‘The Masked Singer’ Boss Says No Panelist “Ever Guessed the Winner the Whole Time”

Over the last six weeks, we’ve been consumed with guessing the identity of each star on The Masked Singer. Who is The Monster? Who is The Bee? Who is the freaking Lion? As it turns out, maybe we should just… stop. According to executive producer Craig Plestis, the panel never guessed the identity of the Season 1 winner, and they had nine full episodes to figure it out. If Jenny McCarthy, Ken Jeong, Robin Thicke, and Nicole Scherzinger (okay, we don’t have much hope for Scherzinger) weren’t able to figure out who was under the final mask after watching all those performances in person, what makes you think you’ll be able to guess correctly from your couch?

In an interview with The Wrap at the Television Critics Association, Plestis said throughout weeks of filming, no panelist ever guessed the final star’s identity — not even once. “The funny thing is, no one ever guessed the winner the whole time,” explained Plestis. “No one ever guessed who the winner was.” Considering that the panel has consistently offered absolutely ridiculous guesses — Meghan Markle, Katy Perry, and Britney Spears have all been mentioned — it’s not too surprising that they didn’t guess correctly. But that being said, the panelists also guess dozens of times, so logic would reason that someone (maybe even Thicke, who’s served as the voice of reason this season) would guess the correct name at some point during the show’s nine weeks.

During The Masked Singer‘s TCA panel, Thicke seemed to support Plestis’ claim when he said he was “completely blown away” by the winner’ identity. “You would think that by the last episode after seeing five or so performances from each person that you would have them pegged, and yet on the final performance, I was completely blown away by the last show. And I was way off,” he said. While Thicke “thought for sure [he] knew who it was,” he explained that he “wasn’t even close” when it came to the winner’s identity.

There are still six contestants with their masks in the race, so we know the winner has to be either The Alien, Rabbit, Lion, Peacock, Monster, and Rabbit. We have some guesses about all of them, but if Thicke and Plestis is right, it’s possible that we’re way off. Who knows, maybe The Lion really is Ariana Grande, after all.

The Masked Singer airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on Fox. The Season 1 finale will air on Wednesday, February 27.

Where to stream The Masked Singer