“The Masked Singer” judges lived up to their terrible reputation during Sunday’s season premiere when none of them correctly guessed Lil Wayne was hiding inside the Robot costume. As for why the five-time Grammy winner decided to compete on Season 3 of Fox’s ratings juggernaut, Lil Wayne said it was all for his children. “My kids watch the show,” he told Nick Cannon in his end-of-show interview. “I know they’re gonna like the Robot costume, so it’s Daddy.” Watch his performance of Lenny Kravitz‘s “Are You Gonna Go My Way” above.
For the record, Nicole Scherzinger‘s final guess was boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jenny McCarthy picked “Jackass” creator Johnny Knoxville, guest star Jamie Foxx went with Knoxville’s co-star Steve-O, Robin Thicke settled on Olympian Shaun White, and Ken Jeong chose rapper Flavor Flav. Did YOU correctly guess Lil Wayne was the Robot?
SEE 10 most shocking ‘The Masked Singer’ reveals ranked: T-Pain, Margaret Cho, Kelly Osbourne …
It was truly a shocking reveal, as usually the first person eliminated doesn’t have any musical chops at all, such as NFL player Antonio Brown (Season 1’s Hippo) or figure skater Johnny Weir (Season 2’s Egg). The judges failed to pick up on the period table of elements in Robot’s clues package, a reference to Lil Wayne being a platinum-selling artist.
“I’ve done five songs with him,” said Robin as he hid his face in his hands. “This is the most shocked I’ve ever been on this show.” Jenny responded to Robin, “You just Ken Jeong’ed yourself,” a reference to their fellow judge who failed to guess his TV sister Margaret Cho was really the Poodle in Season 1.
Lil Wayne is a five-time Grammy Award winner for “No Problem” (2016), “A Milli” (2008), “Swagga Like Us” (2008), “Lollipop” (2008) and “The Carter III” (2008). But despite all that, being on “The Masked Singer” is the “most fun” he’s had in his career so far, he declared. “It was unlike any experience I’ve ever had musically and performance wise.”
Elsewhere in the Season 3 premiere, audiences were introduced to the rest of Group A: Kangaroo, Llama, Miss Monster, Turtle and White Tiger. These five surviving contestants will return Wednesday night for the Group A Playoffs. (See the full schedule). Do you have an inkling of who might be eliminated next?
SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s newsletter with experts’ latest predictions