Warning! The following contains spoilers for The Masked Singer‘s Season 11 episode “The Wizard Of Oz Night.” Read at your own risk!
The Masked Singer Season 11 got off to a strong start last week with a premiere that outshone Season 10’s beginning, and the show continued firing on all cylinders in Episode 2 in an equally unexpected way. No, I’m not talking about The Wizard Of Oz theme, but am referring instead to the fact that the series produced and then eliminated arguably the worst singing performance we’ve seen yet. Afghan Hound was unmasked and revealed to be reality star Savannah Chrisley, and she might be the poster child for why the show should do this more often, since I kinda loved the change in pace.
Viewers might remember Savannah Chrisley from Chrisley Knows Best, the long-running USA series about a wealthy southern family whose breadwinners Todd and Julie Chrisley were imprisoned in 2023 for bank fraud, among other charges. Savannah has appeared on other reality shows in the time since, including Fox’s Special Forces, which is presumably how she found her way into the Hound suit on The Masked Singer. I doubt it came about due to her vocal abilities, which I sincerely say with all due respect to the increasingly popular podcaster, since I love watching this show highlight acts who aren’t necessarily the best.
Savannah Chrisley Was The Perfect Personality Hire For The Masked Singer
For what Savannah Chrisley lacked in singing ability, she more than made up for with the kind of stage presence we haven’t seen since Rob Gronkowski busted out his dance moves as White Tiger back in Season 3. My first thought was, ‘They’re not taking this seriously,’ but after watching her goof around and legit forget the words to The Tokens‘ “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” I started to remember a key notion I’d largely forgotten during these past few seasons: The Masked Singer is far more popcorn than prestige, and it’s more than okay to have some fun.
The show has brought in a larger pool of truly talented celebrity singers in recent seasons, both from the music industry and outside of it, but with that came some natural competition between those vying for the top prize. This led to situations such as actor Tyler Posey telling CinemaBlend that he felt like he was robbed of a win following his elimination in Season 10.
I think somewhere along the line, it became less clear that the singing portion of this show doesn’t require perfection. While it’s exciting to hear a great voice coming out of a mask, it’s mainly about guessing the identities. Savannah Chrisley was a great personality hire for The Masked Singer because she reminded me it’s okay for this show to be goofy and fun for the contestants as well.
I’d Much Sooner See An Untalented Singer Go Home First Than A Talented One
Unsurprisingly, Savannah Chrisley’s Afghan Hound was a one-and-done competitor on The Masked Singer Season 11, but that’s fine with me. If you use a Hulu subscription to go back through past seasons, there are many instances where the competition was so great we lost a legitimately good singer on their first night.
Season 8 was a real bummer because of that format change, and if you’re sending home Chris Kirkpatrick on Night 1, you’re doing something wrong. I’m not saying we need a ton of Savannah Chrisley types on The Masked Singer going forward, but I’m okay with seeing untalented singers leave early just for the thrill of guessing who they are.
The Masked Singer airs on Fox on Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. Tune in as Season 11 rolls on with Rita Ora continuing her inaugural season as the first new panelist in ages. I think this has the strongest start to a season in a long time, so anyone who still has yet to join in and watch this season absolutely should!