Two judges on The Masked Singer television show walked off after the contestant who was singing and dancing underneath a disguise was revealed to be Rudy Giuliani.
Last week, during a taping of the first episode of the seventh season, judges Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke walked off the stage when the former New York City mayor and former attorney to Donald Trump removed his elaborate headpiece and costume, for which the shown is known, to reveal himself.
Fellow judges Jenny McCarthy and Nicole Scherzinger remained on stage. According to Deadline, which first reported the incident, they “bantered with Giuliani … for pressing what is widely derided as a baseless claim” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump.
Jeong and Thicke eventually returned.
In 2020, Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska and another controversial political figure, made a similar reveal on the show. Palin said she appeared as a “walking middle finger to the haters out there in the world where I could do whatever I wanted to do”, prompting shock and criticism of the show.
In 2019, Trump’s controversial former White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, appeared on Dancing with the Stars. Tom Bergeron, the show’s host, responded to the ensuing criticism by saying the competition aimed to offer “joyful respite from our exhausting political climate” free from “party affiliations”.