In Wednesday night’s (Dec 8) The Masked Singer 6 Group B final, Banana Split and Queen of Hearts faced off in fierce battle. But in the end, voters, including the panel, decided to send home Banana Split. And just as many fans suspected, the duo costume revealed American Idol alum Katharine McPhee and husband David Foster underneath.
The two had spent the season putting on lavish performances. Katharine as the “Ice Cream” half did most of the heavy lifting, while David the “banana” arranged the songs and accompanied her on piano. For last night’s performance of the classic “Singing in the Rain,” David conducted an orchestra, while Katharine tap danced!
However, it wasn’t enough to beat Queen of Hearts soaring and versatile vocals. She’ll face off against Bull next week in the big season 6 finale.
Songwriter and producer, David Foster has been in the music business for over 30 years, and knew nearly everyone on the panel. He never met Ken Jeong, but Katharine guest starred on his old sitcom, Community, in 2010.
The judges KNEW EXACTLY WHO Banana Split were
The judges made plenty of stupid guesses over the course of the competition, but in the end, Ken, Nicole Scherzinger and Jenny McCarthy had the power couple as their first impression guesses. David and Robin’s late father, musician and actor Alan Thicke, were good friends. Robin has known “Uncle David” his entire life. For that reason, Katharine thinks he actually recognized them early on. “I think he knew exactly who we were,” Katharine told Entertainment Weekly. “He wanted to do some good old fashioned TV acting and not make it such a home run for all the judges.”
David told Billboard that he helped discover Nicole. “My sister Jaymes [Foster] and I, yeah, we helped her a lot back in the day,” Nicole appeared on the 2001 competition show Popstars, where David mentored her.
Katharine and David couldn’t get Olivia Rodrigo’s songs cleared
As far as returning to competition reality, Katharine said the experience brought back anxiety over choosing just the right song. Like her time on Idol, Katharine could not clear songs she wanted to sing. Song choice didn’t get any easier since she finished in second place behind Taylor Hicks on season 5 in 2006. “The audiences at home probably don’t care about this detail,” Katharine told Entertainment Weekly. “but it’s very hard to get certain songs cleared. Like I couldn’t get Olivia Rodrigo’s songs cleared at all, which was disappointing because I would have loved to have done a couple of her songs.”
“I really wanted to take it all,” Katharine confessed
Katharine confesses to EW that she was VERY upset not to make the finale. “I really wanted to take it all..I came in second on American Idol. I wanted to take this one home and it just didn’t happen again. So maybe it’s just not in the cards for me to be No. 1…”
Currently, the couple are on tour with David’s popular “Hitman” series. The two-hour season finale episode of The Masked Singer airs Wednesday, Dec. 15 from 8:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.
Watch every Banana Split performance
Check out a playlist of Banana Split’s performances. Katharine sang: “A Million Dream” by Pink, the standard “Cry Me a River,” “Let Er Rip” by The Chicks, “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga and her final performance “Singin’ in the Rain.” from the classic 50s musical.
Banana Split go out on a high note
After Katharine and David aka Banana Split are eliminated from The Masked Singer. Katharine ends up on top of the judges table, belting out “Singing in the Rain.” The two confess they did the show just to be silly, and to show America they are more than just a “weird” couple. They really do love each other. Watch the judges admit they knew Banana Split’s identity from the beginning.
