In a likely effort to rehabilitate Rudy Giuliani’s tarnished image as a serial conspiracy theorist, election denier, and coup enthusiast, Fox Alternative Entertainment brought the Trump associate and former mayor of New York City on the April 20 edition of the reality TV series The Masked Singer. 

Fox Alternative Entertainment is the “unscripted production arm” of Fox Entertainment, the television production company that works under the greater Fox Corp. umbrella. Fox Entertainment was created in 2019 after Fox’s former television production studio, 20th Century Fox Television, was sold to Disney.

Giuliani is a disgraced former attorney for Donald Trump whose law license was suspended in 2021 for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. The former mayor appeared on the The Masked Singer yesterday in a jack-in-the-box costume singing Bad to the Bone — likely a casting choice by Fox executives to mend Giuliani’s image as a treasonous MAGA crony. 

Giuliani was introduced as a former associate attorney general and former mayor of New York City. His ties to Trump were completely ignored on the show. Giuliani’s appearance even prompted one of the show’s judges, Ken Jeong, to walk off set.

Giuliani was a key player in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election that eventually led to an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In the months leading up to the January 6 insurrection, Giuliani hosted at least two press conferences where he spread misinformation about the election results, one of which was a presser at Four Seasons Total Landscaping (not to be confused with the Four Seasons Hotel) in Philadelphia, where he spewed incoherent conspiracy theories and seemingly visible hair dye.

On the morning of January 6, 2021, at the “Save America” rally outside the White House, Giuliani called for “trial by combat” to overturn the election results shortly before violent insurrectionists stormed the Capitol. 

Fox Alternative Entertainment’s decision to platform Giuliani after he spent years undermining American democracy demonstrates the network’s complete disregard for accountability in media personnel. 

And this is not the first time The Masked Singer has cast a GOP-aligned contestant seemingly to help restore a reputation. In March 2020, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin appeared on the show in a bear costume rapping Baby Got Back. 

Caitlyn Jenner, who is now a Fox News contributor, was also a recent cast member on The Masked Singer. Jenner is a failed candidate for governor in California. 

These appearances are as embarrassing for the Fox-aligned entertainment brand as they are for the contestants attempting to detoxify their tarnished political careers.