Former Washington football player Colton Underwood eliminated from 'Masked Singer'

Sports fans in the Peoria area saw a familiar face revealed this week on the hit reality competition show "The Masked Singer."

Colton Underwood, a former NFL player and Washington all-state football player, was unmasked when he was eliminated this week during the sixth episode of the 11th season of the FOX network singing competition show.

"It was one of the best experiences of my life. It was so liberating, it was so fun," Underwood told EW.com. "It was such a healthy production. And as competitive as I got, I really somehow relaxed into it where I was like, this is just fun. I don't care if I win. I'm just here to have a good time, let loose a little bit and try something that I never thought that I would try in my life."

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Who is lovebird on the Masked Singer?

Underwood — dressed as "Lovebird," a green and yellow parrot with a large orange head — sang "All That You Are," a Goo Goo Dolls song from the soundtrack of "Transformers: Dark of the Moon." Underwood was eliminated during the April 10, 2024, episode, along with former NFL player DeMarcus Ware.

Judge Jenny McCarthy was the only one to correctly predict Underwood under the Lovebird's oversized mascot head. Robin Thicke guessed Josh Duhamel, Rita Ora thought Underwood was Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino and Ken Jeong guessed Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

Underwood also sang in the show's debut episode this season, advancing out of the first group after his rendition of "Home" by Phillip Phillips.

Who is Colton Underwood?

Underwood, 32, was named 2009 Journal Star player of the year ahead of his 2010 graduation from Washington High School. He became an all-American football player at Illinois State and then played briefly in the NFL. He had a brief relationship with gold-medal gymnast Aly Raisman following the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. That led to an appearance on "The Bachelorette," the ABC companion show to "The Bachelor" and "Bachelor In Paradise." In 2019, he was given his shot as "The Bachelor."

From the archives: Colton Underwood named 2009 Peoria-area football player of the year

In 2021, Underwood came out as gay and starred in a Netflix documentary series "Coming Out Colton." In 2022, he jumped back into reality TV, winning the CBS competition series "Beyond The Edge" — which earned money for his not-for-profit Colton Underwood Legacy Foundation, which supports people living with cystic fibrosis. Underwood in 2023 married partner Jordan Brown after a two-year relationship.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Colton Underwood of Washington eliminated from Masked Singer reality show