Tom Bergeron Explains Why He Picked To Be The Taco On ‘The Masked Singer’

Published on March 6, 2020.

After hosting Dancing With the Stars for 28 seasons, Tom Bergeron decided he wanted to try out at another reality talent competition series by showing off his zesty singing skills on The Masked Singer.

Bergeron was decked out from top to bottom in a tortilla shell with all the fillings as The Taco when he was unmasked on Wednesday, March 4, night’s episode, after performing a cover of Four Tops’ classic hit “I Can’t Help Myself.”

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On Thursday, March 5, he sat down with Entertainment Tonight and opened up about his time on the show and why he chose to perform as a traditional Mexican food item.

“I was the last person cast in Group B, and by that point they only had two choices: obviously a taco costume, and the other was a jellyfish,” Bergeron revealed. “So I think I picked the right one.”

He went on that watching a Taco sing and dance is probably “more entertaining than watching something that you think might sting you.”

So far, the Taco costume was one of the strangest and funniest to see on the show so far. However, the tortilla shell and red tomato mask presented some challenges for Bergeron.

“The tomato mask was the easiest part, the hardest part was the hard-shelled taco itself,” he remembered. “The second number I did was ‘Bossa Nova Baby,’ an Elvis Presley tune  – you try shaking your hips in a taco shell. It ain’t happenin’!”

The Dancing With the Stars host joked that being dressed up as a taco has changed his relationship with food.

“I’ve always been very fond of tacos. [My costume], out of respect for my trainer, was a vegan taco,” he quipped. “I’ll never eat one quite the same! It’s like family now.”

One of the hardest things about being a contestant on The Masked Singer is having to keep it a secret from everyone else. However, Bergeron didn’t have any problems keeping his identity under wraps.

“When my wife was pregnant with our first daughter years ago, I wanted to find out the sex of the baby at the ultrasound and she didn’t,” Bergeron recalled. “So I knew for six months for the second and third trimester we were having a girl and I kept that secret from my wife!”

The beloved host also kept his Masked Singer identity a secret from all of his coworkers at Dancing With the Stars. Bergeron revealed that it was his role on the show that sealed the deal when it came to competing this season.

“That was really largely the reason I did it – a lot of the production staff of Masked Singer are alums of Dancing with the Stars, so for me it was like a hidden homecoming,” he explained. “And they do the show on the very same soundstage where we do Dancing with the Stars.”

“Jenny [McCarthy] has my dressing room!” Bergeron added. “So I almost wanted to see if my security badge worked still.”