‘Masked Singer’ Travels to Russia With Endemol Shine’s Weit Media

By Ben Croll

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Endemol Shine-owned Weit Media is set to bring a new version of “The Masked Singer” to Russia’s .

The Russian free-to-air channel commissioned Endemol Shine’s Moscow-based outfit to produce nine episodes of the musical game show, which is due to air in primetime next month.

The move marks the latest global benchmark for the unscripted phenomenon. Since its South Korean debut in 2015, the musical game show format has taken off in more than 25 unique markets, and was recently named ‘Format of the Year’ by industry research firm K7 Media.

Endemol Shine also produces versions of the show in Mexico, Germany and Italy, and launched the U.S. version in early 2019, before Fox took over production duties.

Season three of the latter version recently premiered as the Super Bowl lead-out, pulling in 23.73 million viewers on American television, while the British version continues to be a major draw for U.K. broadcaster ITV.

“Entertainment is at the heart of everything we do here at Weit Media and a significant part of our success,” said Yulia Sumacheva, Weit Media CEO. “’’ has taken the world by storm and I’m sure the audiences here will be equally gripped attempting to guess the celebrities on the show.”

Meanwhile, public broadcaster Rossiya 1 has commissioned a new season of “All Together Now,” a travelling singing format that premiered to strong ratings in season one.

Alongside Brazil, Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, Poland and the U.K., Russia will be the seventh renewal market for the Endemol Shine format.