Turns Out That 'Masked Singer' Judge Ken Jeong Is Friends With the Tree IRL

From Woman's Day

Some of The Masked Singer contestants seem fairly easy to figure out, but the Tree was a real puzzle all season long. The judges and the fans could never really come to a consensus about who might be under the Tree mask, and the guesses were wide and varied. Among some of the options people tossed around all season were chef Rachael Ray, Christmas Vacation actress Beverly D'Angelo, Wendi McLendon-Covey from The Goldbergs, Hallmark star Candace Cameron Bure, singer Brenda Lee, actress Valerie Bertinelli, and Elf stars Amy Sedaris or Zooey Deschanel. In the end, the Tree was none of those people.

Who Is the Tree on The Masked Singer?

When the Tree was eliminated during the Dec. 10 episode, fans finally learned her identity: actress and singer Ana Gasteyer.

She's best known for her time on Saturday Night Live, and her Christmas tree-themed costume was a nod to her new holiday album Sugar & Booze. She also starred in the live rendition of A Christmas Story in 2017 — alongside Ken Jeong. The judge had worked side by side with her and still had no idea who was under the Tree's mask. In fact, the only judge who got it right was Jenny McCarthy with her final guess.

Some fans had picked up on some Gasteyer clues as the show went on, though. The frequent cooking mentions prompted them to guess Gasteyer who was a Weight Watchers spokesman. Another clue that connected Gasteyer to the Tree was revealed in the Dec. 6 episode. At one point in the per-performance video, the tree said "opa!" — a traditional Greek emotional expression. Additionally, the house the Tree walked through was filled with Greek trinkets and signs. Gasteyer has Greek heritage.

More Gasteyer clues included all of the Friends references that the show kept making. It seemed like they wanted fans to guess an actual Friends star, which worked on some people.

But it's worth noting that Gasteyer has played Phoebe in a Friends parody on Saturday Night Live, so it seems that's what the reference was about instead. And the reference to soup was a nod to her soup-centered episode of Seinfeld.

When Gasteyer finally took off her mask, not only were the judges (minus McCarthy) shocked, but many fans were too. A lot of them didn't know that Gasteyer could sing that well.

Not only can she sing, but she even starred in the acclaimed play Wicked where she played the lead role of Elphaba. That role not only requires singing ability, but major pipes. It's just too bad she was eliminated before the Dec. 11 holiday episode when she could have sung a Christmas hit. She was a Christmas Tree for goodness sake! Couldn't FOX have rigged it for her? (We kid.)

The Tree was definitely one of the hardest Masked Singer contestants to figure out. But at least now we finally know who was under there the whole time. And now we have a whole new appreciation for Gasteyer's ability to sing.

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