News round-up: Stellify scores new format from ‘Masked Singer’ creator; Netflix renews ‘Floor Is Lava’; Eccho takes ‘The Swap’ global

Kieran Doherty

Stellify scores new format from Masked Singer creator

Sony Pictures TV-owned Belfast indie Stellify Media has secured UK and US options for My Ranking, a new gameshow format from The Masked Singer creator Won-Woo Park.

The studio-based format is a celebrity singing competition in which contestants are challenged to guess how a live audience will rank the night’s performances, from best to worst.

The format was originally created by Park’s own production company DiTurn, who have just completed filming on a non-broadcast pilot in Korea.

Kieran Doherty, joint-CEO & founder of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire producer Stellify Media, said: “We cannot wait to take this show to market and work alongside Won-Woo Park. Just like The Masked Singer – it is modern, funny, and play-along for the viewers at home.”

Floor Is Lava

Netflix renews Floor Is Lava

Netflix has renewed gameshow Floor Is Lava for a second season.

The series, which debuted last year, is produced by A. Smith & Co and Haymaker Media. Irad Eyal and Megan McGrath exec produce alongside showrunner Anthony Carbone, Arthur Smith, Frank Sinton, Caroline Baumgard, and Anthony Storm.

Hosted by Rutledge Wood, the series challenges teams to navigate rooms without touching the floor, by traversing chairs, chandeliers and other precarious routes.

The Swap

Eccho takes The Swap global

Eccho Rights has picked up the Czech Republic’s Dramedy Productions family drama The Swap for international distribution.

The 13 x 60-minute series, which originally aired on pubcaster Česká Televize under the local title Kukačky follows the story of two families whose lives become impossibly complicated when they discover that their six year old sons were switched at birth.

“This is a very special series with relationships between family, children and difficult moralistic questions at its heart – are the bonds of blood stronger than those that we create ourselves? Do they even matter? And are we better off knowing the truth or simply living the life we are presented with? These are universal questions that we believe will easily find new homes with international adaptation around the world,” said Barbora Suster, head of Eccho Rights’ Madrid Office and sales & acquisitions manager for Czech Republic at Eccho Rights.

The Voice Senior heads to Lat Am

Caracol Television in Colombia and Latina in Peru have acquired rights to remake The Voice Senior.

The format, which is sold by ITV Studios, is spun off from the original The Voice competition format, but this time hands the microphone to seniors.

The Lat Am deals mean the format has now licensed to broadcasters in 16 countries, with Mexico and Brazil already offering their own versions.

Both Colombia and Peru have previously produced local versions of The Voice and The Voice Kids. Colombia also added The Voice Teens to its slate in 2016.

C4 preps Greta Thunberg deepfake

Channel 4 in the UK has ordered a 30-second clip about climate activist Greta Thunberg to mark Earth Day on 22 April.

Man Like Greta is a TikTok dance challenge parody that features AI-driven deepfake technology combined with a performance by impressionist Katia Kvinge playing Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg.

It is being created by UK producers Rockerdale Studios and will be followed by Dance Tutorial: Man Like Greta, a 1 x three-minute video that demonstrates how to get involved.

The content will roll out on Channel 4’s YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram social channels.