Despite complaints from viewers and parents, like in its predecessor (the series "Sint en Co" in the years 2016 and 2017), the faces of the Black Pieten are not entirely covered in soot.
There is currently a civil war active in the Netherlands in which a small group of activists threaten persons and companies that organize or sponsor local events with Saint Nicholas and Black Pete. It is unknown if and how channel RTL was affected by this and it is also unknown if this is the reason channel RTL has altered their enactment of the traditional character Black Pete.