William Shatner Is Officially The Oldest Contestant On ‘The Masked Singer’

The Masked Singer is an American reality singing competition TV series hosted by Nick Cannon. The show features celebrities wearing a mask and a costume covering their entire body to hide their identities. A group of panelists guesses to identify who the superstar is by decoding clues provided to them throughout the competition.

In the season 8 premiere, the legendary William Shatner graced the stage, and after performing his rendition, he was voted off. However, he left an impression on the viewers and also broke a world record on the show.

The Clue that led to Shatner’s Unmasking

The knight’s audio hint started funny when Shatner claimed that he was surprised it took around three years for him to get a chance to feature in the competition, “I can’t believe it’s taken me eight seasons to be on The Masked Singer. I was holding out for the hosting gig, but Nick keeps having babies, so I guess he’s not going anywhere.”

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Also, the Rescue 11 star talked in-depth about why he is popular. Shatner revealed that he was a Shakespearean actor and has been involved in multiple walks of fame. He further detailed his work relationship with George Lucas and how they both did a lot of movies and TV series.

Interestingly, he bragged that he had never thrown a chair on national TV and hadn’t sold a body part for profit. He also said that he had never ridden a golden goose to sing songs onstage, but there was a first time for everything. For his visual clue, the audience could notice a Shakespeare bust, a police badge, a solar system, a tape tagged as ‘covers,’ and also a fake hand.

Williams Shatner was unmasked

The Canadian actor took to The Masked Singer stage dressed as a knight riding a goose. Shatner sang Fred Astaire’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” After Shatner’s performance, Nick Cannon asked him a question for his onstage clue if he cherished the big or small awards he won. The contestant replied, “I love all the awards. Every single one. The big ones, the small ones. I have a little tiny one from my native country embedded in my chest.”

However, the four panelists made contrasting guesses starting with Kan Jeong, who claimed it could be David Hasselhoff, followed by Nicole Scherzinger, who believed it could be John Lithgow, while Judge Robin speculated that it was Weird Al Yankovic. Unlucky for the Star Trek star, Jenny McCarthy drew the connection from the clues and accurately predicted that it was William Shatner. The show got tense at this point, and when he was finally unmasked, the viewers were left in awe upon seeing the 91-year-old star.

The Better Late Than Never star currently holds the record of the oldest contestant ever to perform on The Masked Singer in any country. In an interview with TVLine after unmasking, Shatner revealed why he accepted to participate in the show. “I found that The Masked Singer’s such a popular show that it seemed to be a good way of getting to talk to you, for example, not only about the show and how much fun it was, but also many of the things that I’m doing.” He offered, “So there’s a lot of things I’m doing that I thought doing The Masked Singer and its popularity and how much everybody enjoys watching it would be a good way of helping get the word out.”