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‘The Masked Dancer’ Spoilers: Who is the Disco Ball? All the clues that led to Grammy-winning singer's shocking exit

After looking at the performances of all the contestants from the first group, the audience decided to send the masked celebrity in the Disco Ball costume back home

After the first group of contestants from the season premiere of ‘The Masked Dancer’ namely Cricket, Disco Ball, Exotic Bird, Hammerhead and Tulip performed in front of the judges, it was time for the elimination of the masked celebrity with the least votes.

After looking at the performances of all the contestants from the first group, the audience decided to send the masked celebrity in the Disco Ball costume back home. When it was time to take off the mask, which will be a highlight in every episode, it was revealed, the Disco Ball was none other than hip-hop legend Ice-T. The rapper had performed on Bruno Mars’ hit single ‘Uptown Funk’ and in his montage he had left clues like a shark fin in reference to his ‘SVU’ character Odafin “Fin” Tutuola, saying he wanted to show off his “true colors.” 

Panelists Ken Jeong, Brian Austin Green, Paula Abdul and Ashley Tisdale had given their best shot with their respective guesses but none of them could figure out the masked celebrity till the end. Ashley had first gone for MC Hammer since the Disco Ball had used the term “Grammy” when it came to use the ‘Word-Up’ feature but later zeroed-in Lionel Richie as the final option. Brian was very confident the Disco Ball was LL Cool J whereas, Ken opted for singer-songwriter, Smokey Robinson. Paula, on the other hand, thought the Disco Ball was ‘90s popular Hollywood actor Ving Rhames.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in his exit interview, Ice-T said, “You got about two hours to learn the choreography. Yeah, it's fast. And, you know, early when I was doing the choreography, I was kind of being concerned about hitting all the moves. Once you put that 20-pound head on — it's a big head and it's connected to like a biker's helmet inside of it. You're just concerned with not falling. Like at that point, I threw all the choreography out the window. I said I just don't want to bust my ass on national television like that.”

He added, “That would be the nightmare, you know? So I said, I'm just gonna try to keep my balance in this outfit. The head is heavy, it's top heavy. So I just went out there and kind of winged it, threw a little flavor in there, because to me, it's not even so much a dancing show as a guessing show. It's harder than The Masked Singer because they don't get to hear your voice really. So I'm interested on if they ever guess anybody right.”

The Internet was also quick to react to the very first identity reveal of the season. One user stated, “You were keeping it real tonight on The Masked Dancer, Sir Disco Ball! You rocked the house down, hunny!” Another viewer posted, “I am having the Time of My Life watching the masked dancer!!!!!! I must know. Who the Tulip is.. Also, I did guess Ice T was the Disco Ball but only my family can attest to that.” One user added, “The Masked Dancer started tonight and Ice-T is definitely the disco ball.” One individual shared, “@DrPhil Were you meant to be the disco ball on "The Masked Dancer"? That dude had your moustache and Robin's glasses from her podcast.”

‘The Masked Dancer’ will introduce us to Group B’s contestants in the next episode. We will see masked celebrities in the costumes of Sloth, Ice Cube, Zebra, Cotton Candy, and Miss Moth on Wednesday, January 6, 2021. The brand new season of the dancing reality series is being hosted by actor and comedian Craig Robinson. The contestants of this series are said to have sold more than 38 million albums worldwide, 20 Emmy Awards wins, 20 Grammy nominations, 10 World Dancing titles, five New York Times Best-Selling Author titles, four Olympic gold medals, and three Broadway show appearances.