The Masked Singer US unveils Nicole Scherzinger's replacement
The Masked Singer US has revealed the replacement for Nicole Scherzinger, with a judge from the UK show taking her place.
The Pussycat Dolls singer will be absent from the 11th season of the show after signing up for a West End production of Sunset Boulevard, and bosses have now announced the temporary replacement on the panel.
As announced on the show's social media channels, Rita Ora will join Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg and Robin Thicke on the panel for the next season, with the singer having a smooth transition following her own experience as a judge on The Masked Singer UK.
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"We're grateful to have the amazing @ritaora shine her light and join us as a panelist on The Masked Singer season 11!" wrote Fox in the caption to their Instagram post, accompanying a photo of Ora in a glittery outfit.
Before Ora makes her debut on the US show next year, the 10th season will premiere later this month (September 27), with costumes including Donut, Anteater, Hawk, Hibiscus and S'More.
Though fans will have to wait a while before Ora will be seen stateside, there could be plenty more appearances on the UK show, with host Joel Dommett recently teasing the prospect of further specials being made.
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"We may or may not have some very exciting specials in the works," he said. “It feels like it really worked last year, people really liked the I'm a Celeb special and it felt like a really lovely introduction to the entire series.
"It was also just really lovely because those one-off specials, it has everything in the show — because you get that gratification immediately, you find out in that one show who everybody is. It works really well, and so, yeah, hopefully we've got some specials planned this year — but I won't tell you what they are or whether they're happening... wink, wink," he added.
The Masked Singer US returns on September 10 on Fox in the US. The Masked Singer airs on ITV1 and ITVX in the UK.
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