Fox, Smart Dog, Workpoint test-run The Masterpiece celebrity format in Thailand

Talent competition format The Masterpiece

Fox Entertainment’s in-house unscripted studio Fox Alternative Entertainment (FAE) is partnering with US-based prodco Smart Dog Media and Thailand’s Workpoint Entertainment on a new talent competition format called The Masterpiece.

The series, which premiered Wednesday night on Workpoint Channel 23 in Thailand, is part of Fox’s strategy to test-run daring, innovative formats in markets outside the US. If the format is successful, the goal will be to adapt it in other global markets.

Described as a “groundbreaking, visually stunning and wacky” competition show, The Masterpiece sees celebrities and renowned directors team up to recreate and then hide themselves in famous paintings, iconic moments in time, and pop culture images, making it impossible to tell where the on-stage illusion ends and the celebrity begins. These ‘masterpieces’ become live illusions that are then presented to a panel of judges.

Nine teams were involved in the first episode, with one team set to be eliminated each week until the finale.

Created, owned and distributed by FAE, The Masterpiece is the latest collaboration between Fox and Craig Plestis’s Smart Dog Media after they adapted South Korean format The Masked Singer for the US market.

It is jointly developed and produced by FAE and Workpoint, and financed by Fox Entertainment’s US$100m International Unscripted Format Fund. The format was originated by FAE and Plestis, who executive produces.

Discussing the format fund at Content London in November, Fox Entertainment CEO Rob Wade said it was created because Fox execs realised they could create and shoot entire seasons of unscripted series in some international markets for the same price it cost to produce a single pilot in the US.

For years, Wade and his team have argued that networks and producers need to push the boundaries in order to find the next format mega-hit, with the fund created specifically to uncover unusual and innovative ideas.

Of the formats being developed through the fund, Wade said: “They tend to be really out-of-the box ideas that can’t be tested through pilots.

“It’s an opportunity for producers and broadcasters who have ideas that they either can’t finance or are a bit too scared to try out because they’re a bit too risky.”