Ukraine’s “Superhero” TV Producers Contemplate Three Years Of War

It was 7am local time when a Russian missile struck the Starlight Media studio in Kyiv, ripping through its roof and leaving a gaping hole just meters above the famous MasterChef logo pinned to the wall.

Thankfully, shooting on the fifteen season of MasterChef Ukraine was ten days out and no-one was injured or killed, unlike thousands of other less fortunate civilians whose lives have been taken since Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine three years ago. “I can’t imagine what would have happened ten days later,” says Viktoriia Vyshniakova, head of the show’s studio, which is owned by StarLight Production.

TV has been a solace for many Ukrainians seeking to escape the gruelling reality of life under constant threat of attack. Four seasons of MasterChef have been produced since the bombing began three years ago today, on February 24, 2022. Schedules for the new run had been mapped out, tasks drawn up and cast confirmed. Food delivery logistics had long been organized with local suppliers. Then, in a flash, the devastating impact of the war undid all the work.

By 8am, the production crew were on set assessing the damage. Pre-production was due to begin three days later. An anxious line producer called Vyshniakova and relayed the carnage in front of her. “We had to evaluate whether we could produce the series there,” she recalls. Four hours later, after a meeting with the various department heads, it became clear the answer would be no. “Initially, they were in denial, like they were going through the stages of grief,” says Vyshniakova. “Because of the damage, it was impossible to shoot.”

Banijay Entertainment, which shops MasterChef internationally, is contributing to the cost of the Starlight studio rebuild, which will no doubt be a long-term project. “It is unimaginable to think that, in 2024, a neutral studio space could become victim to an air strike, but unfortunately this is the reality for the team,” said Banijay Entertainment & Live CEO Marco Bassetti last year.

MasterChef Ukraine was among the first large-scale shiny floor show to shoot in the country following the invasion, heading into production in December 2022. The STB network series has held a special place in local broadcasting ever since. “Viewers said it had been so needed during war for a sense of real life — that war is not all of your life, but just a part of it,” says Hanna Pyrih, Head of Formats at the show’s producer, Starlight Media.

In the first year of the invasion, international formats such as MasterChef and Talpa Media’s The Floor for Novy Channel provided respite from the horrors of in the news, while scripted projects such as anthology drama Those Who Stayed documented life for ordinary citizens in wartime. Multiple sources tell us that unscripted programs are now top of networks’ wishlists given their lower price points, with cash in limited supply everywhere you look and audiences seeking light entertainment.

The likes of 1+1 Media‘s version of The 1% Club is rating well on Sundays and TET TV’s quiz show I Love Ukraine has become a favorite among audiences. Elsewhere, we hear a local version of Wheel of Fortune is in at 1+1. “Quizzes are a trend on Ukrainian television because people need content to interact with, test themselves, play a game, and distract themselves in this way,” says Maksym Kryvytskyi, Director of TV Business at 1+1 Media.

The country has settled into a new normal, where most men are conscripted to fight and many have left for safer countries. The country has technically been at war with Russia since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, but things have taken an even darker turn since the full-scale invasion three years ago. Martial law has been in place since the military offensive began and elections have been suspended, leading an angry Donald Trump to this week label President Voldymyr Zelenskyy “a dictator”. Zelenskyy — a former television comedy actor — used his office to establish United24, a fundraising organization aimed at working with international celebrities such as Stephen Fry, Liev Schreiber, Katheryn Winnick, Mark Hamill, Hilary Swank and Alyssa Milano to drum up support for Ukraine’s war efforts.

In TV, a unified news service has been established and channels have become much more conservative in their spending, while niche channels such as the female-skewing Bigudi have grown as people seek escapism. Some state cash is made available for TV and film projects, though one source says these titles have to be “openly patriotic.” EU MEDIA subsidies are available, though these projects need to be internationally-focused and do not help with getting more truly local television made.

Following the invasion, TV advertising money drained out of the market, due to both the wartime economy and the wider global contractions. Some of that spend has returned, but is almost completely divided between the largest commercial players with nationwide reach, we hear. “The industry did rebalance itself, but it has very much contracted,” says Kateryna Vyshnevska, the former Film.UA exec and indie producer. “Small channels and regional media have suffered. Anything more niche, quirky or regional is not an option.”

Furthermore, Kateryna Udut from new Kyiv-based boutique consultancy Between Media, says: “Ukrainian producers must operate with shockingly low budgets, tight deadlines, and constant disruptions — navigating curfews, frequent air raid alerts and the ever-present risk of attacks.”

Trump’s intervention

Ukraine now finds itself at another crossroad. By the time you read this, the situation could have changed, but Donald Trump’s Saudi Arabian meeting with Russia, which excluded Ukraine, has changed the terms of engagement. His position could end the current invasion, but Ukraine will likely lose territory and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) fears Trump’s plan emboldens an already aggressive Russia. Critics see the U.S. President’s business deal-style play as ceding Ukraine’s sovereign rights, while his criticism of President Zelenskyy, saying his Ukrainian counterpart “could have made a deal” to end the war, has been received as well in Kyiv as a liberal at a MAGA rally.

The uncertainty means that while there has been a degree of recovery in the TV market, planning too far ahead is a fool’s errand. 1+1’s Kryvytskyi explains: “As a large media holding that combines its own and partner assets, we got on a stable track of content creation in 2024 and were able to finalize production budgets for each 1+1 Media channel. The only thing that hinders us now is external factors, which make it impossible to forecast beyond six months.”

