The guest host opened up to ET about taking over for Nick Cannon during the first half of the upcoming fifth season.
The Masked Singer has been giving people the feels for four seasons, and the fifth season is shaping up to be bigger and crazier than ever before. Guest host Niecy Nash opened up to ET, and revealed what it was like taking the reins on the hit series.
Speaking with ET's Nischelle Turner, Nash reflected on her time as host, which came about after longtime host Nick Cannon had to step down for the first few weeks after testing positive for COVID-19.
"I was honored to stand in the gap and just be a tiny placeholder for him, for his franchise and his series," Nash shared. "It was a great job."
To make the guest host feel welcomed and excited, the show's producers surprised her with a special video message from her wife, Jessica Betts, who shared some words of love and encouragement.
"I wanted to cry my fake eyelashes off," Nash said with a laugh. "I was like, 'Oh my God, that was so sweet!'"
Nash and Betts tied the knot in a small, private ceremony back in August, and the comedian explained how she managed to keep the secrets of season five from her lady love.
"They keep those secrets like they are in a vault," Nash said. "Nobody knows who these people are... I didn't know anything. [There] was nothing for me to come back home and tell!"
That being said, Nash was around for the unmasking of what she described as "a very huge star," and she had something of an inkling as to who it was before they took their mask of.
"I knew, my gut instinct was like, 'I know who that is!' And I was right," she said. "But who could I tell, you know?"
While Nash will emcee the first half of the season, executive producer James Breen revealed during the virtual Television Critics Association press tour on Tuesday that "Nick rejoins towards the second half of the season."
Breen credited Nash, who was previously a guest panelist on The Masked Singer, for stepping in to fill the hosting shoes when they were scrambling to find a temporary replacement.
"We got incredibly lucky there because Niecy just stepped in pretty last minute," Breen noted. "And immediately had her own chemistry with the panel. She was just a producers' dream. Absolutely fantastic."
Celebrity panelists Ken Jeong, Robin Thicke, Nicole Scherzinger and Jenny McCarthy all agreed, with Jeong saying "she's just part of our game-changing season."
"Niecy's a boss. She's a queen. She's so fast but fun, relatable. And she took over for Nick's spot and she put her son in his place," Scherzinger joked, referring to Jeong.
The hotly anticipated new season of The Masked Singer kicks off Wednesday, March 10 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.
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