ITVS’s Beale in Masked Singer warning

The Masked Singer contributed to reality’s resurgence in the US

NATPE: The success of Fox’s The Masked Singer should not be used as an excuse for programme makers to create a glut of mask-themed formats in 2020, Natpe Miami delegates were told yesterday.

Mike Beale

Fox’s decision to take a risk on the South Korean format was hailed by executives on the What the World is Watching: Global Formats panel, but the praise was accompanied by a warning from ITV Studios’ MD of creative networks and Nordics, Mike Beale.

“You have to take your hat off to Fox, it’s convinced broadcasters to take a risk,” Beale said. “We’ve spent years rebooting because networks had to take safe bets, but The Masked Singer finally went with a batshit-crazy idea and gave it a go.

“We need more buyers to take those gambles and trust the audience to find the show. I’m hoping we can get true origination in 2020, by the broadcasters and the creatives. We mustn’t go down a road of ‘masked this’ and ‘masked that.’ We’ve got to stop that.”

Elsewhere, Vasha Wallace, exec VP of global acquisitions and development at Fremantle, tipped non-preachy, socially conscious formats as a big trend for the year ahead.

“A few years ago, it was clothes and sustainable fashion, and we’ve just had a load of vegan shows. This year, it’s going to be climate change – I can already tell from the pitches I’m seeing,” she said. “But it’s moved on from ‘we’re such bad people’ into ‘how can we change this?’”