By Mark Gray
8:42am PDT, Apr 21, 2022
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There's no masking it, Rudy Giuliani's appearance on "The Masked Singer" evoked some strong opinions. The former New York City Mayor's identity was shielded as a jack-in-the-box as he performed "Bad To The Bone" on the the popular Fox show. After being eliminated, Rudy doffed the mask and revealed himself. In doing so, "The Masked Singer" judge Ken Jeong walked off the set in protest, telling his co-panelists, "I'm done." The TV appearance — which had been rumored for months — set off a firestorm of opinions, particularly from late night TV hosts. Click through to relive how the entertainment world reacted to news of Rudy's appearance…
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"How does this even happen? A lot of people at Fox had to sign off on this. Not one of them was like, 'Hey, maybe we shouldn't have the guy who is under investigation for helping to plot an insurrection on?'," Jimmy Kimmel said prior to the episode airing. "The Fox network really should be ashamed of themselves. They should have another show after The Masked Singer that night called The Masked Executives. All the Fox executives come out in costumes, the one who green-lit this idea takes off the mask and gets voted out of television forever."
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"One again, Rudy Giuliani ruins the day by showing people his face. America is truly — truly, truly, truly — the greatest country on Earth, because this is the only place in the world where entertainment trumps everything. A year ago, just a year ago, this guy tried to overthrow America's democracy, and now he's a contestant on a reality show? Is there anyone they won't have on? Like, one of these days a Masked Singer is gonna take off their head and it's gonna be literally the coronavirus." —Trevor Noah, prior to the episode airing
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"I thought there could not ever possibly be worse and more humiliating footage of Rudy Giuliani than when s***-colored sweaty dye streaked down his face. I was wrong." –Ana Navarro-Cardenas
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"So much for the party of tolerance. It's sort of like what's going on with Joe Rogan. People are just not willing to stand around anyone that doesn't comply with the narrative. It's absolutely ridiculous. It's a reality show. I've never heard of it til I saw the controversy on Twitter. It's seems like much ado about nothing…. It's just more and more stupidity." —Donald Trump Jr., prior to the episode airing
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"The criminal goon that we know for a fact is being investigated for trying to overthrown our democracy for his idiot emperor was yucking it up on a reality show," Stephen Colbert said prior to the episode airing. "I mean, one of the most chilling phrases in the English language is, 'Surprise, it's Rudy Giuliani!' Just ask the crew of 'Borat.' Nobody wants to see him whip out his head."
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"Rudy Giuliani is as responsible for the violent attack on our Capitol as our disgraced former president. Lives were lost. Over a hundred injured. It's disgusting to have him on the Masked Singer." –Jon Cryer, prior to the episode airing
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"Anything for ratings, right?," Seth MacFarlane tweeted prior to the episode airing. "'Fox Entertainment is already wary of being lumped in with its polarizing siblings at Fox News; why tempt with giving viewers reason to further blur the lines between the two very different operations?' Good question."
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"Are we sure this didn't happen at the "Masked Singer Fishing Supplies and Wig Emporium" in Trenton, NJ?" –Patton Oswalt, prior to the episode airing
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"He couldn't fix the election but Rudy Giuliani did the near-impossible by getting @kenjeong to spend a few moments off-camera" –Triumph The Insult Comic Dog, prior to the episode airing
