was a “friendship” episode, Ken is probably feeling like he doesn’t have very many friends right about now. He was the only panelist who didn’t receive a friendship bracelet clue from the performers, and this week his “daddy,” aka Nick Cannon, didn’t leave him any surprises either (maybe they realized how awkward that Valentine’s Day bit played a few weeks ago?).

That's a pretty good @kenjeong impression, @JennyMcCarthy. ? #TheMaskedSinger pic.twitter.com/kbILvlevVw

— The Masked Singer (@MaskedSingerFOX) March 5, 2020

Ken is used to being picked on by the panel of course, because he dishes it out as good as he takes it. So when Jenny broke out that supersized Ken head and pretended to be him while guessing Kitty’s identity, the other panelists were there for it. Her impression was spot-on and on the edge of mean, but also pretty hilarious. Ken seemed into it too; the pair were holding hands later on so you know all is good between them. Ken is probably still soliciting friendship bracelets though, so his fans may want to keep that in mind.Until then, there are six new performers for everyone to concern themselves with, as Group C takes the stage next week. There’s an astronaut, dinosaur, bear, swan, rino and creepy purple opera type thing. Happy guessing!The Masked Singer airs Wednesdays at 8 pET on CTV.[video_embed id='1913978']BEFORE YOU GO: It may be called 'American Idol', but Canada is well represented [/video_embed]