Iconic ’90s Chid Star Baffles Panel, Gets Emotional

The final five masks were unleashed, rounding out the competition as Group C begins whittling itself down to see who joins Coral, Paparazzo, Boogie Woogie, and Pearl in the next round next month.

But first, Nessy, Yorkie, Stud Muffin, Cherry Blossom, and Mad Scientist Monster (left to right, above) have to survive one another — and for one of them, that task ended tonight almost as quickly as it began.

With contestants ranging from tiny to massive, and voices from shockingly beautiful to comically entertaining, this episode had it all. Alas, the Carnival celebration ended as quickly as it began for one of these famous faces and no one on the panel got this one right.

We’ve got our guesses in place for all five of the new masks, and we’re feeling pretty confident about them (so they might be Ken Jeong wrong!). Who do you think they are? And who went home tonight? As Nick Cannon would say, “You know the drill!”

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.

(“Hot to Go!” Chappel Roan) Yorkie can’t really dance, can’t really find the beat, and has no rhythm. But she still manages to bring the entertainment value to the stage with a very amateurish and charmingly ridiculous performance. Her energy is giving more drag than professional singer, though she carries a tune well and better than expected based on the rest of what she delivered. We see someone who embraces the camp and knows how to work it over-the-top, but isn’t necessarily a singer.

Clues & Guesses: Without giving much away at all in her first clue package, Yorkie shared that she’s fashion-forward, sassy, and — yes — popular! As we saw a mouse on what looked like a classic cardboard party hat, Yorkie talked about how she’s been through a lot of “crazy stuff” in her life.

“One minute you’re hot, the next it’s your time to go,” she said while holding an oversized diamond ring. Throughout it all, she said that she’s had music, which rescued her in her “darkest hours.” We also saw a stack of poker chips as she talked about having some bite to her, which has helped her catch rats.

When asked who the real Yorkie is, she replied, “Well, I was down bad, but then a lovely lady in Beverly Hills adopted me and now I’m wearing Chanel and eating caviar.”

Jenny had to stand up for her party girl guess with ties to Vegas, for the poker chips, Yorkie sense of humor and admitted brat behavior to guess Chelsea Handler. When Nick asked if she could sing and move like that, Jenny shot back, “Throw some vodka in her and it’s a par-tay!”

Rita tied the ring to the film Bling Ring, and the person who had her ring stolen in it, Paris Hilton … who also happens to have a key to the city of Las Vegas. Ken delved into the Real Housewives for Kyle Richards as Yorkie told the Men in Black, ‘All right, bitches, let’s go!”

Our first guess looked at the poker chips for a celebrity who’s gained some notoriety in that world, and there we find one of the hottest “it” girls of the ’90s and ’00s, who then almost abruptly vanished from that world, Shannon Elizabeth. She talked about how music rescued her, and she’s extremely active in the animal rescue world. She’s also sang on camera, directed music videos, and danced on Dancing with the Stars.

Another possibility that has some traction, though, could be Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne, who is even more intimately tied to music as she’s released music. Plus, she appeared on Lip Sync Battle and as Roxie Hart in Chicago. Could that be the kiss? Plus, there’s that being adopted by that “lovely lady in Beverly Hills” comment.

Vocally, this one feels more right, with her line, “the price of poker has completely changed” about her tenuous relationship with estranged husband PK, possibly tying to the poker chips, as does her recent documentary, Bet It All on Blonde.

(“Jump Around,” House of Pain) Stud Muffin came out with that hip-hop vibe, not really bothering to sing. The song choice was clearly a jam and a vibe and he stayed true to that from start to finish. The Carnival theme was also prevalent, as a lot of those performers joined him by the time this was over. Was it vocally stellar? Not at all. But it was still entertaining, and he did well with the song he chose.

Clues & Guesses: Stud Muffin is loving his costume because he said he’s “had a muffin top the majority of his life.” He’s also always dreamed of being a mascot, as you get to hype people up while remaining anonymous. In his real life, though, he reps his team, helping them “sweep up the competition,” going from the bottom to the top.

He shared that he started off sweeping the floors, though, while showing a jar of jam. Other visual clues included tennis shoes (with a basketball graphic on them), a weight room, and those hundred dollar bills he was waving around before throwing them around.

Jenny was already guessing basketball star from the moment he came out as he appears to be a pretty big dude, standing perhaps even taller than Nick. When asked if this fulfilled his mascot dreams, Stud Muffin told Nick, “One of my teammates used to run with a mascot, and I thought it was so cool, but no. Love the idea, but Nick, love doesn’t cost a thing.”