That creates a problem for the industry, which has to plan at least two years in advance given production timelines. “We have to assume that all future projects will be evaluated twice: First at the time of budget approval and then at the time of launching the project directly into production,” says Kryvytskyi.

In the face of reduced budgets, repeatable, longer-running programs have become vital at 1+1, which currently makes around 450 hours of TV each year across drama and comedy, documentaries, larger projects and daytime reality shows. Adding in its Breakfast with 1+1 morning shows and work with the United News team, that number grows even bigger.

“What the audience wanted to see in February-March 2022 when the full-scale invasion began and what we have now are radically different requests,” says Kryvytskyi. “Now, the audience wants to consume entertainment content because the war is unfortunately exhausting, and it is in the content that people look for solace, motivation and recharge.”

Udut, founder of the influential Kyiv Media Week, says that, “In pure numbers,” Ukraine’s TV industry will ultimately recover. “It’s a matter of time and economic and political stabilization, at least a partial return of refugees and displaced people, and improved security guarantees.” However, she adds: “If we talk about that status in a broader, philosophical sense, the industry will never be the same as it was before the full-scale war. It has already transformed, evolved and taken on a new form and meaning. Its goals, growth directions, and core values have shifted, shaping a different, stronger and more globally connected industry than ever before.”

The international community does indeed continue to support Ukraine’s recovery. Liev Schreiber’s interview doc Meeting Zelenskyy has been shopped globally by Canada’s Boat Rocker Rights, and the actor-activist is exec producing Betsy West’s Oscar-shortlisted feature Once Upon a Time in Ukraine. At the Berlinale Series Markets Selects, Estonian-Ukrainian drama My Dear Mother has been attracting buzz, with its did-she-didn’t-she story about a girl accused of killing her own mom. Zolba Productions is making the show in collaboration with Film.UA.

Moloch, meanwhile, a Czechia-Slovakia-Ukraine co-production from Bionaut and Raketa, is billed by Vyshnevska, who was among the producers of the political drama series for Canal+, as “one of the most ambitious projects to come out of CEE, period.”

The show, which had finance from Eurimages’ Pilot Programme for Series Coproductions and Czech and Slovak funds, is set in Czechia, but was partly shot in Ukraine. It follows the aftermath of an assassination attempt on the president of Czechia, as a journalist (Jan Révai) and online investigator (Eliza Rycembel) team up to uncover the truth while avoiding secret services and others determined to keep it hidden. Canal+ expects to launch it this year.

For neighboring countries and others willing to work around potential problems, Ukraine is “potentially the cheapest country to produce in right now,” says Vyshnevska. “By default, that’s not for everyone. Projects come with high risks, and I don’t imagine big American productions will be going to Ukraine, but the co-producers of Moloch were open to it.”

Udut also points to Croat, Latvia, Slovakia and Ukraine romantic comedy feature When Will You Marry? as an example of a growing co-production market. “Each of these projects represents a true business and creative symbiosis between European and Ukrainian producers — and that’s exactly what we need more of,” she says.

We’ve actually heard from a well-placed source that one “major” U.S. producer has “picked up a huge property from Ukraine that deals with the war,” suggesting the global creative community is rallying. Vyshnevska adds that former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who enjoys popularity in Ukraine for his support of its war efforts, filmed a cameo in Oleg Borshchevsky’s comedy feature Train to December 31 this past Christmas. Like him or not, it was a major vote of confidence by a very public Western political figure.

Sources say Netflix has been a willing buyer of Ukrainian content, though only takes local rights and is not in the market for originals from the country. “That provides cashflow, but it is surprising they only take Ukrainian rights seeing as there are so many Ukrainians across Europe,” says Vyshnevska. Other global streamers are barely present.

The masterplan for ‘MasterChef’s return

Though war rages, and Ukrainian troops continue to offer stiff resistance Russia and its North Korean army allies, some restrictions on civilians are being relaxed. Curfew has been moved back from 10pm at the start of the war to 12am, and reports this week say martial law could be lifted should a ceasefire be reached. That might be wishful thinking, of course, given the increasingly hostile rhetoric from Trump towards Zelenskyy.

For the TV community, everything has been about adaptability, bringing us back to the MasterChef Ukraine production team. They needed to find solutions for the program almost the minute the studio was hit on November 13, with MasterChef‘s sponsors calling for answers and parent broadcaster STB promising viewers that the show would air as usual. “Usually, it takes several months to face a situation like this, but we didn’t have that,” says studio boss Vyshniakova.

A new studio build could take months, so that was out and an existing base was needed. “At 8am the next day, I was at another location trying to see if it would fit the requirements,” recalls Vyshniakova. “I had such a high level of adrenaline that I couldn’t think about anything else. We saw several options and then selected the first one, as it was the only one with the potential to respond to everything.”

That was the pavilion at StarLight rival Film.UA’s studio — another sign of the unity that has underpinned Ukraine’s production community over the past three years. HODs quickly moved in and assessed the challenge, and designers and decorators were hastily called. Members of the public offered to help clean the pavilion and a previous MasterChef: The Professionals Ukraine winner with a background in construction even offered to help with the build.

Incredibly, just a month after the bombing, production began. It’s an example of the fighting spirit of the Ukrainian TV industry working in extraordinary circumstances. As Between’s Udut puts it, “In today’s reality, a Ukrainian producer is nothing short of a superhero.”

Starlight’s Pyrih sees it in more practical terms. “During these war years, we’ve learned how to rely on ourselves,” she says. “We make our plans, and if something changes, we change with it.” Vyshniakova adds, “We are really optimistic because this is the only way to survive.”