free as a bird

Colton Underwood returns to TV to come out as… WHAT?!

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Colton Underwood smiles on the red carpet wearing a translucent tank top showing off his muscular and hairy chest.

Colton Underwood just came out again… as a red-beaked and feathered Lovebird on The Masked Singer.

The former Bachelor star revealed his identity after being eliminated on the latest episode of the bizarre celeb karaoke competition. (And delivered a rousing performance of “All That You Are” by The Goo Goo Dolls, of course.)

We know what you’re thinking: how in the world did the professional footballer-turned-TV-personality-turned-queer podcast host end up embracing his inner warbler?

As the 32-year-old revealed onstage –– after removing a massive bird-head –– he joined the show to connect with his inner child’s creativity. “I worked my entire life playing football,” Underwood explained. “I never got to experience the arts, and the music, and theater.” Awww!

Watch.

For the uninitiated, the Fox reality show follows a sprawling group of stars competing in a singing contest… while disguised in head-to-toe elaborate and typically bestial outfits. A panel of judges, including Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Ken Jeong, and Rita Ora, are also there. For some reason.

It may sound dystopian, but it’s also wildly successful. Its eleventh season even attracted the likes of Kevin Hart, Savannah Chrisley, and Billy Bush, who were eliminated ahead of Colton.

And, OK, while Underwood was not the most technically-skilled singer –– especially compared to previous winners like LeAnn Rimes, Jewel, and Nick Lachey –– he wasn’t half bad, making up for it with some fowl charisma.

As it turns out, dressing up like a giant cartoon character and singing was a career move that Underwood –– who married husband Jordan C. Brown in May 2023 –– had long been considering. He even turned down an initial invitation during a rough period after his 2021 coming out.

“I’ve been offered [and] wanting to do it for a few years, but timing wise … it never worked out until this year,” he told People, adding, “I don’t think I was in a good place coming out of my Netflix show [Coming Out Colton]. I was still very much in my coming out process.”

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Here’s what happened this week on Instagram …

For that reason, Underwood’s well-timed comeback gave us a peek under his mask in more ways than one. You know, after he finished singing Phillip Phillips and everything.

“My goal with … my return here is to reintroduce myself and just say, ‘Hey, I’m still somewhat of the same guy you met on Bachelor, but there’s different parts of me,'” he explained.

“That’s been the beautiful thing about the coming out process: finding what parts of my life and what parts of me that I’m keeping … and then how else am I growing and expanding and changing.”

Interestingly enough, Underwood also appeared to indirectly address prior backlash around his coming out and heterosexual relationship on The Bachelor after encouraging Masked Singer viewers to live authentically.

“I wish that I would’ve [come out] at an earlier age and I wouldn’t have felt trapped from sports and religion and my desire to be a father,” he explained.

“Now there’s an opportunity for people to have somewhat of a blueprint of what I went through and possibly avoid some of the mistakes that I made while in the closet. I can always admit that I could handle things a lot better, but I had to go through what I went through.”

Lovebirds and comfort zones aside, we salute Underwood’s brave artistic endeavor. But we’ve got to admit we prefer the costume (or lack thereof) for his other new gig: shirtless ambassador for “innerwear” company Subset.

Though it sounds like we may see the Daddyhood host on TV again soon. “I’m working on a lot of development and behind [the] camera operations right now, but I am up for whatever,” he told People.

Hopefully, the beak stays at home!

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