Spoiler alert: If you haven’t seen Episode 11 of The Masked Singer, the identity of the Russian Dolls will be revealed.
As Season 5 of The Masked Singer inches toward the Final 3 and the big season finale, viewers watched the Five Fan Favorites vie for a spot in the semi-finals. The fierce competition has seen talented contestants such as Bobby Brown, Tamera Mowry-Housley and actor-singer Tyrese Gibson go home early, and the same complimentary boasts can be said about the latest elimination, with the Russian Dolls being unmasked. Despite the surprise elimination, the group still left a mark on the competition, and subsequently revealed the most surprising thing about being figured out.
As with many Masked Singer contestants, the Russian Dolls’ time on the Fox series was a rollercoaster of guesses. The judges were all over the place, naming groups across all music genres, from Sugarland to Boyz II Men to the Jonas Brothers. But Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger and guest judge Rob Riggle hit the nail(s) on the head(s) with their final guesses, as the set of Russian Dolls were revealed to be the siblings comprising the pop-rock group Hanson. After the group’s reveal, Taylor Hanson spoke with TV Insider and expressed his desire for a specific judge to pinpoint the group’s identity.
Because we have a history with Jenny McCarthy — we’ve known her for a long time, we’ve been on radio shows and TV shows of hers and we’ve interacted for years — we actually all expected her to be the first to guess that it was us. That was probably the biggest surprise just from us sitting there. Nicole definitely got it first and we’re glad, at least, that they did guess Hanson. Because we would like to at least be in the possible categories of ourselves.
Taylor Hanson’s words spoke to the relationships that he and his brothers have developed as veterans in the entertainment industry since breaking it big in 1997. Surprisingly, Jenny McCarthy’s first guess was actually the R&B group Boyz II Men, which was technically in the same harmonious ballpark. McCarthy eventually came around after reflecting on her past interactions with the brothers, which is how fellow judge Nicole Scherzinger figured out the trio out. As the Hanson brother pointed out, it’s quite the rewarding moment to have the judges finally figure the contestants' identities out.
Another Hanson brother revealed he had a different goal in mind for who should have guessed the pop group's identity. Zac Hanson wanted a certain doctor-turned-comedic actor to get the group on the first guess, saying this about everybody’s favorite hopeless judge:
In my heart, I wanted Ken to get us first, just because Ken’s so hopeless. [All laugh].
As television’s favorite mostly clueless panelist, Ken Jeong certainly deserved the bone that Zac Hanson wanted to throw his way. Despite how self-awarely annoying Jeong can be from time to time, his misguided guesses make the Fox singing competition all the more entertaining and head-scratching. Zac Hanson's words reflected The Masked Singer fanbase’s love-hate relationship with the comedic actor, who also went on to join the Masked Dancer group of judges.
It was sad to see the Russian Dolls leave the Fox series, as their immense talent filled the stage in surprising ways every week. Now, as the competition rolls toward the finale, fans can root for Chameleon, Black Swan, Piglet and Yeti from here on out. To see who makes it to the Final 3, you can watch The Masked Singer Wednesday nights on Fox at 8 pm ET.
