“How could you possibly go through that experience and not stay in touch with everybody who was involved?” Aiken wondered aloud while dishing on the pair’s experience on ‘The Masked Singer.’ “I realized it doesn’t happen like that on other seasons.”
Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard may have been going head-to-head on American Idol, but when they walked off that stage, they emerged friends for life.
TooFab spoke to the pair fresh off their elimination from The Masked Singer Wednesday night, where they spoke about that tight bond they have with their fellow season 2 alums, and why they’re “baffled” other casts aren’t as close.
“We keep in touch with our whole season. Everybody that was in our season that made the finale, and the producers from our season and the people that worked in the background, like Meghan Michaels, who’s now an executive, Studdard shared when asked who he and Aiken keep in touch with from their season 2 run in 2003.
He continued, “She was work with us when we were all starting together. So, it was just great.”
Aiken, meanwhile, said there’s a whole “bunch” of reasons that made the season 2 cast so tightly knit — one of those being the fact that the contestants all lived in a house together while competing on the show.
“We were the only season to all live in a house together. We were one of the only seasons to go on tour together afterwards,” Aiken explained. “They certainly did tours for a few other seasons, but not as extensively as our season was. We just stayed in touch because of that. We all went into a show that — in a different time.”
Aiken said that he and Studdard actually find it hard to comprehend that other casts aren’t as close after going through an experience like they did on Idol.
“How could you possibly go through that experience and not stay in touch with everybody who was involved?” Aiken asked. “I realized it doesn’t happen like that on other seasons. We went to the Fox finale of the show years ago, and we both sat there with Kimberley Locke, the three of us hanging out from our season, and were just sort of baffled that none of the other finalists that had been on the same season were hanging out together.”
He continued, “Some of the other runners-up had not even spoken to their winner since their season was over. And I was like, ‘What the? How is that even possible?’ Ruben and I traded numbers day one and they’ve never left our phones.”
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“We never broke up. We never left each other’s side after Idol,” Aiken added.
The pair, who performed as “The Beets” on TMS, also spoke about returning to another singing competition series more than 20 years after their icon run on American Idol.
“I have no idea,” Studdard joked when asked why they decided to compete on TMS. “What I do know, is that the option not to be really ‘judged,’ was cool. People can tell you what they think about your singing, but we know how we sound.”
As for Aiken, he didn’t see the show as much of a competition, but rather a chance for the pair to have fun.
“I never looked at Masked Singer as a singing competition. It is a stupidly brilliant show that is just so unique. And obviously what draws people into Idol is the competition aspect of it, what draws people into Dancing With the Stars is the competition aspect of it,” Aiken explained.
“Masked Singer — I think people are drawn into the mystery part of it. Not the competition part of it. They create the structure of the competition to give it some stakes. But for me, it was always like, ‘When else am I gonna get to wear a costume that ridiculous and elaborate and sing?’ It was just an opportunity that I had never had before and we would unlikely get again.”
While this was the first time in a long time for fans to see the pair perform again on television together, Aiken and Studdard actually filmed TMS in-between tour stops on their 20th anniversary tour, celebrating the decades since their time on Idol.
“It was definitely something different for us. I don’t think the performance factor was something that we weren’t used to, because we were on tour while we were doing the show,” Studdard shared. “… But just to be on stage in a costume, as a Beet is something that is completely unexpected. I had no idea that that’s how my year would start, jumping around in a Beet costume, singing on stage with Clay. I had no idea.”
For more on the pair’s Masked Singer experience, and what their kids thought about watching them on the show, check out the video below.
The Masked Singer heads to the Quarterfinals next Wednesday as Gumball joins Clock, Goldfish, and Poodle Moth at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.
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