The Masked Singer creator Wonwoo Park is ready to discuss the show's controversy.
Back in February, Deadline reported that The Masked Singer judges Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke walked off the Fox set in protest after President Donald Trump's personal lawyer and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was unmasked. And now, two months later, the creator of the reality competition series has addressed the issue.
His answer? It wouldn't have happened in Korea—where the series began in 2015.
"It would be taboo [in Korea] to have someone controversial or political on the show," Park told Deadline in an interview. "But it can't always be pleasant when the mask comes off and the more Masked Singer seasons [globally] we do, the more we realize you can't always have contestants that everybody loves."
Park, who created the series, does not serve as showrunner for the American version.
But Jeong and Thicke weren't the only ones upset when Giuliani was allegedly unmasked. At the time, multiple celebrities took to Twitter to express their disdain.
Seth MacFarlane tweeted, "Anything for ratings, right?"
"This is an incredibly disturbing stunt," Two and a Half Men's Jon Cryer added. "Rudy Giuliani helped to engineer a coup attempt. The producers of this show should be ashamed."
Earlier this year, Giuliani was subpoenaed by the House Committee, which was investigating the 2021 attack on the Capitol.
NBC News reported at the time that the committee says Giuliani is one of the individuals who "publicly promoted unsupported claims about the 2020 election and participated in attempts to disrupt or delay the certification of election results."
Giuliani's lawyer, Robert Costello, said in a statement to NBC News, "This is a grandstand theatrical political play because the committee cannot seriously think that they can subpoena four lawyers," Costello continued, "and actually obtain factual information in violation of the attorney client privilege."
Season seven of The Masked Singer, which premiered March 9 on Fox, is themed "The Good, the Bad and the Cuddly."
So far, the unmaskings have included Christie Brinkley as the Lemur, Jorge Garcia as Cyclops, Joe Buck as the Ram, among others.
The Masked Singer airs Wednesdays on Fox.
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