The first contestant to go home on season 8 shares his unfiltered thoughts on the experience.
Warning: This article contains spoilers fromThe Masked Singerseason 8 premiere.
The Knight has officially ridden off into the sunset.
The Knight performs on ‘The Masked Singer’ season 8.FOX
Next to go home was Hedgehog, who wasrevealed to beMonty Pythonmastermind Eric Idle.
This left Harp and Hummingbird still standing, with Harp ultimately being crowned this week’s winner.
(What a tease!)
William Shatner.Santiago Felipe/Getty Images
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Mr. Shatner, what on earth convinced you to doThe Masked Singer?
WILLIAM SHATNER:[Laughs] Good question.
Can I get you to answer that?
And that’s coming out soon.
My show,The UnXplained, is on the History Channel and Netflix and is trending incredibly well.
And then an NFT is coming out soon.
Yes, you’ve got so much going on.
What are you most excited about?
Everything I’m doing I’m excited about.
Everything is new that I’m doing, it’s all different.
I mean, that’s a lot of stuff.
Be honest, which experience was wilder for you?
The Masked Singeris the most extraordinary experience I’ve ever had.
Well, I mean, the wardrobe was impossible.
you could’t see, you could’t breathe, you could’t hear, you could’t think.
There was no oxygen in there.
I had a panic thinking, “Wait a minute, I can’t breathe.
And I’m supposed to sing.”
You know how you sing?
You take a breath and air comes out.
That’s how you sing, and I couldn’t get a breath.
And you did it all as a knight riding a golden goose.
And I almost laid the golden egg.
Maybe I did, I don’t know.
[Laughs]
I actually just spoke to Eric Idle, a.k.a.
Not only that, they want you to keep it absolutely secret.
So they send a guy with a black hat and a black suit.
And they put a chain around your neck.
And so they follow you everywhere.
No, I’m only kidding.
But it was like that to an extent.
They said, “Don’t talk about anything.
Don’t say anything.”
In the show, you mentioned you couldn’t believe it took you 8 years to doTMS.
Had you been approached to do it before?
I think I have over the years.
And now that you’ve done it, what did you take away from the experience?
Well, I took away a limp from the costume.
[Laughs] Oh, I don’t know.
I took away one of the moreunusualexperiences I’ve ever had.
And he said it was the worst experience of his life.
I said, “Oh, come on.
You never had a baby.”
And now I realized he’s right.
[Laughs] It was tough.
That wardrobe was tough.
And I think that’s part of the show.
Part of the fun ofThe Masked Singeris how awkward everybody feels.
I heard somebody say they had a panic attack.
And I was close to that myself, not being able to breathe.
I’m not sure how anyone manages it.
Why did you choose “Puttin' on the Ritz?”
Well, it’s a beautifully written song, the rhythm, the rhyme, the words.
Everything about it was a good choice of a song for me.
And it has this syncopation that is… not difficult, but you have to know it.
I studied the word grouping, which was the syncopation, and I kind of got it down.
It was good, and then I never did hit it in the performance.
Yeah, I think maybe in 15-20 years.
[Laughs] Maybe I’ll go to California.
The Masked Singerairs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.
Watch Shatner’s big reveal below:
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