The Masked Singer season 11 premieres with a prank

Let’s all take a moment to thank our lucky stars that The Masked Singer’s 11th season (yes, this thing has somehow been on for that long) didn’t start by unmasking a genuinely despicable personality like, say, Rudy Giuliani or Sarah Palin. The show even managed to avoid the Tom Sandoval of it all this time, which again… props.

So if you decide to watch “Book’s” incredibly punishing performance of Ne-Yo’s “So Sick” from last night’s episode, just know: it could have been so much worse.

The pitchy performance seemed to delight the judges’ panel. They’re either a lot less jaded than this writer, or a lot better at acting. But when Robin Thicke put forward that “there’s only a few people that as soon as they walk in the room I start smiling and laughing like this. And that’s Kevin Hart,” Book’s library came crumbling down and he quickly started disrobing to reveal that he was, indeed, the comedian.

This is apparently against the rules of The Masked Singer, as host Nick Cannon—who shares a long-time prank war and 2023 series, Celebrity Prank Wars, with Hart—insisted during the comedian’s self-inflicted unmasking. That was completely intentional, to hear Hart tell it. “This is a prank, you had no idea I was coming here, Nick, and guess what? There’s nothing you can do about it,” he said, insisting that he “performed bad on purpose” while Cannon called the whole stunt “stupid.” And while this elementary exposition as well as a basic understanding of how “real” reality television actually is suggests that Cannon probably very much knew that his friend was in the building, it’s still pretty fun to watch Hart make a fool of himself traipsing around the stage in giant, book-shaped shoes.

Because Hart decided to reveal himself early, every other celebrity/giant puppet who sang last night is automatically safe, including “Lovebird” who might be Travis Kelce, Odell Beckham Jr., or Nick Viall according to the judges, and “Goldfish,” who could potentially be Lea Michele, Selena Gomez, or Carly Rae Jepsen (we would be so lucky).

The Masked Singer premieres Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.