Spoilers ahead for the October 28 episode of The Masked Singer Season 4, "The Group C Premiere."
The Masked Singer returned from taking a week off for the 2020 World Series to debut the Group C batch of mystery singing celebrities. The competition between Squiggly Monster, Mushroom, Jellyfish, Broccoli, and Lips was stiff, but one of them had to go, and Lips had to kiss her chance at winning Season 4 goodbye after only one song. She was unmasked and revealed as talk show host Wendy Williams.
Wendy Williams' performance of Odyssey's "Native New Yorker" didn't show off the strongest set of pipes in The Masked Singer Season 4, but she was definitely an entertaining performer, and showed off her personality despite her massive mask and without even needing to do much in the way of dancing.
As it turns out, that personality showing through helped fans figure out her identity before she even performed for the first (and only) time. Like judges Jenny McCarthy and Nicole Scherzinger with their first impression guesses, viewers figured out that Wendy Williams was Lips. Here's how.
The Masked Singer released a promo for "The Group C Premiere" on Twitter, and it featured Lips laughing and Jenny McCarthy noting that she was getting a little "frisky" with host Nick Cannon. The friskiness resulted in Ken Jeong's very wrong guess that Cannon's ex Mariah Carey was under the mask, but it didn't trick fans on social media into not figuring out that it was really Williams. For one person, the voice in a preview was the first giveaway:
The laugh is seemingly the biggest clue that tipped Masked Singer detectives off that Wendy Williams was the one under the Lips mask, but there were more factors. In fact, one person cited Williams' real-life medical issues, which she has addressed multiple times on The Wendy Williams Show and resulted in Williams taking a hiatus earlier this year, as a giveaway:
While the Lips sitting during her performance tipped some off that Wendy Williams was the first singer from Group C going home, I would argue that remaining seated made the performance better. She came across as confident, flirty, and totally in control at the center of attention. Besides, her handsiness with Nick Cannon that had Cannon in stitches wouldn't have worked if she was Frog-ing it up and dancing.
Whether or not Wendy Williams will be disappointed at her early elimination or the fact that people guessed her identity before her episode even aired remains to be seen, but it has to be flattering that she was figured out because she has such big fans that they can so easily recognize her!
Nick Cannon and Wendy Williams already knew each other and were friends before The Masked Singer, so her friskiness made sense. They weren't strangers, and Cannon got a kick out of the reveal, presumably because he didn't figure it out as early as some fans! In fact, Cannon and Williams had recently spoken without Williams giving the game away.
Now that Wendy Williams has been cut from Group C, the competition is down to Squiggly Monster, Mushroom, Broccoli, and Jellyfish to try and make it to the next stage and face off against the best of the best from Groups A and B. See what happens next (hopefully with a certain guest judge back) with new episodes of The Masked Singer, airing Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. For more viewing options, check out our 2020 fall TV premiere schedule!
