Worst Singer Ever on This Show Takes Stage

We will say that this group did continue the trend of offering a vast improvement over last season in the overall quality of singers participating. Afghan Hound, Beets, Gumball, and Miss Cleocatra really owned their time on the stage, delivering truly memorable performances.

Did you notice it’s Beets and not Beet? That’s right, we have our first multi-mask this season, with a duo coming out in some of the cutest costumes we’ve ever seen. This week, no one did anything crazy, so we got the full Smackdown and elimination.

That’s not to say there weren’t some crazy moments, as the panel is convinced we have yet another female legendary diva among us, one mask appeared to break down, freezing on the stage, and one — well, you kind of have to see it to believe that just happened!

Let’s jump right in with this week’s mask. And don’t worry, before we get to the shocking unmasking(s), we’re going to make you power through the terrible (and occasionally good) guesses made by our illustrious panel of Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Ken Jeong and Rita Ora first. We do this because we love … to torture you.

Along with the panel’s guesses, we’ll be sharing some internet speculation, too, so if you don’t want to be potentially spoiled (because they are very good at this), you may want to skip past the guesses sections.

(“Over the Rainbow,” Judy Garland, from The Wizard of Oz) The production team went all out to bring The Masked Singer set to Oz, complete with an Emerald City and a hot air balloon for Nick to arrive in, but they really went all out with LeAnn Rimes’ return to sing the film’s signature song. She once again proved why she was the one to beat back in Season 4 with a stellar, commanding vocal that left Jenny (almost) speechless.

(“If I Only Had a Heart,” Jack Haley, from The Wizard of Oz / “Heartbeat Song,” Kelly Clarkson) Gumball really delivered with great showmanship and a lot of energy. Even better, he’s got some great pipes there. The only thing that threw us a bit was that he struggled a bit with the cadence of his breathing on the faster parts, which a seasoned musician wouldn’t do. But maybe it’s that paired with a heavy costume that threw him off. Either way, it was a very strong vocal performance with a lot of sweet elements.

Guesses: “For me, it’s the Tin Man. When you met him, he was a little rusty, maybe just like me.” That’s what Gumball said when asked which Oz character inspired him the most. In his clue package, he opened up about his rocky road to stardom.

That included shockingly getting booed off the stage at a talent competition … for winning! He said that he’d always known he wanted to be on the stage, he just couldn’t figure out his path. Cue montage of playing drums, guitar, beatboxing, dancing, maybe even singing.

Visual cues included a horse-drawn chariot, a heart around the “American South,” and Mississippi in particular, as well as a black spider dropping on a red-and-white mushroom. His on-stage clue arrived via flying monkey carrying a heart clock.

“At the end of the day, Tin Man always had the heart of a superhero, and I actually might, too.” Rita wondered if he was hinting at The Boys and its Southern boy from Texas, Chace Crawford. Ken speculated it was Jamie Dornan, with his 50 Shades connection to Rita.

Robin, though, wondered if his talk of watching others succeed white looking at two guitars (or one and a bass) leaning on a drum set could refer to famous trios … and that could refer to Kevin Jonas not enjoying the same level of success as his brothers.

The X/Twitter-sphere didn’t have any stronger guesses, throwing out names from Justin Guarini and Corbin Bleu to Zac Efron and Nick Carter, who already competed once as Crocodile. We don’t think we’re doing repeats. The bottom line is that Gumball has everyone stumped still, but they do agree they love his voice.

(“Stormy Weather,” Etta James) Miss Cleocatra was carried out, which was appropriate for the persona, but also reminded us of Ugly Sweater last week, who seems to have some mobility issues. Does this cat? Vocally, she has such a distinctive tone — and wail, and screech — it’s one of those sounds where you feel like you should absolutely know. It’s old-school theatricality at its best. This sounds like a stage legend.

Guesses: Miss Cleaocatra told us she was inspired most by Glinda, the Good Witch. Like Ugly Sweater, she was given a chair to sit in during the panel’s discussion, which again has us thinking an older performer who either has some mobility issues, or just struggles moving around in this huge, heavy costume.

Her clues included the notion that her life went from “gorgeous rainbows to horrendous black-and-white.” She suggested that she was considered a national treasure, but wasn’t able to feel that she’d earned that. Instead, she felt “wicked.”

That is, until a diagnosis made everything crystal clear. It was one she “never wanted, but desperately needed.” Now, she’s glad she reached out for help. Visual clues included an hourglass, a crown, crow, and green luggage labeled, “Vacay!” and a sign reading, “Bel-Air.”

On-stage, Miss Gulch brought out her clue, a magic wand. “I’ve already worked my magic on an Emmy-award-winning show,” Miss Cleocatra explained. Ken jumped to Empire star Taraji P. Henson, but Jenny was thinking more Abbott Elementary star Sheryl Lee Ralph.

Robin, though, thinks that maybe it’s Loretta Devine, who definitely made her mark on Broadway in the original Dreamgirls, along with plenty of television shows. Online, though, there was zero doubt.

It seems that everyone on social media was ready to put their eggs in one basket on this one, with said basket being Broadway, film, and television icon Jennifer Lewis.

(“The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” The Tokens) Afghan Hound started laughing toward the end of her performance, and we were here for this moment of humility. She acknowledged right at the top that she could not sing, but we think she totally undersold just how awful she is. We’ll go out on a limb and say this may be the worst vocal performance ever on this show, and that’s saying something! But we’ll let her laugh for us.

