After a two week hiatus, The Masked Singer returned with a two-hour special where two characters were sent packing and it was revealed that the Black Widow was none other than former Disney Channel star Raven Symone.
The Masked Singer is the latest singing competition that everyone is talking about in the break room at work, except there's a twist to it. Every week, "characters" perform for a panel of four judges: Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger, and Ken Jeong. Those characters are celebrities in disguise, who perform but also release clues about their identity each week. At the end of each episode viewers vote for their favorites and the character with the lowest votes gets unmasked, and the judges are given a chance to guess who they think it will be based on the clues.
After receiving the least amount of votes on the most recent episode of The Masked Singer, the Black Widow was unmasked in front of the crowd and revealed to be Raven Symone (via People). Raven is best known for her role on Disney Channel's hit show That's So Raven, a wildly successful show about a teen psychic which was the first show in the network's history to ever produce 100 episodes. Outside of her music career, she is also a director, executive producer, and talk show host, and her multi-faceted background was mentioned as one of her clues. Before her unveiling, judges Robin Thicke and Nicole Scherzinger had both guessed that they thought it would be her under the mask, but the other three judges weren't convinced.
There were a few clues given about the Black Widow that were more obvious indications of her identity, including during episode 2 when there was a crystal ball, crystals and tarot cards to hint at her psychic capabilities on That's So Raven. During that episode, she also said that "you'll find I'm a little edgier, darker and more alien than you know me to be" implying that she wasn't always herself in the spotlight. In episode 4 she said that "ever since I was an itsy bitsy spider, I've had to embody a squeaky clean image" which further confirmed that she was a child actor or someone who started off in the spotlight very young. Raven appeared on The Cosby Show in 1989 when she was just 4-years-old and has been in the spotlight since then.
The "squeaky clean image" also made judges and viewers think she could've been a Disney Channel star. That week she also said that she has had "an amazing career that has taken on all different shapes" which speaks to the acting, singing, directing, producing and hosting she's done. A few more subtle clues in her videos were a peach, which hinted at her background because she's from Atlanta, Georgia, and the platinum record hanging in the background, which was a nod to The Cheetah Girls album that went platinum. Once revealed, Raven talked about what motivated her to participate on the show and explained that, "I’ve been in the music industry and the industry for a really long time and I said, ‘Oh my goodness, it would be awesome if I don’t have to see anybody, they can’t see me, I can be the person I am in the mirror,’" The 33-year-old also said that when she was called a professional singer she "peed [her] pants" because she was so flattered at the compliment.
While the Black Widow was revealed during the second hour of the show, the first hour revealed that the Penguin was The View host Sherri Shepherd, so now we're down to 9 characters that have yet to be unmasked. Viewers will have to tune in to see which celebrity will be unmasked next - and if they guessed correctly who each person was!
The Masked Singer airs Wednesdays at 8pm EST on Fox.
Source: People