ITV has confirmed season two of The Masked Singer will go ahead regardless of the coronavirus pandemic.
The COVID-19 crisis has put a halt on many beloved TV series but Kevin Lygo, director of television at ITV said singing competition series will be made.
Lygo said production could get around lockdown rules and will film the second series without a live studio audience.
“It looks like we will have to do some shows without audiences,” he said at the Edinburgh TV Fest.
He has had enough of entertainment shows being broadcast via Zoom and think audiences will get sick of it too.
Lygo said: “I’ve had enough, well done, good try, they are just not what entertainment really is.”
“Audiences are very forgiving at the moment and gives you a lot of leeway but if it’s a big entertainment show, you want it to be a big entertainment show.
The ITV boss argued it would be ok to record The Masked Singer without an audience because it’s “more manageable for us in an enclosed guarded space.”
Casting was already underway for the second season and the show will happen “with or without an audience.”
Lygo promised the second series will “be a big camp fest. The challenge for the production company and us is that when the big reveal comes, you don’t go ‘who the f**k is that?’.”
Many ITV shows shifted to recording from home during lockdown including Lorraine, Loose Women and Saturday Night Takeaway.
But Lygo was fed up with that and wants to get them back into the studio.
Loose Women will return next week after six weeks off air when it was shut down in a reshuffle of ITV daytime to adhere to social distancing rules.
There will be some adjustments to the format so that the panellists can maintain a safe distance from each other.
When the show returns, just three women will be in the studio with one panellist joining from home via video link.
The show will be live on Mondays and Wednesdays with pre-recorded shows the rest of the week – to limit the footfall at the studios during the coronavirus pandemic.
Lygo also revealed older stars of ITV soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale could be banned from set to protect them from coronavirus.
He also confirmed the soaps were likely to run out of episodes, despite going from six episodes a week to three.
Emmerdale could be off-air by the end of May if filming doesn’t resume, while Corrie will reportedly run out of episodes in June.
STILL FRIENDS
‘Lonely’ Louise Redknapp reveals ex Jamie has been visiting her in lockdown
SHEERANVILLE
Inside Ed Sheeran’s £3.7m Suffolk estate where he’s in lockdown with Cherry
‘RIDICULOUS’
Gordon Ramsay given warning by coastguard for repeatedly flouting lockdown
FIGHTING ON
Kate Garraway’s husband is ‘unresponsive’ to her speaking as he battles virus
family reunion
Katie Price says she burst into tears after seeing Princess & Junior again
As well as protecting older cast members, Lygo said actors could be tested for coronavirus when they return to set as part of the network’s raft of measures to get filming again.
Soap bosses could also maintain social distancing by using camera trickery to make actors look closer than they really are.
The Masked Singer became a global sensation last year after first airing in South Korea.
Each contestant is dressed in a heavy and hot fancy costume in order to hide their identities and sing incognito and each week the singers give clues to their identity, with their voices “masked”.
Got a story? email [email protected] or call us direct on 02077824220.
We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.