The Road hit the airwaves in the fall 2025 TV schedule as network television's newest music competition show, and it's definitely not just another version of The Voice or American Idol. The contestants are on tour with Keith Urban, and their performances are as the opening acts to throngs of fans who are there to hear somebody else sing. Country star and Grammy-winner Gretchen Wilson is the show's Tour Manager, a role that she took on not too long after winning a different music show: The Masked Singer. Here's what she told CinemaBlend about the differences between the two shows.
Gretchen Wilson competed on The Masked Singer Season 13 as the Pearl, and she ultimately won and wasn't unmasked until the very end. In contrast, her role on The Road is to support the contestants, who have needed help with everything from nerves to actual illness. As she put it, "If it's two o'clock in the afternoon, and they have a question about a song that they chose, they would come to me." So, when I spoke with her ahead of the premiere of the new show, she shared what it was like to go from The Masked Singer in early 2025 to The Road this fall:
First of all this show was a lot less hot and heavy. [laughs] I mean, that show was very heavy. The weight of that, the heat, the going through all those weeks and not being able to tell anyone, not being able to talk about it, not being able to promote it, it's very different. I'm not sure that there's any show that you can really compare to The Masked Singer. It's really different.
Being a competitor on one show and the Tour Manager helping the competitors on another was bound to be different, but even as a viewer,The Masked Singer really feels like it's on the opposite any of the music TV spectrum from The Road. Gretchen Wilson looked back on her first day on the Fox competition show, and what she took away from the experience as a whole:
The day that I arrived, they were like, 'Welcome to the silliest show on TV!' And it was like, 'Wow, you know it too. Okay.' But they do have a blast. I had a really good time being there. I didn't think I would, but I did, and it was grueling, and it was hard work, and I'm almost really glad that I went and did that first, because it made being on the set of The Road [feel] like a breath of fresh air.
Plus, while she shared the screen with talented musicians on both shows, at least she know who she's dealing with on The Road as opposed to masked competitors en masse! Wilson described Keith Urban as a "force to be reckoned with" and a "constant professional" as the headliner of his own tour. As for Blake Shelton, she described him as "just hysterical" and a candidate for becoming a stand up comedian if he ever decides to hang up his music career."
New episodes of The Road air on CBS Sundays at 9:30 p.m. ET, and stream next day with a Paramount+ subscription. The competition is fierce, as the up-and-coming country artists are competing for a grand prize of $250,000, a recording contract, and a performance slot at Stagecoach Country Music Festival 2026. As for Gretchen Wilson's run on The Masked Singer, you can find Season 13 streaming with a Hulu subscription.
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