EXCLUSIVE: The Masked Singer is heading into Season 15 with a new production company and likely a new, east coast location.
Deadline understands that Fox has renewed the singing competition for a midseason bow in the 2026/27 broadcast season. However, it will no longer be produced by Fox Entertainment Studios after Fremantle-owned Eureka Productions beat a number of rivals for the right to make the show.
The show is also going to stick with one season per year, which it brought in for Season 14, as revealed by Deadline last year.
The move is interesting because it puts production of one of Fox’s biggest hits – arguably the show that had the most impact on the unscripted business in the States before The Traitors came along – into the hands of a third party.
It’s not the show’s first production change; the first season in 2019 was produced by Endemol Shine North America before it was taken over by the then-titled Fox Alternative Entertainment for its second season.
The Masked Singer is also likely to move from Los Angeles, where its most recent season was shot, to the east coast. Deadline understands that Eureka is keen to cement a deal for the production in New Jersey. The Garden State offers production tax incentives of 30% on qualified expenses with up to 40% on certain studio projects. New Jersey, unlike California and many other states, also accepts unscripted in its tax incentive scheme.
Fox insiders noted that the move could also benefit the show from a talent perspective; it will now have more access to east coast stars, including Broadway performers and those working in New York.
Eureka Productions, which is owned by Fremantle, is no stranger to big-budget productions. It is producing Netflix’s upcoming Willy Wonka-themed series The Golden Ticket and has produced series including Megan Thee Stallion-starring KPopped for Apple TV and The Mole for Netflix.
The company has also worked regularly with Fox; it produces Rob Lowe’s The Floor, Jay Pharoah-hosted game show The Quiz With Balls and dating show Farmer Wants A Wife.
Sources have told Deadline that Fox was unhappy with the creative on the last season of the show and wanted to inject new life into one of its biggest properties.
Fox insiders said that in the early days, after the show moved to its own studio in season two, it was done to control the budget, infrastructure, and overall execution. Insiders noted that, at the time, third party production was also more expensive as a result of Netflix’s increased move into the genre, but that the economics have now “improved”.
The company said that it also wants Fox Entertainment Studios to focus on developing new owned IP on the back of titles such as Whitney Cumming’s Marriage Market, Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service, and Next Level Chef.
But the move has raised questions in the unscripted sector as to why Fox, which buys more unscripted projects than many other broadcasters and streamers, would hand over production of one of its crown jewels.
The series is hosted by Nick Cannon with Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg, Ken Jeong, Robin Thicke and Rita Ora as judges. It’s not clear whether the move will impact this cast.
Cannon is an exec producer on the project alongside Craig Plestis, who runs Smart Dog Media and brought the Korean format owned by MBC to Fox. Rosie Seitchik served as showrunner for Season 14.
The other major change that seems cemented is one season per year. In May 2025, Fox CEO Rob Wade said that it was “not intended” to be one season per year. “It just felt like the right time to give the show and the very, very hardworking people involved in it a little bit of breathing space just to regroup creatively, get their breath back and do a season this year in January, which is traditionally our strongest time of year. And then after that we’ll see where it goes. But it’s not intended, at the moment, just to become a one season a year,” he said.
While the production is likely moving to the east coast, sources have celebrated the fact that it will be produced in the States. Fox produces a number of its shows in Ireland, Australia and Belgium.
At last week’s Deadline Reality TV Summit, Allison Wallach, Head of Unscripted Programming at Fox Entertainment Studios highlighted The Masked Singer as an example of one of the shows, alongside Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and Hell’s Kitchen as well as its recent Whitney Cummings-hosted dating show Marriage Market, that it produces in the U.S.
“We actually produce a lot in the States,” she said. “We are absolutely leaning into filming here, if we can.”