Nick then declared he definitely knows who this is, leading RIta to shoot back, “Why don’t you go first, Nick.” She dismissed all the obvious basketball player clues to home in on the vocals, hearing Method Man in that delivery. Robin, too, heard Method’s signature breathing techniques, so he was right there with Rita.

Ken, though, jumped up as the resident NBA expert to pivot back to sports and throw out Shaquille O’Neal, which wasn’t as soundly trounced by everyone else in the room as we thought. But based on his hip and shoulder placement next to Nick, we’re not sure Stud Muffin is quite that tall. Jenny, meanwhile, got a terrible reaction from Stud Muffin for her Michael Jordan guess.

As he doesn’t tower over Nick, we found ourselves considering smaller — by NBA standards — stars who were in the latest Space Jam movie, like 6’2″ Damian Lillard. HE signed a deal with Adidas, which could tie to the shoes, and he performs as a hip-hop artist under the name Dame D.O.L.L.A., which could tie to the dollar bills.

He scored Rookie of the Year when he started with the Portland Trail Blazers in 2012, which slowly became a decade of success and playoff appearances under his leadership. Plus, he’s talked about his love of the Golden State Warriors’ mascot, seeing him when he was young.

(“Roxane,” The Police) Nessy has got some gorgeous pipes, with a pureness to his voice that is just raw, natural talent. On top of that, he showed great control, range, and depth of character to his vocals in tackling a song that you have to be strategic to show off — and he was! This is easily one of the strongest vocals in the whole show, coming as a huge surprise to the panel.

Clues & Guesses: Thing of a celebrity who lives somewhere celebrities don’t live, with even his neighbors and mailman not necessarily knowing he’s the same guy who’s that other famous guy. He called himself a “gentle giant” in this first clue package where he said he’s a “little mysterious” and intentionally “reclusive” on his acreage.

A radio with a star on it suggests either a musical artist — we can definitely hear that — or even a deejay with an amazing singing voice. He also polished a horseshoe, showed off a red card with white lip print, and his family rose from the waters behind him, hinting at a wife and three kids.

Nessy shared, “I took a lot of time off to be with my family. But then being able to come on here and be invited back into the limelight, that really feels good.”

Rita wondered if the lips could refer to Gene Simmons from KISS (but he does not sing that well), with the makeup perhaps leading to people not knowing who he is. But KISS has not been out of the spotlight, and instead on a farewell tour.

Jenny, though, considered Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds, tying the “Radioactive” song to the radio. Ken and Robin were talking about hearing something in the voice, with Ken saying that for him it was Daryl Hall, with Robin agreeing, “Yeah, me too.” A “Private Plane” newspaper for “Private Eye,” and the lips to “Kiss on My List.”

Honestly, we don’t hate the Daryl guess. He does live on 250 acres in a tiny community of less than 1,000 people in Millerton, New York, so it’s possible his neighbors and mailman don’t know who he is as a famous person. He even mentioned how private he was — a Hall & Oates Private Eyes reference?

(“Let’s Get Loud,” Jennifer Lopez) Cherry Blossom told us she was not a singer, but she really didn’t carry herself too poorly. She was mostly in tune throughout this piece, though she didn’t challenge herself. It got stronger as she shook off her nerves and carried on. She’s definitely rough in a lot of ways, but if she spent some time on it, she could find a solid singing voice in there.

Clues & Guesses: Cherry Blossom got emotional in her clue package, sharing that she was actually doing this show to honor a close friend of hers who’d previously done, and who she missed, dearly, suggesting he had passed away.

She also said she recognized his voice from the first note, which definitely narrows down who that might be. Right off the bat, the loudest male personalities who are sadly no longer with us — and who competed on this show — are Leslie Jordan, Jerry Springer, and Bob Saget.

She said that it was this person who helped her not to take herself so seriously, while she saw the show as a rebirth of sorts for her, a changing of the seasons. She said he had one of the “loudest personalities,” as we saw clues including a Christmas tree, a full moon, and a “Best Selling” book.

“This is the scariest thing I’ve ever done,” she said. “But I am channelling my kids’ confidence — one of them sings — but my legs are still noodles right now,” she said.

Ken said the clues had him pointing one way, but Cherry Blossom’s demeanor while talking on stage was giving Tina Fey. Rita, though, wondered if the past contestant connection leads to Shark Tank‘s Daymond John, possibly making this Lori Greiner.