Guesses: Her Oz inspo was the Cowardly Lion, with her talking about the courage she faced to come out and “laugh through the pain.” Her clue package was about how she has to wake up and be braev every day. She talked about always wondering what life was like over the rainbow.

Then, she said, it happened for her family, with their dreams coming true. Even better, they got to do it all together, “until recently.” She then said she was left suddenly “alone, lost, and left to pick up the pieces.” The family photo went from five (three male, two female) to just her. Other visual clues included a shark’s tooth necklace and a house keychain, as well as a nest on a stump.

Her on-stage clue was a medallion with “Courage” written on it, similar to the one the Cowardly Lion received in the film. “Like the lion, it take scourge to to be on TV,” she said. “Especially with the characters of my family.”

Rita Ora immediately thought of famous reality families and landed on Sylvester Stallone’s daughter, Sistine, of The Family Stone. Ken went the other way, wondering if it was maybe Lori Loughlin’s daughter Olivia Jade, with the key and house referencing Full House.

Jenny, though, went with Brooke Hogan, daughter of Hulk Hogan and star of her own family reality series. Afghan Hound wasn’t loving that, but Jenny tied it even further to the clothesline in the clue package as “a wrestling move that I’d like to do on Ken.”

The internet was torn between actually trying to guess who Afghan Hound was and just hoping that she would go away as they were not feeling this performance at all. In their defense, it was a vocal disaster. Others, though, were here for the delightful mess.

There were a few guesses sprinkled in there, but there were about as bad as her singing with names like Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow showing up.

But among those taking it a little more seriously, there was a good guess that lined up with the clues … a reality star but not any of the ones the panel guessed. Instead, they were looking at reality star Savannah Chrisley, who recently lost both of her parents to the prison system.

(“Home,” Michael Bublé) Beets really surprised us with the power of their vocals and harmonizing. Maybe the panel had us thrown assuming this was a comedy duo. That may still be the case, but if so, they have beautiful tones. They definitely sing like they’re intimately familiar with one another, like family or long-time partners.

Guesses: Their biggest Oz-spirations are Dorothy and Toto because of their “loyalty as friends.” Our first instinct when they started singing was Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, then we started wondering about the Damons Wayan, but can any of them really sing this well?

The clue package said that for them, home is wherever they were together. They noted that at one point they had 40 million eyes on them, while a picture of a radio was on the screen One gifted the other the book Beeting the Odds, which led to card playing and the two of hearts.

They also described one another as the one with the “big ol’ brain” and the one with the “unbeatable heart.” On stage, Toto came out as the clue. “Like Toto and Dororthy, we’re the best of friends,” Beets explained. “And we’re pretty good co-stars, too.”

Rita Ora considered Will Arnett and Jason Bateman, while Ken thought of K-Ci and Jojo — which Nick and the panel hated as a guess. Robin threw out the comedy duo of Steve Martin and Martin Short, but we weren’t feeling that one, either.

The most popular online guess is definitely a good one as Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard, who have become great friends over the years, can definitely hit those notes … and nearly 40 million viewers watched their American Idol finale.

The first one was a no-brainer as Afghan Hound definitely did not deliver anywhere near the caliber of her competitors. If it were up to us, she’d be paired with Miss Cleocatra. It’s not that Cleocatra can’t sing, it’s just that she wasn’t as consistent or dynamic as her counterparts.

The audience went another way, though. Yes, it was Afghan Hound, but she was joined by Gumball. The panel noted that Gumball hadn’t moved since getting the news, so maybe he was as shocked as we were with these results.

(“Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead”, Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg, from The Wizard of Oz) Afghan Hound was about as terrible as we expected, barely knowing the melody and doing nothing with it but stumbling and giggling through it. Gumball put an R&B spin on it with a vocal even stronger than the first time we saw him. This was the glimmer of talent we saw from him in the first round, and again has us scratching our heads as to why he’s here..

This has to be one of the easiest votes in TMS history. It’s not often you have arguably the worst vocalist of the entire series on. Add to that a great take on an old-time movie classic. The panel had only one real choice here and they made the right one, marking the end of the journey for the Afghan Hound.

• Robin Thicke: Bethenny Frankel
• Jenny McCarthy: Brooke Hogan
• Ken Jeong: Olivia Jade
• Rita Ora: Sistine Stallone

Olivia Jade wasn’t a bad guess, considering Lori did spend some time away from the family, but it really felt like the reality angle was the way to go, and there is one famous family that recently saw itself turned upside down when not one, but two of its parents wound up behind bars.

The internet sniffed this one out as it was, in fact, Chrisley Knows Best star Savannah Chrisley, who’s stepped up to raise her siblings with both of their parents behind bars.

When asked why she did the show, she replied, “Honestly, my life over the past year has changed drastically. Um, lost both my parents to the federal system, and now I have custody of my 15-year-old brother and 10-year-old sister. If I can teach them anything, it’s take every opportunity that comes your way and don’t back down.”

“I know singing is not for me. I don’t know what a note is, nor do I know what rhythm is, but it was a good experience,” she added, to which we’re sure everyone would agree.

“A big reason I did this is because I know my parents can watch it,” she concluded.

The Masked Singer introduces Group C next Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.