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WWW.TVFORMATS.WS
OCTOBER 2020
SPECIAL REPORT
Rob Clark provides an inside look at Fremantle’s format business
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I was amazed at how well it had done. There’s a secret there, in its casting. We had a comedian, Alan Carr, and it was the first time he’d done this sort of series. He was just genius. It’s always about casting. You can see that with Steve Harvey [on Family Feud] or Alec Baldwin [on Match Game]. If you get the right sock on the right foot, then you’ve got a perfect fit. So, Epic Gameshow was perfectly cast, and the shows had scale. It looked blingy without being rough; it’s shiny and sparkly. There was nothing about the show that wasn’t family-friendly. It’s perfect for co-viewing. When you’re at home with the whole family, which at the moment most people are, there’s going to be a moment where it’s a godsend that you can all sit down together and enjoy something. We’ve got a quiz show in the Netherlands, Ask Me Anything, on RTL 4, and it’s stripped in access [prime time]. It’s often the number one entertainment show of the night. Rolling In It launched on ITV and has consolidated at 3.8 million viewers and rocketed for the 16-to-34s. You should see the number of commissions that we’ve had for game shows since that period. Game shows don’t need audiences, and if they do, you can get around it.
Rob Clark By Kristin Brzoznowski
A
s productions have been impacted across nearly all genres (and in nearly all markets) in recent months, studio entertainment shows have certainly been among the trickiest to navigate amid new production measures. For Fremantle, the coronavirus pandemic has led to some carefully executed iterations of a number of its key productions, including megahit entertainment franchises such as Idols, Got Talent and The X Factor. Sharing knowledge across its global network of producers, the company has continued to deliver broadcasters and audiences the type of feelgood, escapist entertainment that the marketplace is absolutely craving at the moment. Rob Clark, Fremantle’s director of global entertainment, shares his view on navigating the current format landscape and what’s to come. TV FORMATS: Fremantle is the undisputed “Home of Game Shows.” How will this genre be impacted in the year ahead? CLARK: In the U.K. we [recently] had Epic Gameshow, which was an amalgam of a number of our games. Each show had a different, bigger ending: a bigger ending to The Price Is Right, a bigger ending to Play Your Cards Right, a bigger ending to Bullseye, all these very well-known game shows. It rated through the roof! I expected it to do well, but
For The Price Is Right, we have a smaller audience, they’re in family pods, and it works. We’re back in production with that in Portugal. Game shows are also very uplifting. They’re very easy to control as well, in terms of the cast and the people who are there, so you can test people easily and make sure that they are brought in in a way that they’re not in contact with others. The production process can be very COVID-19-friendly. They’re also just nice shows, good shows for the time; they’re uplifting, they’re positive, there’s nothing about them that’s downbeat. Audiences are drawn to the positivity of a game show. When you’re not feeling very well, what you want is comfort food. I always equate [game shows with comfort food]. TV FORMATS: How will broadcasters’ budgets and willingness to take risks impact the next cycle of formats being launched to the international marketplace? CLARK: We’ve got to cut some slack for our broadcast partners because they’ve had it tough! Everyone has had a really tough year, and it’s not the year in which they’re going to experiment. For 2020, they may have had some things in the can that they could put on that were new, but if they didn’t, they’re not going to have anything for the rest of the
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year. However, we’ve seen a real appetite and real desire for programs for 2021 that are original and fresh and often have scale; they’re not looking for small shows. That’s a very positive message for the industry. TV FORMATS: What are some of the new formats that Fremantle will be focused on rolling out for the rest of 2020 and into 2021? CLARK: The autumn slate will be some new titles, game shows, a few dating shows, a few new launches from Israel in particular. Given the circumstances of the year, I’m quite happy with the slate. For 2021, I see that [buyers] are still looking for family-friendly shows, they’re looking for in-the-field reality, because that’s been missing this year, so they’re hoping they can get back to filming out of a studio and out of the controlled environment. And everything has got to have a degree of positivity about it and humor. That’s a wise decision. Behind the health crisis is going to be a financial crisis, and that’s going to affect audiences. Audiences invariably in those times want to be entertained, they want positivity, they want good TV in the sense of not being too harsh. There will, obviously, be some counter-commissioning to that, where there are a few programs that are absolutely the reverse of that. Overall, I’m quite positive about next year. I think 2021 is going to be a good year for everyone. TV FORMATS: How are you and your team tapping into the umbrella of Fremantle’s labels for ideas that can travel? CLARK: Any new show from anywhere—no matter if it’s 25 percent owned, 50 percent, 51 percent, wholly-owned or not owned at all—all of that is fed into our global entertainment department. Out of that, we choose the shows that we think have the best potential for international exploitation. That will depend on a number of things: the rights situation, the content, the scale, the transferability of the idea in itself,
the scalability of the idea—can you make it in America and make it in a smaller territory with a much smaller budget. Also, is it returnable? What I am not interested in is somebody with a brilliant one-off stunt. It’s like, Good one, but now you’ve got to do it all over again next year. TV FORMATS: What advantages does Fremantle’s scale bring to its format prowess? CLARK: You could call it a criticism, but a lot of our formats are still on air from a long time ago. If you look at something like Family Feud, it’s from 1976, and it’s been commissioned again nearly all over the world. The reason that shows like that, or any of the talent shows, are still on air is that the company has scale enough to invest. It also has the stability: financial stability and stability in terms of the people [working there]. It’s a stable structure and it allows that network to function really effectively. Any new idea from anywhere is quickly monitored, checked, qualitycontrolled and if it’s good, then it’s passed on. That’s why we were very quick with the different iterations with COVID-19 on how to produce. The network was stronger over that period than probably at any time I can remember. Everybody wanted to find out information, whereas when you’re busy, you’re busy. This time, we were all busy in a different way. Everyone needed to know what other people were doing: had anybody done this, had anybody done that. That stability and network allow new shows to be rolled out relatively quickly, but not too quickly. It’s not about rolling out quickly; it’s about rolling out and staying out; keeping the shows on air. That’s where the value is. The value is not in having a format that sells in 20 territories in six months and only sells once. It’s about having it in 70 territories and keeping it there for 50 years. That is brought about by having a stable network, a stable financial company, a company that has the resources and the ability to invest and to care about its formats.
Epic Gameshow
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