Jenny, though, tied the Christmas tree to Christmas movies to find her guess of Jennie Garth. She’s also connected to Brian Austin Green, tying the full moon to Twilight star Peter Facinelli. But all of those guesses seemed to ignore that Cherry Blossom choked up while saying she missed her friend who competed, so we really think it’s someone who has since passed.

That brings us back to the three men we mentioned above, with us leaning more toward Leslie or Bob as people who would have perhaps had a petite woman working with them over a period of time, as she suggested.

Leslie could bring us to Will & Grace for Debra Messing or Megan Mullally, or his more recent Call Me Kat for Mayim Bialik or Kyla Pratt. The most obvious Bob connection, of course, would be Full House, giving you Candace Cameron Bure, Jodie Sweetin, Andrea Barber or — and this is not the right guess — the Olsen twins.

Based on just the way she speaks, we can perhaps best hear Mayim, Candace, or Andrea, with us leaning more to the paternal connection the latter two might have had with Bob growing up. And when thinking of them, we consider Jenny’s take on the Christmas tree, and Candace has starred in a ton of Hallmark and GAC holiday films.

(“Unwell,” Matchbox Twenty) Mad Scientist Monster has an authentic country twang and a soulful sound that worked really well for this classic track. His voice definitely sounded recognizable right away, making us think this is someone who definitely makes their living from music and has spent years honing this voice and this talent. This was a powerful debut.

Clues & Guesses: Mad Scientist Monster — or MSM as we’re going to call him — almost didn’t wind up in whatever field he’s in now, where he says he’s “changed the world.” Instead, he was on the way to being the best in a different field, getting scouted and nearly breaking out.

But it all fell apart when everyone was wanting to recruit him, leaving him sidelined and costing him his chance at glory. But he reacted to that setback with a pivot that showed him his purpose. Along the way, we saw “Fast” on a radar gun for clocking speed, and a fish tank, along with all his experiments in the lab.

“You know what?” he said on stage. “This is so important to me because it gives me an opportunity to reintroduce myself to fans in a way that they’ve never seen before.”

Jenny was feeling it could be Luke Bryan, confident it’s a “legendary recording artist,” tying in his song, “Fast.” Ken, though, wondered if it could be Luke Combs, who did his iconic take on Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.” Robin, though, was looking at his enormous stature to find Blake Shelton, which was the first voice we heard when he started singing and talking. But we don’t think he was ever almost something else, like an athlete.

One towering country star who did start out with a very promising athletic career is 6’6″ Brett Young. A baseball scholarship for pitching brought him to Ole Miss where he was scouted and actually turned down two pre-draft selections by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Minnesota Twins. He was well on his way to a career in baseball when an elbow injury effectively ended it all. The clue duck even solidified it for us with “curve ball” and “pitch” wordplay about him.

This was a more interesting lineup in that there weren’t nearly as many strong singers as the previous groups. That said, we’re almost ready to give the group to Nessy and Mad Scientist Monster, as those two had the most polished and impressive performances.

Stud Muffin was the most chaotic of the performers, while Cherry Blossom and Yorkie made earnest efforts and did well enough for themselves. They’re not pros, but we appreciated that they could find the note and touch it more often than not. For that, we’d send Stud Muffin home — but it looks like the studio audience disagreed with us, booting Cherry Blossom, instead.

Her Crack the Case Clue Case was a button, that triggered Joey Fatone (Season 1’s Rabbit) to tell us his friend Cherry Blossom is “part of the ’90s convection circuit because she’s part of one of the most famous TV families of the ’90s.” If we weren’t confident in our our guess before, we were at this point.

• Robin Thicke: Tracey Gold
• Jenny McCarthy: Jennie Garth
• Ken Jeong: Tina Fey
• Rita Ora: Jessica Biel

With guesses ranging from okay to awful, it seems like the panel largely ignored much of the clue package in their guesses — and especially the petite Cherry Blossom getting choked up about the former TMS contestant she was close with, saying, “Miss you, bud!” As such, none of them got the W this week!

In the end it was 5’2″ actress, and huge ’90s star from Full House who lost her TV dad in Bob Saget (Season 6’s Squiggly Monster). “How did I not get that?” Jenny asked, and we have to agree with her. That was easily one of the biggest sitcoms of the decade!

The Masked Singer continues next Wednesday with “Boy Band Night” at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.