When The Masked Singer's Banana Split was revealed to be married music power couple, singer and actress Katharine McPhee and Grammy Award winning musician, composer, and producer David Foster, every panelist guessed them correctly except for Robin Thicke, but Katharine thought Robin knew who they were the whole time. Katharine had her suspicions because David was best friends with Robin's father, late actor Alan Thicke, and he has known Robin since he was a baby. After their performance of "Singin' in the Rain," during the Group B finals, the other panelists guessed Katharine and David, as Robin was not the only one with a special connection to them. David discovered Nicole Scherzinger and knows Jenny McCarthy, and Ken Jeong worked with Katharine on the television series, Community. As they pieced together their personal experiences and the clues, they were able to make correct guesses, but Robin disagreed, joking that it couldn't be "Uncle David" under the mask "because Uncle Dave is so proud of himself and his work, he would never come on this show as a banana. He'd come on as a yacht or a helicopter, killer whale or something." He then guessed Leona Lewis and Ryan Tedder, but Jenny disagreed, thinking they might be Jeff Goldblum and his wife, Emily.
In their next performance in the Group B finals, Banana Split sang a duet of "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing" by Stevie Wonder with Robin. Even after working so closely with them, Robin still did not guess who they were, sticking with Ryan and Tedder and Leona Lewis for his final guess, but the rest of the panel guessed correctly. When the First Impression Guesses were brought out after Banana Split was eliminated, Robin was again the only one who had a wrong guess, saying they were "Jennifer Nettles and that other guy," but Ken, Nicole, and Jenny thought that they were Katharine and David from the start. After she was unmasked, Katharine said, "You guys guessed us right away. What the heck?," but Robin was laughing because he didn't guess correctly.
In an interview with EW, Katharine revealed that she thought that Robin knew Banana was David the whole time, and he only pretended to be confused by his identity to make some good television. She said that David might have a different take, but "I think he knew exactly who we were, he just didn't want to — he wanted to do some good old fashioned TV acting and not make it such a home run for all the judges. So I think he knew." She then mentioned Robin's history with David, explaining that "there's no way he wouldn't know who David is. He would just know the way David's mannerisms were. He's known you since he was a baby." After the unmasking, Robin said that Ken noticed "right off the bat" that Banana would conduct while he was playing piano, and David is known for that, so perhaps Katharine was right, and Robin did know.
Katharine also admitted that she was "pretty surprised" that the other panelists were able to guess them so quickly. She said, "Like I didn't think that my voice was so specific or recognizable. I just kind of thought that they wouldn't." David explained that when you can't see the face of the person who is singing, "it's kind of weird because even people like Chaka Khan [in season 3] and Seal [in season 2] have been on the show, and they have such recognizable voices. I mean, they're so unique, and yet I watched, and I went, 'God, who is that?'" This could explain why Robin was not able to identify David, who didn't sing on the show, but spoke on stage and in the clue packages.
Fans may never know if Katharine was right and Robin really knew who Banana Split was the whole time. Even though she didn't think her voice was that recognizable, her fans immediately knew it was her after listening to her sing on television and on stage for the past fifteen years. Katharine and David as Banana Split gave some of the best performances the show has ever seen, and they will certainly be recognized for that.
The Masked Singer airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST on FOX.
Source: EW