The Masked Singer concluded on Saturday night as Joss Stone was crowned winner when she was unmasked as Sausage, with Badger coming in second, revealed to be Ne-Yo, and Aston Merrygold's Robin coming in third.
The ITV show peaked with 10.6million viewers, which was a 47% of viewing, a record-breaker for the second series of the show.
An average of 8.6m viewers watched the final, the biggest live TV audience of the year outside of news and sport and up by 2.2 million viewers on the final to the first series.
Panelists Davina McCall, Rita Ora, Jonathan Ross, Mo Gilligan were joined by guest panelist Nicola Roberts, who was last year’s winner, as Queen Bee.
And fans even called for Nicola to be made a permanent addition to the panel after her spot on guesses as to who was behind the mask.
Host Joel Dommett has presided over the unique guessing game that featured 12 celebrities in elaborate character costumes, with this series’ ‘stars behind the mask’ including Sir Lenny Henry CBE (Blob), A-ha frontman Morten Harket (Viking), Glenn Hoddle (Grandfather Clock) and Sue Perkins (Dragon).
Now in its second series on ITV, The Masked Singer is produced by Bandicoot TV (part of Argonon Group), and is based on the Korean format The King of Mask Singer.
Kevin Lygo, ITV’s Managing Director, Media and Entertainment, said: "In these testing times, we’re delighted that The Masked Singer has brought some escapist joy and light relief to so many viewers at home.
"At the end of a long week in lockdown we’re all coming together and trying to guess who’s dressed as a giant sausage, and quite frankly, it’s been a brilliantly entertaining tonic."
The second series of The Masked Singer has been a ratings hit for ITV, launching with 4.2m viewers on Boxing Day, growing each week, and more than doubling its audience to achieve its biggest audience yet for the final last night.
The Masked Singer has also attracted the biggest 16-34 audiences on TV across 2021 so far outside of news programming - with a peak of 1.7million 16-34 viewers last night, a 61% share of viewing.
* The Masked Singer is available now to watch back on ITV Hub
