Warning! The following contains spoilers for The Masked Singer Season 12 finale. Stream it with a Hulu subscription and read at your own risk.
We've come to the end of the road of The Masked Singer Season 12, in what ended up being a throwback night of phenomenal R&B singers. Wasp put on some stunning performances, but the singer, who was ultimately revealed to be Mario, fell short of the trio that is Buffalo. They're the first performance group to win the Fox series, so I had to ask Boyz II Men if they felt it was easier or harder for groups to thrive on this series, as opposed to solo artists.
Nathan Morris, Shawn Stockman, and Wanyá Morris were gracious enough to speak to me ahead of The Masked Singer Season 12 finale airing. As The Masked Singer closes out for the season and we look ahead to the 2025 TV schedule, here's what Nate had to say in regards to whether they had an advantage over everyone else performing as three talented singers as opposed to just one:
I mean, we can't be nobody else. But yeah, I think it's harder on The Masked Singer because you normally only depended on yourself. So any mistakes that you make are on you. So if you're in a group and one guy ain't got it that night it affects everybody. So it was basically three contestants having to be perfect versus just one person. So it's a lot harder.
It's interesting to hear contestants' perspectives on the other side of the group vs. solo debate. As mentioned, this is the first time a group has won the series, and except for one contestant who didn't know they'd be singing on The Masked Singer, I thought just about everyone this season had a chance at winning. I've long believed that groups have an advantage over solo competitors, but this season, I would agree with Nathan Morris that their work was cut out for them.
While it was obvious (to CinemaBlend at least) that Buffalo was Boyz II Men in hiding, the singers assured me that it wasn't easy getting their signature sound out from within those hefty costumes. Wanyá Morris said that the experience even gave him a whole new appreciation for a specific type of job that he might have dismissed previously. In his words:
It gave us a whole new respect for mascots. A whole new respect for those people that run around on the field and point and all of that. That's a hard job, and just imagine trying to be a mascot with a microphone at your nose...The mic is about two feet from your face. So when you put it on the mask, your face is way back inside the mask. So we had to project through the masks to the mic to get the sound out...It was fun. It was definitely fun. And it actually, to me, it allowed me to find a different pace when I perform a little bit. It allowed me to find I could turn it up and then I could dial it back to The Buffalos and still give the same energy as performing.
The Masked Singer's competitors always seem to have some eye-opening experience after performing on the show, and I always love hearing about what everyone took away from it. Maybe Wanyá Morris' public support of showing respect for mascots will get that one who flirted with Sydney Sweeney a date, or maybe not. If nothing else, I'll show more respect to the mascots I see occasionally, which has to count for something. Probably not as much as a date with Sydney Sweeney, but I'm only speculating.
Overall, The Masked Singer Season 12 was a blast. It had some wild theme nights, a competitive finale, and a cameo from a very famous director. I'm not sure there's more you can ask for regarding this Fox series, and Season 13 will have to be special to measure up to it.
The Masked Singer will return for a new season on Fox on Wednesday, February 12th. I'll be eager to see who they pull in for the new season and if we'll get another group of competitors capable of winning it all after this historic season.
