“The Masked Singer” welcomes Leah Remini as a guest judge for Wednesday’s episode, which will see the actress steal the heart of one contestant — and a few kisses from Ken Jeong.
In TheWrap’s exclusive sneak-peek clip from tonight’s Valentine’s Day-themed episode of the Fox singing competition, guest panelist Remini is revealed to be the recipient of a V-Day card from Kangaroo.
While host Nick Cannon, the studio audience and full-time judges Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger and Robin Thicke seem to think this is an adorable choice on the marsupial’s part, Jeong — clearly having received no Valentine’s himself from any of the contestants so far — lashes out.
“To the guest panelist, they give a Valentine?!?” Jeong shouts. “I’ve been here for three freakin’ years, man! She just got here an hour ago!”
Leah decides to make up for Kangaroo’s slight by giving Ken “a Valentine” — in the form of several surprise smooches.
“Oh man, you’re gonna have to cut this whole episode. My wife and kids watch this,” he says, after the kiss sneak attack.
Watch the clip above.
Tonight’s episode will see the four remaining contestants in Group A — Miss Monster, White Tiger, Kangaroo and Turtle -compete to find out who gets unmasked and who gets to move forward in this season’s tournament-style elimination rounds.
Per Fox, “The format will be changing slightly in season three. The contestants will be split into three groups of six – Group A, B, and C. Group A will kick off the first three episodes as they whittle down from 6 to 3 singers. Then we will meet Group B as they go from 6 to 3, then Group C. The final 9 contestants from these three groups will then come together and battle it out the rest of the season for the golden mask trophy. As always, one celebrity will still be unmasked in every episode, including the premiere.”
Along with the now-eliminated Llama (who was revealed to be Drew Carey) and Robot (real identity Lil Wayne), the full Season 3 lineup of masked contestants includes Banana, Miss Monster, Frog, Mouse, Kangaroo, White Tiger, Turtle, Astronaut, Swan, Kitty, Bear, Elephant, Rhino, T-Rex, Night Angel and Taco. Between those 18 contestants they’ve “amassed a combined 69 Grammy Award nominations, 88 Gold records, 11 Super Bowl appearances, three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, more than 160 tattoos and one title in the Guinness Book of World Records,” according to Fox.
The Valentine’s Day-themed episode of “The Masked Singer” airs tonight, Wednesday, at 8/7c on Fox.