Mark McGrath Blames Wildcard Format for Abrupt ‘Masked Singer’ Elimination
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The Masked Singer superfans and judges are usually pretty spot on with which contestants they decide to eliminate from the competition. But this week, the eliminated contestant Mark McGrath thinks they got it all wrong. He came in as The Orca, part of the wildcard twist introduced on Season 5.
Mark McGrath Shares His Thoughts About ‘Masked Singer’ Wildcard
McGrath first burst onto the show with his performance of “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister. He was the very first wildcard competitor, a contestant thrown into the competition during a later round. He advanced on to this week where he sang “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” by Poison. When it came time for Nick Cannon to announce that The Orca was eliminated, everyone was beyond shocked.
McGrath was not actually told that he was going to be a wildcard contestant when he signed up for the show. He felt like this position made him a big target.
“I believe the wildcard aspect puts a bullseye on your back because it seemed, ‘OK, this guy has got to be someone who can sing,'” he said in an interview after the show. “I don’t think someone would be a wildcard if they’d never been on stage before.”
SEE ALSO: WHO IS THE YETI? ‘THE MASKED SINGER’ PREDICTION + CLUES DECODED
Luckily, McGrath has had plenty of onstage experience as the lead singer of the band Sugar Ray. He also served as the host of Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll and Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious. It was quite shocking that Pussycat Dolls frontwoman Nicole Scherzinger did not correctly guess The Orca’s identity.
“As I was walking up, they go, ‘By the way, you’re a wildcard. We’re not having a C group,'” he told People. “I’m like, ‘What?’ They keep everybody in the dark. That wildcard thing kind of surprised me.”
McGrath Thinks the Wildcard Twist Caused His Elimination
McGrath and fans of the show truly did think The Orca would at least make it to the Super 6.
“To be honest with you, as we mentioned, the wildcard format kinda messed me up,” he added. “I didn’t know about that. I thought I would get past the first couple of rounds.”
He also blamed the twist for throwing off his song choices in the competition.
“I was going to do ‘It’s Tricky’ by Run DMC next,” he added. “If I had known about the wildcard format, I think I would have switched the two songs. Now I don’t know if I would have lasted any longer — there were some unbelievable singers this season.”
Fans Stand by McGrath Elimination After ‘Weak’ Song Choice
Fans are torn about the elimination with some strongly in McGrath’s corner, while others think it was simply his time to go.
“I’m not gonna celebrate his elimination, he didn’t suck, but at the same time I kinda knew he wasn’t going through. Wasn’t upset about it but at the same time I’m not like ‘YAY!! BYE!!'” said one viewer.
It seems most viewers thought if it hadn’t been McGrath as the Orca eliminated, the Seashell should have been the cut performer.
“I wouldn’t say he deserved it but he was the weakest but honestly I would have been okay with seashell going because this last song choice was weak compared to the others but I’m fine with seashell moving on because she is really good and it’s not like he was beaten by people who were worse than him,” said one commenter.
SEE ALSO: NICK CANNON DISHES ON EPIC ‘MASKED SINGER’ COMEBACK AND NIECY NASH
This week, the very last wildcard contestant was introduced. The Yeti came out with a show-stopping performance of “If It Isn’t Love” by New Edition. Previously, Cannon was unmasked as The Bulldog after missing the first half of the season due to his COVID-19 diagnosis.
